A lot of posts out there about Facebook marketing will tell you that you have to run contests.
My view?
Of course people like when you do contests. You’re giving stuff away for free.
But sometimes contest don’t even work. If you make the contest difficult you’re going to struggle to get traction.
Let’s move away from promotions, discounts and contests on Facebook.
Here are 10 inspirational examples of how to use Facebook without that stuff.
1. Fun – FreshBooks
People get to see some behind the scenes footage. People buy from people. Showing who you are gives people a reason to trust your brand. They see the actual people that work for you.
2. Snippets – Buffer
Buffer has a great blog. They’re using The Snippet Strategy with the shares they do on Facebook. I like this one. It takes out numbers from the study. People love numbers and studies.
3. Take An Extra Moment To Customize The Post – Etsy
It’s easy to automate posts to Facebook, but taking a little extra time to customize the post can make it stand out. That’s what Etsy does with its posts. They share the work of the people that sell items on their marketplace. And they even mention the person in the update.
4. Big Time Photos – Nascar
Facebook was always a huge with photos. That’s one of the reasons the site became popular. Don’t ignore that fact. Take your photos to the next level and really get those followers interested.
That’s what Nascar does with big photos like this one:
5. Quick Videos – Bowhunting.com
This is something new the folks at Bowhunting.com have been doing this year. They have one of the most popular hunting shows around and to add something extra for their Facebook fans they publish these videos straight to Facebook.
I have to think they’re doing it with their smartphones. They’re almost up-to-the minute live updates from the field. Very cool.
6. Black And White Photos – Kevin Costner & Modern West
They never go out of style. They’re cool.
7. Announcements And Partnerships – Jason Aldean
It’s not a surprise. When you announce things on Facebook people will pay attention. And if you mention one of your partners in the tweet you give yourself a larger audience for the announcement.
8. Questions – PGA Tour
They always get a response especially if you hit on a few hot topics. That’s what the PGA Tour does whenever it asks questions about popular figures like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.
9. Snippets – Aweber
More snippets. Love this one. Share tips with your followers. They might not comment on it, but you know they’ll use it. This is paying it forward and that leads to trust and sales.
It’s always about sales and not about likes and engagement. I find that this type of sharing generates the most sales.
10. Promote A Community – HubSpot
It can be a group or a hashtag. Promote it as a place for people to get something valuable.
In this case it was a place to get and share tips. Neat idea.
Conclusion
That’s how you do it.
Those ten examples are things I really admire about companies and how they’re using Facebook. It’s not always easy to make these things happen, but if you’re creative you can do some really great things on the world’s biggest social network that get you more followers and more sales.