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How to get Facebook marketing to work  

Peter Yared has posted this excellent article covering what he's learned in four years of doing Facebook marketing campaigns for brands. First, he covers all the things which don't work:

  • "Deep" campaigns by ad agencies
  • Having lots of apps on one tab
  • Sweepstakes
  • Photo and video contests (unless done right)
  • Requiring people to like your page to proceed (unless the goal is really very valuable)
  • Requiring extended permissions
  • Unbranded apps

So what does work?

Promotions and Consistent, Lightweight Engagement

(...)

A brand on Facebook should offer their users regularly updated, simple to interact with engagement features. Each of the engagement apps should be fully branded, and run in a separate tab with traffic driven from wall posts, newsfeed and Facebook ad units to increase engagement. Start with a personality quiz. Then two weeks later put up a poll. Then try a trivia app. For special events, put up a gifting app for Valentine's Day, or for the holiday season, a holiday song card.

Some brands, like media properties and well-known consumer brands, get an immediate fan base for this type of lightweight engagement. For the rest, building a fan base on Facebook is no different than building a mailing list in the previous generation of the Internet. It takes consistent engagement, and builds over time.

More from the library:
Why your startup shouldn't hire a Marketer from Microsoft
Startup sales: #3: Cut out steps you don't need
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