Facebook continues to be the reigning champ of social media sites, as the #1 spot where friends connect and share online. More than just a meeting place for friends, Facebook has grown into a venue for businesses to market themselves through interaction with customers and self-promotion.

In this post we will be looking at seven ways you can use Facebook for marketing.

Whether you’re a big corporation or a small local biz, Facebook is a powerful marketing tool – it’s a great space to keep customers informed, develop brand identity, and broaden your reach.

1. Making the Most of Your Facebook Business Page

A Facebook page is a great free marketing tool for businesses. These pages let businesses identify themselves – not just through listing product offerings and services, but also by sharing links, images, and posts on a customizable page to give a better sense of a business’s personality and character.

Your Facebook business page is a great spot to develop your brand identity and show your human side. Facebook is where you can loosen the tie a bit – don’t be afraid to be funny.

Ultimately you should consider what your key audience would want to see. Share social media images, links, videos, anything, as long as it is connected to your business and it seems like something your target audience would enjoy.

In addition to hilarious videos of dogs walking in tiny shoes, a store specializing in footwear might also post an article about how to measure your foot size accurately, what kind of shoe inserts are best for different sore feet woes, etc. A nice mix of humor, educational resources, and posts about your store updates is ideal.

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2. Facebook Advertising: Classic Ads

Facebook offers its own form of advertising with Facebook ads, which appear in the side columns of the Facebook site. These classic ads are referred to more specifically as Marketplace Ads. They include a headline with copy, an image, and a click-through link to either a Facebook page, a Facebook app, or an outside website.

Implementing Facebook advertising into your Facebook marketing strategy is one possible technique for increasing likes or driving website clicks.

Facebook advertising features include:

• Demographic targeting by Facebook user data on age, location, education, and interests.
• The ability to set ad budgets.
• Ad testing, in which multiple ad versions can be run simultaneously in order to compare ad designs and setup.
• Built-in ad performance measurement tools.

Facebook doesn’t release information about their ad CTRs, so it’s difficult to know how successful Facebook ads really are. In our Facebook Ads vs Google Display Ads Infographic, we found that Facebook ads generally have a CTR of 0.051%, and an average CPC of $0.80; however, a business’s Facebook advertising cost can vary a lot depending on the targeting options set and competition.

Using Facebook advertising to increase your “Likes” can be very beneficial – once a user likes your page, they essentially become followers of your business page, and your posts will appear on their Facebook news feed.

This results in more users interacting with you and your brand, forming relationships that may end up translating to conversions in the future.

RELATED: 45 Fabulous Facebook Advertising Tips

3. Hosting Facebook Contests

Running Facebook contests, sweepstakes, or promotions is another Facebook marketing tactic that can increase fans and brand awareness.

When conducting a Facebook contest, be aware that contests can’t be hosted through Facebook itself (meaning you can’t ask for likes as entries, have people write answers in the comments, etc.) Businesses must use a third-party app for creating their Facebook contest, then direct users to the app from their Facebook page.

There are plenty of paid tools to help you do this, as well as some free ones. Shortstack offers a number of free contest templates, so long as your page has under 2,000 likes. Pagemodo also has a free option. Many third-party Facebook contest apps offer free versions, but your options with them are limited.

source: here

If you’ve been following this month’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), you’ll know with absolute certainty that the future is cool, shiny and stuffed to the brim with “must-have” gadgets.

Reading the ebullient reports, you’d be hard-pressed to find anything other than overflowing optimism for how technology will transform our lives. And admittedly, it’s hard to imagine how smart shoes or a rollable TV screen could possibly be bad for us. From virtual reality so “there” you can almost touch it, to the Internet of every imaginable thing, we’re being dazzled by the seemingly infinite possibilities that modern tech has to offer.

But I wonder whether, in all the buzz and hype, we’re in danger of losing sight of the darker side of technology innovation. CES and similar exposrepresent the glitzy face of deeper trends that could be destructive if developed without a sophisticated appreciation of potential risks.

All technologies come with risks

With the uncritical enthusiasm around CES, it’s easy to ignore the potential consequences of irresponsible technology innovation. It’s even easier to turn a blind eye to the challenges we face in developing technologies that are good for society as a whole, and don’t just enrich those who create them.

Take for example robotics, artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) – three trends that were amply represented at the show. While each holds the potential to profoundly change our lives for the better, these technologies are by no stretch of the imagination intrinsically safe. Fears over the consequences of irresponsible AI development have already been widely voiced, and the rapid rise of the Internet of Things threatens to make everyday objects vulnerable to cyber attacks. And all three have the potential to widen the gap between the privileged and the disadvantaged.

In today’s evolving social marketplace of needs, wants and opinions, technologies must be designed to navigate a complex landscape of potential risks if they are to succeed and be beneficial. And it’s not just health and environmental risks that are important – potential threats to beliefs, community, culture, even sense of identity, are becoming increasingly relevant.

Unfortunately, even if innovators want to steer safely through this evolving landscape, there’s remarkably little help at hand. The ways we’re taught to handle risk – even how we think about risk – are often as antiquated as the technologies being showcased at places like CES are innovative.

Take regulations. They’re inevitably built around previous technologies: “dumb” digital systems, for instance – gadgets that don’t communicate through the Internet, or medical devices that don’t talk back. When novel technologies arise – the IoT, for example, cloud-based AI or wearables – the overwhelming impulse is to maintain the status quo by shoehorning them into existing frameworks. They’re usually not remotely the right shape, never mind being an adequate fit.

Sadly, this lack of creativity and flexibility in how potential risks are understood and addressed only increases the chances of things going wrong. Not only does it create uncertainty around the safe development of new products, but it obscures potential pitfalls.

What we’re lacking – and what we desperately need – is parallel innovation in how we think and act on risk, to provide the insights and tools to navigate an increasingly hazardous future.

CES attendees get wowed by the latest and greatest. Steve Marcus/Reuters

How do we rethink risk?

Here in the Arizona State University Risk Innovation Lab, we’re developing a new approach to risk that is designed to open up new ideas and possibilities. We call it Risk Innovation.

Our inspiration is technology innovation itself. Imagine what might happen if we approach risk the way entrepreneurs approach innovation – combining creativity, technical know-how and market savvy to develop products that people are willing to invest in?

Start with the idea of “value.” Innovation is typically defined as creating value that someone is willing to pay for. Can a similar approach work for risk?

One way to do this is to consider risk as a threat to value, and not just in the ways value is usually thought of when assessing risk, such as health, the environment or financial gain/loss. We need to also include less tangible but equally important measures of value – well-being, environmental sustainability, deeply held beliefs, even a sense of cultural or personal identity.

This in itself is an innovative way of thinking about risk. It opens up new ways of imagining the risk landscapes that new technologies both face and help to form.

Yet innovation is more than good ideas. To be successful, innovative products need to demonstrate market success. So what’s the equivalent of the “market” when it comes to risk?

To me, it’s the individuals, communities and organizations – the constituents (including developers and manufacturers) – who have something of tangible value (not to be confused with “values”) that is potentially threatened, and that they are willing to invest in protecting.

This “value” may be possessions, employment, profit, health – the types of value that we typically think about in the context of risk. But it may also be professional standing, branding, cultural and social identity, equity and equality, lifestyle, deeply held beliefs and opinions, or sense of worth.

These more personal and social aspects of “value” are often overlooked when it comes to risk. But they are critically important to the decisions people and organizations make, and to what they think is worth protecting. Any attempt to develop new technologies that ignores them is supremely vulnerable to failure, because it runs the danger of inadvertently threatening what people are prepared to fight for.

Reframing risk yields benefits for innovation

When risk is seen through the lens of innovation in this way, what begins to emerge is a way of thinking about it that complements technology innovation; we open up pathways to socially and economically beneficial and successful development.

Rather than framing risk as a barrier to progress, risk innovation transforms it into a way of supporting beneficial and sustainable progress.

This is why it’s so important that we don’t become so bedazzled by emerging technologies that we fail to see their downsides, and how to successfully navigate them.

Of course, it’s exciting to see the latest tech coming over the horizon at events like CES, and I’m a firm believer in the need for creativity and innovation in developing technologies that will help improve and enhance our lives. (And yes, for someone out there, I’m sure smart shoes will be a life-enhancing experience.)

Yet without parallel innovation in how we handle the potential downsides – especially in today’s increasingly interconnected and complex world – how will we ensure there’s true, lasting value beneath the glitz?

source:here

Sometimes the most valuable advice comes from your fellow entrepreneurs, not the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. At Facebook, we know that behind every business is a person, and behind every person is a story – with insights and advice to share. That’s why we created the Small Business Council which consists of entrepreneurs who share a common belief in the importance of serving their customers, their communities, and each other.

Each year we meet with our U.S. Small Business Council members to hear from small businesses across a variety of industries, sizes and geographies. Earlier this year I had the pleasure of meeting our newest 2017 Small Business Council members to learn from them and help them support their communities and fellow businesses.

Here are a few of my favorite tips directly from the Small Business Council members past and present:

Learn from and connect with other businesses.

“Visit your competition and introduce yourself. Nurture and develop a good relationship with them. Refer customers to them, as well. It's give-and-take and there really is enough to go around. Don't be afraid to ask them for help or advice.” – Kay Martinovic, Kay’s Designer Consignment, Ormond Beach, FL

Related: To Succeed With Your Small Business Avoid These 5 Mistakes

Go mobile.

“We would often say to ourselves ‘If you build it, they will come!’ We built a beautiful place with a delicious menu offering, but they did not come. We had a website and social media accounts, but no real budget or strategy to promote our business. We turned to Facebook, started promoting posts and saw results immediately. We have not stopped promoting posts and creating marketing campaigns on Facebook since then. If you have not already done so, create a Facebook Page and learn how to use their marketing tools with their online training program called Blueprint; you will set yourself in a path to grow your business, really fast.” – Manuel Bucio, Razpachos, Chicago, IL

Related: The 7 Financial Habits of the Most Successful Small Business Owners

Prioritize quality over quantity.

“It’s important to plan out your Facebook posts and activity. It’s not a good practice to take a bunch of pictures one day and post them all. One thought out, strategic, well branded post a day or a few times a week is so much better than posting 10 pictures in one day without a strategy.” – Julie Walton Garland, Walton’s Antique Jewelry, Franklin, TN

Related: The 15 Most Profitable Small-Business Industries

Follow your dreams.

“Identify what your true motivation is for starting your business or for pursuing your particular path in life. Then study it, dream it, live it, and most importantly, never lose sight of it. And always, always, always pursue with passion, desire, and the most definiteness of purpose.” – Jonah Sandler, Scene75 Entertainment, Dayton, OH

I believe that whether you’re just starting your business, or have been at it for years, advice from fellow business owners can be invaluable. You never know when words of wisdom will strike a chord and inspire you to grow and change for the better. I encourage you to check out the Small Business Council website to learn about these and other successful small businesses.

Source:here

The statistics all tell the same story: Social media are gaining in popularity every day.

• The average time spent on social networks per day: 1.72 hours (in 2015).

• The average number of hours a teenager spends online per week: 27 (2015).

Social media have become prominent parts of life for many young people today. Most people engage with social media without stopping to think what the effects are on our lives, whether positive or negative. Are we as a society becoming more concerned with Facebook "friends" than we are with the people we interact with face-to-face in our daily lives? What will the longterm effects of today's social media use be?

There are many positive aspects, but there are equally as many dangers that come with the use of sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google +, Tumblr, Instagram, gaming sites, and blogs. In order to make the right choices, we must dig in and research this topic thoroughly.

Politics:

• Voter participation is increased. Facebook users said they are more likely to vote if they see that their online friends did. During the elections of 2010, users who visited Facebook more than once a day were 2.5 times more likely to attend a political rally or meeting and 43% more likely to say they will vote.

• Social media facilitates political change: Online networks give social movements a quick, cheap method of disseminating information and mobilizing people.

Awareness/Being Informed:

• 27.8% of Americans get their news online. (28.8% get it from newspapers and 18.8% from radio.)

• Information spreads faster online than any other media. More than 50% learn about breaking news on social media.

• Social networking provides academic research to everyone with online access, allowing people access to previously unavailable resources.

• Social media sites inform and empower individuals to change themselves and their communities.

Social Benefits:

• Social media allow people to communicate with friends and this increased online communication strengthens those relationships. 52% of online teens say social media have helped their friendships. 88% say being online helps them stay in touch with friends they don't see regularly.

• People make new friends. 57% online teens report making new friends online.

Job Opportunities:

• Great for professionals for marketing, connecting, and finding business opportunities.

• Employers find employees and unemployed find work. 89% of job recruiters have hired via LinkedIn, 26% via Facebook, and 15% via Twitter.

• Social media sites have created thousands of jobs and new avenues of income.

Lack of Privacy:

• People, especially the young, are often too open and public with personal information when online. Most don't read privacy policies and may be unaware that their information may be used by third parties, like advertisers, insurance companies, and the IRS. 21% of teens believe it is safe and harmless to post personal information, including photos.

• Exposure to corporate and governmental intrusions. The US Justice Department intercepts thousands of pieces of information from email and social networking activity per year.

• The IRS trains agents to scan social media for information that can help them resolve taxpayer cases.

• Insurance companies use information gleaned from social media, as well. If you have "liked" a medical-related page or a post about a health condition, that information is sometimes used by insurance companies to determine eligibility and raise rates.

• Online advertising policies are an invasion of privacy. If you "like" a brand, you’re giving that company access to your personal information.

Source: here

There are should be hundreds of articles about this topic! Am I right? People have their own ideas and strategies but the question that still remains here is what’s best for me? which one works for me? Or which way still work?

You should know that most of the old strategies that you read on the web or you watch on YouTube are not working anymore since Instagram has changed their API and the sorting algorithm of Instagram. This article is going to talk about the real strategies and the ways that still working and can be used by you to grow your Instagram faster based on my research and hands-on experience in the Instagram marketing field for pas a few years.

Before jumping to the main topic there are a few things that you need to remember. Otherwise, none of the strategies work for you and your Instagram account. These are like pre-requirements for having a legit and decent Instagram account in order to make anyone follow your page.

1. Account’s look and content

First thing first, keep the home clean! I have seen people who are complaining that my business account is not gaining followers! When you see the account, they have a weak bio and even the profile picture. Make sure that you see the successful pages and follow their guideline for writing a bio. You can have a decent logo for your page only by spending $5 on Fiverr to make you page professional like a decent company.

Content is the key! Yes, that’s literally everything. No one will like, repost or follow an account with weak content. Hence make sure that you are posting great content in your field. If you have no idea how good your content is, again go back to the big pages in your niche and check their content and follow their step in posting content.

2. Using hashtags and location 

It might sound simple but remember that lots of people browse on hashtags or locations. Furthermore, Instagram has released a new feature that you can follow a hashtag beside the other followers. They added the category section in the explore page which is based on the hashtags and locations. Hence the importance of the hashtags and location is more than before. Using these feature makes your content sharper for the Instagram and you have a chance to be promoted through the explore tab through the category.

3. Engagement groups 

Engagement groups were one of the solid ways to promote your post through the explore tab of the Instagram. Since Instagram has changed the algorithm for the content to be viral, it's not easy like before to get your content viral by liking and commenting in the engagement group. Although it's hard to make your post viral via engagement group, it's still effective and you can get the benefit of being part of a good engagement group in your Instagram direct message.

5. Featured post from big Influencers

Getting your account promoted through any big page or an influencer in your niche is one of the good ways to get more followers for your Instagram account. You always have a chance to talk to other pages in your niche to promote each other accounts. Another way to work with an influencer is to use the influencer platform on the web such as Famebit and etc. to get you to account promoted. However, using the third party platform and working with big influencer can be costly.

4. Interacting software

If you have no time for being part of the engagement groups or finding other influencers to work with and you want to avoid paying for influencers shout outpost, there is another way for you! There are some platforms out there for growing your Instagram account automatically! These kinds of platforms using an automated software to interact with the user who is interested in your account niche. By liking and following the other users daily based on the automated schedule, the attention of the users will be on your profile and you have a big chance to be followed if you have a quality post on your Instagram page.

There are so many companies that they offer the service professionally. However, based on my studies and experience of working with them, a few of them such as Labgram, OnPost are very helpful in order to get the right results. There is also a shortcut for those people who have no time and they are seeking a good page to buy from the Influencers. If you are looking for any Instagram account for sale make sure that use an escrow service for this purpose. Social Tradia is one of the decent options to avoid you getting scammed and get your goods in a secure way.

As a conclusion, content has the most important role in growing your Instagram. Quality post and a good caption is everything. Before doing any of these above steps make sure you post great content and your captions are engaging the users. All the above strategies have been used and proven with different percentage of results. It is your choice which one you like to start with but again content is the key.