Facebook is a great marketing and public relations medium where you could build brand loyalty among your existing and potential customers. However, it is also a place where you could destroy your brand unintentionally. So, be aware of these seven common marketing mistakes while marketing your business a Facebook Page.
1. When you're going totally out of point!
Your Facebook page must have a theme that is closely related to your brand. It must reflect what your brand sells or markets to your target audience. You must share pictures and content that is related to your industry. If you are selling cars, your content should be about cars and not about food or other things that are completely alienated from what your brand really is. However, there are still see quite a number of Facebook brand pages going out of point.
2. Cute funny things are just too easy to be SHARED
Funny faces, animals, babies, and other cute looking pictures are the easiest things to be shared on Facebook. People just love cute photos; however, if these are not related to your brand, avoid putting them on your business Facebook page. This will look unprofessional and your brand will lose its positioning in the consumers' minds.
When it comes to business, stay focused and keep the funny, cute, and unrelated items on your personal page (Figure 1).
3. Welcome to my Advertisement Bulletin
Facebook gives your brand a personality or a voice in the social media world. Your brand speaks and interacts with your clients and prospects. You educate your fans on the benefits of your brand so that it would position your brand well in their minds.
However, don't use Facebook as your advertisement bulletin. Do not constantly post online offers and sales discounts to encourage people to purchase your products or services. Just remember, people don't like to be sold. It is more of a pull market rather than push market in today's context; therefore, focus on educating and not hard selling.
4. Professors in the making
Do not put too much technical jargon or scientific terms in your Facebook page, as this will make your page look like a PhD textbook. Remember who your target audience is and refrain from using complicated jargon in your posts.
5. Boring, boring, and just plain boring
Being boring could "kill" your Facebook fans. You must think of some interesting content that can make people like it, comment on it as well as share it among their friends. Think out of the box or look for ideas in other brands' Facebook pages so that you could come up with something more interesting of your own (Figure 2).
6. I only have to do posts to maintain the page.
Monitor your Facebook page regularly. Be aware that you may have competitors who put untrue comments about your brand on your timeline. If the comments are untrue, report the users and ban him or her from commenting on your Facebook page.
Negative untrue comments can bring down the credibility of your brand. Your company needs to have a social media team to constantly manage the brand reputation.
However, if the negative comments are proved to be genuine, it is OK not to delete or hide them as spam. You could simply publish your apology openly to the said user so that this will make others perceive your brand as honest and transparent.
7. Free! Discounts! Sale!
Using free gifts, cool contests, and lucky draws to entice people to like your Facebook page may be a good idea. However, don't overdo it. There is a saying, "you'll harvest what you sow." By overdoing the discount marketing, you will get a lot of nonloyal fans who are there for your discounts only, and not because they love your brand's products and services (Figure 3).
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