What is Facebook marketing? Most of us think it’s posting your products on the Facebook page or just advertising on Facebook and getting likes and followers on that particular post. But that’s not it.

Facebook marketing is creating and actively using a Facebook page as a communication channel to maintain contact and attract customers. Facebook allows you to create individual profiles or business pages for companies, organizations, or any group attempting to develop a fan base for a product, service, or brand.

In the third quarter of 2015 Facebook had 1.55 Billion monthly users and definitely, by now the numbers have increased.

Source:  Jeff Bullas

These numbers are quite inspiring, right? And as a business person we may see this as a business opportunity. It is, but that depends on if you do the marketing right. This is because most ‘digital marketers’ just post their products to get many likes and shares.

Facebook is an awesome place for business persons to promote their products. It can either make or break your business.

Here are some mistakes to avoid when using Facebook to market:

1.   Is There A Problem In Optimizing Facebook Ads Often?

Most Facebook advertisers are frequently touching their ads thinking that constant changing bids, budgets, and targets lead to faster progress. While actually, each optimization resets your ad rank and puts your ads right back to the starting phase.

We can equate this to planting a seed, digging it up after 5 minutes to see how much it’s grown, replanting it, and then digging it up again 5 minutes later.

Similarly, making multiple ads doesn’t give you more chances to be at the top. You want to get to 50 conversions per ad set per week. If you’re frittering your budget across dozens of ads, there isn’t one single ad with enough power to produce a winner.

That means you are required to target larger audiences by pooling custom audiences and relying on lookalike audiences of the custom audiences that you have created.

https://www.chuimedia.co.ke/5-biggest-facebook-marketing-mistakes-kenyan-businesses-make/

Facebook involves engagement and not just broadcasting your messages. Take it this way, how else do you use Facebook apart from Facebook Marketing? You don’t just blast your friends with information on every thing you do. You engage them so that they can be more interested.

Your followers and potential customers are looking for a real connection with you and will give back to you by staying or being loyal to your products if you post engaging and relevant content.  I know profit is always the main objective, but if you provide a meaningful, genuine social media experience to them in the end they will buy your products.

Importance of Facebook Metrics and Tools

It is not entirely your fault because Facebook throws a lot of incapacitated insights at your face every time you log in. Statistics like what percentage of your fans saw your post and how many fans you lost or gained in a week don’t give you the whole picture especially if spending money on ads.

Quit worrying about how many people your posts have reached and start caring about what you need to do. A high audience reach doesn’t mean more sales, leads or registrations. This doesn’t mean a high audience reach doesn’t matter. It matters, mostly when promoting a time-sensitive campaign or knowing the best time your post for audience.

5.   Does Time Investment Matter on Social Media Marketing?

Most people in Kenya have a set and forget it mentality when it comes to Social Media Marketing. Do not expect people to bring themselves and want to be a fan of your business page. It’s takes a lot of commitment otherwise your fan growth will not be as much as your expectations.

It also ruins relationships with your existing fans, especially the customers used to well-timed responses from their producers.

I think the problem lies in the way we operate when they are offline. In Kenya, offline media buying is large. Methods such as print, billboards and Radio still work effectively but are totally different from digital advertising especially Facebook. Don’t expect to put a banner or a fan page and think “let the money roll in”. You are in for a shock!

digital marketing would help a lot in your Facebook and Social Media Engagements