Everyone and their grandmother is on Facebook, and this has been true for years now — an eternity in Internet time. You probably have a Facebook profile yourself, even if you don't use it actively.
Not only is Facebook a titan in the social media space, but it offers incredible ad targeting. You can select audiences with a fine level of detail, helping you laser-target exactly the kind of people who might be interested in your product, service, or content.
But despite Facebook's massive marketing potential, many companies still struggle to make it work for them. The social media gurus over at Sprout Social recently published a really comprehensive article about Facebook marketing strategies that work.
Obviously, you need good content and engagement, but it all starts with planning. And to plan your campaign, and to track it over time, you need to set clear goals.
But what should your Facebook marketing goals actually be? If you've used their paid ads before in the past, you've seen that they present you with quite a few different options.
These tips from Sprout Social can help you figure out what campaign goals you should be focusing on for you Facebook marketing efforts.
Every marketing strategy you’ve read–at least the good ones–probably suggested to create goals for your specific market. The reason everyone mentions this is because goals are essential to address your biggest marketing needs.
If you’re considering using Facebook for marketing or looking to improve upon an existing strategy, you obviously have some needs. Don’t create unrealistic goals that chase vanity metrics like followers and Likes. Instead, address your biggest challenges with Facebook or social media in general.
Addressing Your 2017 Goals
Your CEO most likely sent out an inspiring email or gave an enthralling speech at the end of 2016 outlining the core goals for 2017. OK–maybe it wasn’t life changing, but we bet if you looked back, it has everything you need for your Facebook marketing strategy in 2017.
Here are some common yearly goals for businesses and how an effective Facebook strategy can help you in 2017:
1. Increasing quality of sales: Improving the quality of sales starts with better targeting (we’ll address this more further down). Through a well-planned Facebook marketing strategy, you reach your target audience more efficiently. Just because the pond is bigger, doesn’t mean you’ll get bigger fish. Work on what you know best and use Facebook as a source to improve your reach.2. Adding more value to the organization: Facebook can better nurture customers, improve awareness and provide more resources to you audience. Make Facebook your go-to source of information.
3. Better pulse on the industry: Are your competitors always one step ahead? With the help of social media monitoring tools, you can track, listen and report on all social conversations revolving around you, your competitors or the industry. Always try to increase your listening powers before speaking.
4. More efficient recruiting: No one said social recruiting is easy, but it’s only growing in popularity. Social can be a great source for increasing recruiting efforts and reaching top talent faster (we’ll also talk about this more later). Working your employees’ social networks for a higher social reach makes your chances of recruiting higher quality employees better.
5. Smarter growth: Reducing churn, limiting spend and increasing acquisition are all parts of a successful business, but Facebook can help you in each of these areas. Whether it’s through ad spend, increased targeting or more social selling, addressing your Facebook marketing strategy can help you get closer to these goals.
These goals won’t address everyone’s needs, but you can see a trend on how better social media marketing can affect the entire organization. You’ve heard it a thousand times, work smarter not harder.
You can learn more over at Sprout Social. The full article goes into more depth about audience targeting, content creation, engagement, and more.
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