Facebook Marketing

Social networks are a major marketing destination on the internet, but few of them are as friendly to marketers as Facebook. Facebook, while it does have certain rules in place to protect the integrity of the site and its users, does allow a certain degree of marketing on the site. Unlike MySpace and some other networks, Facebook allows users to market, as long as they keep the marketing on their own profiles and groups.

Speaking of groups, they are a great way to get in some valuable marketing on Facebook. You can start a group on practically any legal niche you want, and then you can pretty much market to that group’s users to your heart’s content. The best thing about this is the fact that the users will be very targeted. If a user joins a group about knitting, chances are extremely good that they are actually interested in knitting!

You can also get in more valuable marketing by making Facebook apps. These are fun little addons that people can use to play around on Facebook. For example, you could make an app that sends a virtual skein of yarn to knitters, and users who use that app could use it to send a cute picture of some yarn to their other knitting friends. Apps aren’t particularly difficult to make if you have a programming background, but you can outsource their creation relatively cheaply if you don’t. Simple apps are pretty quick to make.

Facebook profiles aren’t as customizable as MySpace profiles, but don’t forget to personalize it. Add a photo (or multiple photos), add a complete bio, and jazz up your page as much as you can. The more you personalize your profile, the more personal it will feel. This will make it a lot easier to get friends on the site, and it will make it a lot easier to market to those friends.