The Like Economy: How Businesses Make Money With Facebook

The Like Economy: How Businesses Make Money With Facebook, Brian Carter, Que Publishing, 2012

This book shows that it really is possible for any business to increase their revenue through Facebook.

Among the first things a business owner should decide is just what they want from Facebook. Do they simply want "Likes" and popularity? Alternatively, do they want Facebook to drive people to the company's e-commerce website to buy something? If the latter, then it should be obvious that the buying process on the website should be as easy as possible.

Before you create your ads, you need to decide on your target audience. Please be much more specific than, for instance, "women 25-54." Plan your ads accordingly. Even the best ad is good for only a period of time, not forever. There are ways to keep your ads fresh.

Now it's time to come up with some ads to be tested (it's OK to test more than one ad at the same time). There are ways to analyze their performance; look at things like Cost per Click and Click-Through Rate. It's also necessary to break down an ad into separate parts (headline, color, photos, text, etc). Don't be afraid to delete the parts that performed badly. It's also tempting to come up with a cute and creative ad to show the world how "cool" and "cutting edge" you are. Forget it. How can you make your customer's life easier? How can your product or service fulfill a need that they don't even know they have?

Monitoring your Facebook page is an important part of customer service. Depending on your corporate response, an upset customer can either turn into an evangelist for your company, or be the beginning of an online "boycott" of your company.

This book is not Facebook for Business for Beginners. It does not specifically say it, but the book assumes that the reader has a working Facebook for Business page, and knows how to make changes to it. This is well worth reading for any business owner, small or large.