Most Popular ArticlesUsing Facebook
September 22, 2009
2. Create a Business Page
To use Facebook to promote your business, you must create a business page. This allows you to separate your personal profile from you business profile. The strategy here is to gather “fans” of your business who will receive updates as new information is posted. The key to success for a business page is to regularly post information such as upcoming events, articles, blogs, podcasts, or videos you have personally created, as well as links to other information you find valuable to your fans.
Make your page a resource to your fans instead of a stream of advertising so your fans will want to continue to receive updates from you.
See my article last week, How to Setup a Facebook Business Page, for more information.
3. Create a Group Page
The third strategy is to create a Facebook group page. This allows you to build a community of people around one common purpose. That purpose may be directly related to your business or it may focus on a community activity which includes your target demographic.
For example, one advisor has a group focused on women and their financial needs. This group allows women to share ideas about their money, careers and businesses. The advisor is the facilitator of the group page, which gives her great visibility into her target market. She also contributes to the site by providing her own insight into questions about money. Again, the key to success is to regularly update the page with content of interest to your group. The more engaged you can make your fans, the more often they will see and remember your name.
Still skeptical about Facebook’s value as a marketing tool? Here is a great testimonial from one advisor about his success with Facebook:
I’ve had the most success with Facebook because I think I’ve got the formula down. I’m able to share about my lifestyle and family and learn more about my friends as well. I realized that most people consider financial planning like going to the dentist. They don’t want to hear about it, but they do want to hear about my two year old son or my Las Vegas trip. Then all of a sudden they call me to help them with their finances. – Chuck Rylant, CFP®, C.J. Rylant Wealth Management
Using Facebook as a marketing tool is the right strategy for some advisors - those with large social networks or those involved in certain community activities. If you don’t have a large social network but still want to use Facebook for marketing purposes, consider focusing on strategies two and three since anyone on Facebook has access to business and group pages, whether or not they are your “friend.”
Good luck and remember to be patient. Building relationships takes time – online and offline.
* Kristen Luke is the Principal of Wealth Management Marketing, a firm dedicated to providing marketing strategies and support for financial advisors. Kristen works with independent advisors to develop effective marketing plans and provides the back office support required to implement the strategies. For more information, visit http://www.wealthmanagementmarketing.net.
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