Facebook and brand promotion without a budget - how is it possible?

Advertising on Facebook is very expensive, but the "exhaust" is the greatest. The ability of this social network to sell well is noted by everyone, from freelancers to large holdings. But how to present a brand on Facebook if you have limited funds? Here you have to choose - either money or time, there is no other way. You can provide free promotion and achieve recognition only if you become actively involved in the created community.

But first you need to choose the format of the group for promotion.

Personal profile, group or page?

Joining Facebook to promote your brand? Choose the right community format right away. It will not work to promote a personal profile - the policy of this social network is such that you must indicate your real name and surname, without postscripts and mentions of the company. Otherwise, Facebook will attribute you to fakes, and in which case it will not be possible to restore the page. After all, you need a passport.

A group is also not the best format for branding. Facebook implies that groups will be used for communication, for communication on certain topics. You will not be able to put a logo on the page and will not be able to show all your news to subscribers. Also on Facebook there are no tools for analytics of group attendance and for setting up targeted advertising for such a community. In addition, the group is not indexed by search engines, and you will have to search for it using a long link like https://facebook.com/groops/group name.

A completely different matter is a public, public page or fan page. This is a special page that allows your brand, your company to “speak” with users without entering into lengthy discussions. This community format is good for those who build a personal brand, and for those who promote an entire company on social networks. Here are the benefits of using the public:

• the possibility of placing the brand not only on the avatar, but also on the cover;
• public implies publicity, that is, new subscribers can appear without your permission;
• you can set up geo-tagging and targeted advertising, as well as count on customers from search traffic, because all groups are indexed;
• the public is supplemented with personal information;
• you will be able to track statistics or contact customers through private messages or in the feedback block;
• at the same time, all publications are monitored and moderated by the administrator - third-party activity is impossible.

In addition, the public page will have a short link https://facebook.com/title .

Rules for setting up and designing a page

First you need to create a page and choose from six preset options for your business. It is a local firm, company, brand, artist, entertainment or community. As a rule, regional companies and brands choose the first option - "local company", since this gives them the opportunity to add an address and put a mark on the map.

After that, you need to think over a catchy design for decoration. Your page should be remembered. And of course, you should use the name of the company or brand, because in fact, the cover of your public is a free advertising banner. All lines that are provided by default must be filled in. Ideally, in English. This affects the internal ranking of communities on Facebook.

Then you should invite the first subscribers. For starters, it could be your friends. Of course, this does not mean that you will definitely fall into the target audience, but this is the easiest way to revive the public at the start. You can invite friends from both mail contacts and VKontakte.

Also use the name of the public on your personal page so that those who are interested in you can go to the public. You can ask your friends to choose Following - See First for your group. Then the updates will always show up first in their newsfeeds. To increase traffic to your Facebook page, install the Facebook widget in the header of your site. In general, mention the newly created community where and how you can, and you will see how the number of subscribers will begin to grow even without “draining” the advertising budget.

If you plan to set up targeted advertising, install the Facebook pixel right away. You can do this in the advertising account on the "pixel" tab. The pixel will allow you to track visits, measure conversions, optimize ads, and customize visits. Each ad account can have 1 pixel. To install, you can use the integration or copy and paste the code.

What about content?

For competent brand promotion, you need an effective content strategy so that as few users as possible “hide” your post in the feed. In fact, you can write about anything, but it is better to choose one of the basic information areas. It can be news - not necessarily about your company, but those that affect the industry in one way or another. These can be useful articles and life hacks using your products. It can be reviews or humor, quotes from public people, amazing facts, intrigues and investigations, a little erotica and scandals. It also works well to be able to "look behind the scenes" of your company - for example, to visit the production, packaging department or design studio.

In any case, remember that Facebook hides most of the posts from users - the complex EdgeRank algorithm works. The content type is very important here: eg. A live video stream will be shown to more customers than just text or a standard repost. By the way, the more people support the news with likes, the more users it will be shown. How Facebook calculates the “share” of content is a mystery, so choose both the subject matter and content of your posts carefully.

You can also post in related groups. To find them, switch to American English and type in the search box Interests liked by people who like group. This way you will see what other communities your target audience is in.

And do not forget that the time of appearance of posts in the feed is also very important. You can view statistics and determine what hours your group is most active. In order for the post to appear on time, you can set up delayed publication.

Statistics will also be needed in order to evaluate engagement in each post. After all, a content plan cannot be stable, it will have to be changed, adjusted and adjusted to the interests of the audience.

Ways to create interesting content

The exclusivity of information in your group is one of the reasons why users come and stay. Of course, experts will not write unique content “for you”, but no one bothers you to get expert advice from a real opinion leader and turn it into a full-fledged post, supplemented with profile information. If the article really turns out to be informative and useful, then the expert will want to share it on his personal page, and this is another plus for promotion. Or you can invite familiar experts to comment on the article.

Absolutely all publics need articles, so you can exchange information on mutually beneficial terms. You can also tag a person in a post (if allowed by the privacy settings) using @. In this case, your post will be seen not only by him, but also by all his friends.

Rules for working with subscribers

No, the promotion does not end the moment you post a beautiful and interesting post. Now your task is to answer comments and questions, process negativity without aggression and try to have a constructive dialogue with all users. Give detailed answers to all private messages addressed to the public. You can also comment on publics in related communities, attracting new subscribers with expert opinion.

So, choose the format of a public page, create a design, publish profile content and adequately respond to comments - this is the secret of successful branding on Facebook.