Are you trying to avoid Facebook for marketing purposes because you think it’s too complicated and completely overrated? Well think again. Facebook marketing can be overrated depending upon how much you have heard about it. Some people think that a Facebook campaign means that fans will just start pouring in and begin joining their page. If you live under the same misconception, then yes, it is certainly overrated.

Depending upon your thinking about Facebook, you might be affected by any of the 4 Facebook myths about marketing. Let’s discuss them here and try to get rid of them.

Myth 1: Facebook is for kids

There are still many people who think that Facebook is for kids and teens. Agreed, Facebook was intended to be just a “friendship tool”. But with various advancements, Facebook has turned into a powerful marketing tool that has attracted marketers and businesspeople of all age groups. If you look at the statistics, the 35+ years demographic actually consists of more than 30% of Facebook users, and their numbers are growing each year.

Why do marketers use Facebook? Look at the cost of using this social networking site- it’s $0! You don’t have to pay anything to join Facebook and to create a business page. This essentially means that it’s a marketing tool that every businessman wants to tap into.

Remember the good old days when people paid for their ads to appear on newspapers and magazines? Well you can still do it, except that the reader base of newspapers and magazines has significantly gone down. Also, you would have to pay a lot to place a teeny tiny ad of your services. Then why not try Facebook when it is free and reaches millions of people?

Does age matter? As we can see from the statistics, 30% of Facebook audience consists of people of age 35 and above. But about 60%-70% is still dominated by kids. Yes, but you are not targeting the ENTIRE Facebook audience anyway. With billions of Facebook users, 30% reaches to somewhere in a figure of millions. So thinking of it in this way- Facebook has millions of users that are of the age group of 35 and above. And most of these are on Facebook for business.

Your target market: Your target market doesn’t really have to be older people. Let’s say you are selling bakery products, your Facebook page will appeal to young and old alike. In fact, you can even aim specifically at the younger audience.

Myth 2: Facebook marketing will eat up all your time

That’s actually such a major concern of all Facebook marketers that this might be the number one myth. If you let Facebook overpower you, it might turn into a big sink that drains away all your time, but you can control it easily. Limit your time that you spend on Facebook. Also, make sure you also use your personal profile as much as you use your business one. This is because you need to connect to people on personal level to keep your business interesting and fresh, and to attract new people.

How much time should you give to Facebook? About one hour daily would be sufficient. And this one hour would contain both your personal and business matters. So if you are commenting on someone’s wedding photographs, or updating your business page status- all that should be covered in just one hour. Of course a few minutes up or down would be ok, but it shouldn’t be more than that?

The reason behind the one hour time limit is that Facebook is addicting. If you visit Facebook and start reading all status updates and commenting and liking on each status of your friends, you won’t even know when one hour is up. So you have to limit your Facebook surfing activity. You can divide your time into 15 minutes of personal work and 45 minutes of business work- but that’s just one way of doing it. You can divide the one hour in whichever way you like.

Here are a few tips to use minimum time to get maximum visibility:

• Change notification settings and turn off useless notifications.
• Ignore useless apps.
• Update your status maximum twice a day.
• Just skim through your news feed and comment on only a couple of posts.
• If you want to post a blog on your timeline, use the Notes application.
• In case you use Twitter as well, link your Twitter and Facebook accounts so that whenever you update anything from your business page, it reflects on Twitter as well.

Use these strategies to make sure you don’t spend a lot of time on Facebook. And the best strategy of them all? Keep a stopwatch with you. As soon as it goes off, simply logoff your Facebook profile.

Myth 3: Facebook is capable of attracting all your clients

We wish this was possible. You just make a Facebook business page and presto, you start getting fans. Do people get new clients and customers on Facebook? Yes of course! But that doesn’t happen by just creating a page and then throwing it like that.

Most Facebook marketers end up being disheartened because they thought Facebook would magically attract a lot of people. But that didn’t happen. And in the end, they gave up their campaign and claimed that Facebook is nothing but overrated. You’ve got to wait and give it some time. Compare Facebook with real world. You can’t go on telling people to like you. They will like you if you help them in some way. Similarly, you can help people on your business page. You can give them some exclusive deals or coupon codes. Help people and the word will spread. Just like in real life. In fact, Facebook isn’t a lot different than real life.

IRL (in real life), you can hire people who can spread the good word about you. On Facebook, you can get some paid likes. You can buy some fans and when other people see that you are famous, they would want to connect to you. IRL people connect to things that are considered cool and popular. Same happens on Facebook.

How to attract consumers? They are attracted by what you put on your page- which is your content. So you need to make sure that you place only high quality content there. This will help you slowly build momentum and thus create relationships.

Facebook is the right medium if you want to build trust and credibility, and expose your brand to public. Do you want to know a fast way to attract people and develop credibility? The truth is that there is no fast way. You need to give it time and let users connect to your brand. Keep giving them high quality content and wait for their response. Keep in mind that your final Facebook goal is not direct sales. You are on Facebook to attract people to your blog or website. If they visit your website and like your services, they may become your customers. Many people don’t understand this concept. People don’t purchase right off from Facebook. Also, they won’t buy from you the first time they visit your website.

They will visit your website many times and evaluate it by its looks and content. Once they are satisfied, only then they will order your services. So keep in mind that Facebook users will not directly convert to customers.

Here are some tips to convert your Facebook users to customers:

1. Offer them coupon codes for your products. People are naturally drawn towards sales. With limited time coupon codes, they would be urged to make a purchase. They will visit your website and if the coupon offers a good deal, there are chances that they will make a purchase. This is why coupons are the best method to convert leads to sales.

2. Keep them entertained. This especially works if you own a blog and your definition of conversion is to make people click on your ads. If you keep them entertained, they will want to seek more and visit your blog. Make sure your Facebook page content is on the same niche as your blog. This way people will visit your blog, looking for more. With more traffic, you’ll get more clicks on your ads, and thus higher profits.

3. Keep them updated with special deals. For example, if you run a restaurant, you can let your Facebook fans know that you’re offering discounts on certain items. Also, you can tell them about the happy hour you’re offering at the bar. That way your fans will benefit since your discounts will show on their news feed and thus more people would like to connect to you.

Myth 4: You don’t need a business page if you have a personal profile

Well actually, all business pages have a personal profile of the person who is running that page. A Facebook business page (also called Facebook fan page) is the page that lets your users connect to your business. While your profile page lets your friends connect to you, your fan page lets your fans connect to your business. These two are separate entities and must be kept separate. Why create a Facebook business page?

A business page will let you keep your business information separate from your personal information.

• Business pages are public so they are searchable through search engines. Your personal pages are private and only some information can be seen by outsiders. Since Facebook is ranked high by search engines like Google, your Facebook business page will rank high on Google.
• Facebook pages are great to communicate with your users while keeping your identity a secret. If you don’t want your users to know who you are, and still you want them to connect to you, you should start a business page.
• Business pages spread awareness of business which is not possible with personal pages. People cannot like your personal page, but they can like your business page and thus connect to your website.

You need a profile page as well as a business page to become successful. If you connect with your friends and family on a personal level, they will talk more about you with their friends or colleagues. This way your business will spread through word of mouth. You should also try to make as many Facebook friends as possible so that people get to know about your website. Make sure you connect your website to your Facebook page. You can implement this by adding a like button on your website. When someone visits your website and likes it, it will reflect on your Facebook page as well. Chances are that you will have multiple pages on your website. You can include the like button on all pages so that the users can like your website no matter on which page they are.

Ok I have made a page. What to do next?

Now that you know of the most common myths about Facebook pages, here is what you can do to create a successful Facebook page.

• Update your page regularly with interesting content. Share your links and blog posts on the page, but don’t be limited to just that. You can also post interesting videos or images related to your niche.
• Engage your audience by asking them questions and replying to their comments. Get involved with them to keep them interested.
• Give exclusive offers to your supporters and fans. Such offers should be available only on your Facebook business page so that your fans keep coming to your page to check new deals.
• Add an FBML app to make simple form where people can sign up for seminars or free reports. This form can be used for other purposes as well.
• Click on the link that says ‘Suggest to friends’. This way your friends can also connect to your page and this will increase your friend count.

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