Seems like a strange question to ask yourself; perhaps that is why so many marketers, business owners, and entrepreneurs don’t. I have found that most individuals know that they need to be on Facebook in order to keep up with the way marketing is headed but they don’t understand why. Generally, the thought process behind it goes:
- Maybe I should be on Facebook
- I’ll go on and set up a Business Page
- Now I’ll invite everyone I know to like it
- I’ll post stuff to my page (with no rhyme or reason and no schedule)
- I’m not getting anywhere, this is a waste of time, social media doesn’t work
Often people will spend way too much time teaching themselves how to “do Facebook.” When the cookie cutter strategies that they find online don’t see to be working they fall into paying for ads to try and “get something” out of their efforts. After countless hours and usually some poorly spent money they scrap the idea or head back to the drawing board.
Why is this pattern so prolific, why do I see it EVERY DAY. People know that they need to be on Facebook, but they don’t know WHY. Just like any other piece of your marketing strategy you need a plan for your Facebook presence.
Step 1: You need to identify what the result you want Facebook to drive for you. Are you looking to increase your brand awareness (Likes), get people to your website, or get people to subscribe to your mailing list? Once you know what you want from Facebook you can then move forward to the how.
Step 2: Develop a plan or strategy. What steps are you going to take to get the desired result from your Facebook? Are you going to create a cover photo that converts, are you going to create content that pushes your followers to your website, or are you going to use groups to generate leads?
Step 3: Create goals. If you don’t have a goal of what you want to achieve with the time/money you are spending on Facebook how do you know if it is working? Think about what cost you would expect (time or money) to drive a similar result in other areas of your marketing. (Ex. I know that if I hire a sales rep at $10/hour I know I will get x number of sales in x amount of hours after paying for training. So if Facebook is going to be a viable strategy I need to get y number of sales in how many hours.)
Step 4: Analyze the results. I generally will give a new Facebook strategy 3 months or 90 days to really be effective and start to pick up steam. However, during that time you should be analyzing your results to see if you are working toward reaching your goal. If you don’t look at what you are getting for your time you will never know what adjustments need to be made in your strategy. After you hit the 90-day mark you can see what is working and what isn’t.
Step 5: Make the changes that are needed to your plan. Basically go back to step 2 and go through the steps again and again until you have your plan dialed in.
Facebook and other forms of social media are difficult to track ROI at times; however, you can see if what you are doing is helping to achieve the desired goal. If you don’t know what your goal is for your Facebook efforts generally are scattered across too many objectives, none of which will be very successful.
