Facebook marketing: Best practices to boost ROI

By Julie Woodside

With more than 500 million active users, Facebook has the potential to be a great marketing tool for your business. Marketing on Facebook is used to form relationships to influence intent to buy.  Knowing how to  engage your Facebook fans will see a greater likelihood for return on investment for your business.

At the Newport Interactive Marketers April gathering, Pandemic Labs‘ Director of Accounts Tom Schuyler shared his Facebook best practices & ROI measurement tips.  His advice shows how to increase your return on investment and get the best results from your Facebook efforts.

Facebook Insights: Understand core metrics

• Reach
• Engagement
• Relevance

Content is king

• Focus on content that will appear on wall
• People won’t make the leap from Facebook to your website, so don’t focus on your website
• Think beyond fan recruitment and beyond giving stuff away
• Photos and video see a much greater engagement than text updates
• Frequency of posts should be dictated by your ability to be interesting, especially witty
• Unsubscribe is a key indicator of whether your content strategy is working
• If your business is complicated, set up a special tab to explain what you do

Facebook engagement tips

• Engagement is the #1 factor that leads to success
• It’s a dialogue not a monologue
• Provide info first then talk about your brand
• Even mom & pop storefronts can do better than a megabrand by engaging on Facebook
• Aim for 40-50% engagement if you have less than 10,000 fans: engagement = comments, likes, shares
• You should see 50-60% engagement if you have more than 10,000 fans
• Be conversational: Every couple posts should end in a question
• Questions and polls see 30% more engagement than regular posts
• Post between 10 & 11 a.m. and 3 & 4 p.m. see more activity

Facebook fans

• Quality not quantity
• Getting the right fans is way more important than getting more fans
• The right fans are the ones who are willing to engage
• Need right message for relevant fans
• Subtract inactive and not relevant fans from overall Facebook follower count

Facebook ads

• #1 way to gain fans
• Expect to spend $.30 to .90 per fan
• Ads do best when the ad keeps the person in Facebook, don’t link to your website
• Ads should undergo not A/B testing but A/Z testing
• B&W photos currently doing better, just as an example

Facebook newsfeed

• Facebook favors Newsfeed items
• Likes & comments matter more than your wall or your $100,000 Facebook app
• Once someone “likes” you, interaction with you is not via your wall, but via the Newsfeed

Facebook contests

• Any Facebook contest needs to tie into core brand offerings
• User-generated contests on Facebook need to be really easy
• Consumers need to have it be easy & relate to your brand
• Ideation is key
• Know terms of service & rules and regulations!
• More information, courtesy of NIM member @KevinTVine

Facebook success doesn’t happen overnight, but you should have in your mind how you want to succeed. Try to build your Facebook likes and comments by being engaging, creative, and consistent with your Facebook campaign, and your business will see a better return on investment.