Originally posted on http://www.kurtchrislermarketing.com/5-ways-using-facebook/

It doesn’t matter how large a company is, it’s an absolute must in this day and age to create and maintain a social media presence. One of the biggest and most important social media networks to join is Facebook. Facebook can be an incredibly beneficial component to your inbound marketing strategy if you learn how to use it properly. The following are 5 ways that you can take advantage of Facebook to draw more followers and increase the recognition of your brand name:

•   Invite to like – One of the easiest ways to begin attracting more followers is by asking friends and family members to “like” your page. By doing this, their friends and family will be exposed to your page as well. You can even encourage your friends and family to share content from your page with others in their network, thereby increasing your social outreach. Hopefully this results in a snowballing effect, which will in turn help to create more awareness for your products and services.

•   Like other pages – Don’t just ask others to like your page and content. It’s important to return the favor by liking other pages. Do this for both local and national companies, and don’t be afraid to like a competitor’s content as well. By liking other content, other users may end up accidentally stumbling over your profile because you are increasing the exposure of your brand. You’ll attract more curious visitors this way, and may even draw a few from your competitors!

•   Post regularly – Post updates and content to your Facebook on a regular basis. Don’t go crazy with your posts or it will seem like spam. But don’t go for weeks without posting either, as this will result in followers losing interest, or even worse, forgetting about you! Post content, both unique content and content found elsewhere, that concerns your brand. You can even post things that have nothing to do with your brand as long as you think that your followers will find it interesting or helpful. Avoid posting only advertisements for your brand or followers will de-friend you quickly as they do not want to deal with a constant barrage of ads.

•   Provide incentives for liking your page – Provide discounts or special deals to Facebook users who become new fans by liking your page. This will help increase your likes as well as attract new potential customers.

•   Offer special deals to followers – Use promotions, deals, giveaways and contests to entice customers to continue visiting your page and using your products or services. This will help increase the sharing of your content amongst your followers as well as raise interest for your brand. Post about incentives ahead of time, so that followers will have to remember to come back to your page at a specific date in order to take advantage of your deals or promotions. This will keep your brand name in the back of their heads.

These are 5 ways that you can be taking advantage of your social media presence on Facebook to both attract potential new customers as well as increase your company’s brand recognition.

Author – Kurt Chrisler has been marketing online since 2007 and his products and services have been used by over 50,000 customers worldwide. You can contact him at the website above.