After all these years and Facebook proving itself time and time again in a variety of businesses one of the questions I get asked the most is, will Facebook work for me?
Despite what you might expect, I don’t have an easy yes or no for most people. But I do have questions that when answered will guide you to the best solution.
Let’s go through them with notes of what I’m thinking when you’re answering them.
What is your goal for Facebook?
My first rule is, start with the end in mind. Do you want new customers? Do you want your existing customers to buy more or do you want your existing customers to come more often? Do you want them to refer their friends to you? You can use Facebook for any and all of these options but you should be clear on what your goals are.
What is the size of your audience?
Let’s face it, even though there are well over 2 Billion people on Facebook and well over 1 Billion on Instagram, not everyone is on it. Even though there may be five or ten thousand people in your audience on Facebook but that may not be enough to generate the results you are looking for. I look for audiences of at least ten thousand before I recommend Facebook.
What do they have in common?
Now we know they’re on Facebook, how can we filter our ideal people out so we can talk to them? If there are only five thousand and we can get to them, that might work. To get results from Facebook we need a commonality we can communicate to Facebook.
What is the value of a customer?
If the value of a customer is $1000s then you don’t need as many to profit from Facebook, so an audience of ten thousand is enough to profitably use Facebook. However, if the value of what you’re selling is $50 and there are millions interested in it, you can profit from that too.
What is your margin?
There is a big difference between an item that sells for $1000 with a profit margin of $100 and one that sells for $1000 with a $700 profit. You can use Facebook with both, but it takes different strategies to make it profitable.
How do you make money?
Before you start spending money on Facebook you need to know where you’re going to get money. I get people asking me about Facebook and they have no way for people to buy from them and sometimes not even a product to sell. If you don’t have a plan for making money, don’t pay Facebook anything. Now you may make money when people come to your physical store, or it could be an online store or website. You can make Facebook work with any of these.
Are you committed to making Facebook work?
Most times it’s not the first campaign that’s the most successful and, at times, the first campaign fails. Are you willing to try and if it doesn’t work, try again? If Facebook needs to be an instant success, don’t start. You’ll be disappointed.
These are the key items I’m looking for when people are asking me about using Facebook for their business.
For more details get a copy of my book “The Facebook Formula, How Business Owners Make Big Profits.” You can get a free electronic copy at www.thefacebookformulabook.com.
To your success!
Brian
P.S. Discover what a successful Facebook system includes. Get my free online Masterclass at www.gosocialexperts.com/masterclass. You’ll get 5 days of short videos that outlines every step in a successful Facebook marketing system.