Taken from the book “Sales Funnel Secrets”. Download it for free from https://t4s.site/idea-to-reality/book – it’s easier to read!!
First, why would you consider Facebook? Well, there are some pretty outstanding reasons!
Facebook are strong, and getting stronger, on fake accounts. Yes, they do exist, be as a general rule on Facebook you are dealing with real people, with real profiles.
You can link from Facebook – which is pretty damn important when you are directing traffic into your online sales funnel. Whilst it’s always better to avoid external links in actual posts, you can include the in comments, profiles, groups, everywhere. So Facebook is a monster when it comes to feeding your funnel traffic.
Because Facebook has been around a while know, people are more open to what they see. They of course expect personal feeds with the dancing cats and the silly posts. But they also expect to see “business type” posts, even adverts are expected.
People do moan, people do threaten to leave Facebook, but in general they are a very (very!) small minority.
Facebook is still the king of social networks, and will be for some time yet to come.
Dextor Abraham, a very successful digital entrepreneur once advised “If you get Facebook right, you can get just about everything else wrong.”. Times change, but at this time it still holds true.
And, perhaps the most persuasive argument is this. On Facebook there are 2.2 billion monthly active users (as at March, 2018). And rising. 1.45 billion daily active users.
2.2 BILLION PEOPLE!!!!
Surely, your target audience is likely to be in there somewhere?
If you can’t find customers from 2.2 billion people, then you should probably think again. Are you selling what people want?
Or what you want to sell?
The Golden Rules For Facebook
The basics are easy, make sure that:
1. You have a great, engaging profile
2. Put friend requests to everyone that might be of value
3. Post engaging content regularly.
Let’s take each one, one at a time.
Have a great, engaging profile
Facebook, like all social media, is… tada! Social!
People will checkout your profile. Maybe not as much as on LinkedIn, but it will get checked out.
So look at your profile like you were someone else. Is it clear what you offer? What you do? Who you are?
Friend requests
This is the secret sauce of Facebook. With the changing algorythms, the restrictions on pages, the way groups are going and the changes to the personal feed, your personal posts will be seen by your friends far more than anything else.
You will find you get more engagement on your personal feed more and more, unless you are lucky enough to be in really engaging groups.
Don’t be sure – if you come across someone who you would like to see what you post, then click the Add Friend button. The worst that can happen is that they decline. So you have nothing to lose.
Conversely, review your friends from time to time. Cull it regularly. Facebook will decide who should see your content and as much as you love your mum, the more she engages with your content, the more people like your mum will be shown your content.
Post regularly
So having got yourself an audience, don’t let them down. Post regularly, at least once a day. Use Buffer.com and schedule up a week’s worth of content once a week – you can then focus on the personal posts when you have time.
I follow the rule of 3’s. For every three posts I try and post one professional (about what I do), one personal (about me or what I’m up to) and one funny/motivation/etc.
And then rotate.
Check out the content marketing section in this book if you’re struggling for ideas on what to write about, there really is no excuse.
The best way to post successfully on Facebook
1. Avoid external links on your posts. Facebook doesn’t like sending people away from it’s platform, so will drop your visibility like a rock. If you do one thing do this. Instead, refer to the “link in the first comment” and put it there.
2. Don’t spam post, by which I mean the same post in lots of groups. Facebook is now watching for this.
3. Add an image to every post. Don’t be lazy, it’s an easy way to grab attention. If you’re stuck for an image use Google images, but add the filter “Labelled for reuse” if you want to be safe (under Tool, Usage Rights). The easiest way, especially if posting from your phone is take a picture! Boom! If you’re pushing you as your brand, make it of you.
4. Post about what people care about. They want to be entertained or educated. Stick to what your audience what most of.
Whatever you post about – give value. Always.
5. Posting times are a bit over-rated in my mind, but think (as always) about your target audience. When are they most likely to be on Facebook? When at home? At work? At lunch? Evenings? Weekends? And so on. And as always, test, test, test.
6. Remember,.facts tell, stories sell. So use them, they always get better engagement. Keep it personal with tangential reference to your business.
7. Re-use your content. Write the words, post to Facebook. Then use that as a script for YouTube, etc. Turn it in to Facebook Live for even better engagement (Facebook loves Facebook Lives).
8. Don’t over-do it too soon. When you launched a product, move on. People get tired of hearing the same old thing, so keep it fresh.
9. If you have a small team or group of friends, for important posts ask them to like, share and engage quickly. I mean like as soon as you post it. It will make a massive difference in terms of visibility if you get that engagement in the first few minutes after you post.
10. Avoid jargon. Don’t be a techie. Unless your audience are techies.
11. Use pattern disrupters. By which I mean emojis, spelling mistakes, the odd swear word if you don’t normally swear. Capitals when you SHOULDN’T. Cover taboo subjects, and take a stance. Above anything have a view. The only two topics I would recommend you don’t get involved in are religion and politics. It’s nearly always going to end badly with someone getting pissed off.
Unless, of course, your audience are into politics or religion, and then you’ve got to form an opinion.
12. Use power words that get people’s attention. We’ll cover this more in the copyrighting section of the book.
Facebook Live
At the moment Facebook is ranking Facebook Lives high. I mean really high. They are really promoting it. So use it. Just do it. I mean this, don’t be scared or shy. Nobody really cares. Be honest, and you will get better.
And it’s so easy to do! You open Facebook on your phone, and go live. That’s it. And because you do it live, you don’t have to worry about re-takes, you just go with it.
If you make a mistake then laugh about it. It humanises you and your audience will like you more. That’s the great thing about it.
If you want to use your laptop then you can use Ecamm (Mac) or BeLive.tv (PC). You can even add to your Zoom account and stream from there (needs Webinar add-on).
Me? I recommend go natural, go on your phone for free and more than anything else, go for it!
Making use of Influencers on Facebook
This is a great way to get known. So follow this simple recipe for success.
Find 5 of the most relevant Facebook groups in your niche. Join them.
And then:
* Reply to 3-5 posts in there every day.
* Place two posts of your own in there each week.
* Make friends with the admins.
* Add people who post into the groups (and to a lesser extent the people who comment) as your friend. These are the “active” people you want to be friends with.
Launching a Facebook Group
It’s quick, easy and relatively risk free. You can create your “tribe” (your followers) and offer two way engagagement with them and between them. 24 hour a day. 7 days a week.
A Facebook group becomes part of your funnel. From your engaged group you send people to your onlines sales funnel, from which you can grab their email address (in return for an awesome lead magnet). And then your trip wire page, your upsales and core offer. All these are covered in the Funnels chapter of this book.
So, quick tips when you create your Facebook group:
Tip #1
Decide on the who, what, and why of your group. Try and focus on a target audience with a target problem. Ideally one problem that your group will solve, with the involvement of the other members.
Make the name specific. It will be found easier on Facebook searches and make sense to visitors. It is the headline of your group, and ask such probably the most important. Make the group image match.
Your group name must say what the group promises to do if the visitor joins. If your brand is not well known (remember the 5 stages of awareness?) then you should focus on the problem and the solution.
If you have a well known brand (to your audience), then your group name can reflect that, such as at https://www. facebook.com/groups/funnelhackerspro which is a group for users of T4S.site (and so they visit the group knowing it’s purpose and brand).
Tip #2
Edit the group to get a “name” instead of a “number”. You do this via the Group settings. You’ll also find other settings to make your group better, like changing the group image (please do this!).
So instead of a URL like https://www.facebook.com/groups/228048067851358
You’ll have one like https://www.facebook.com/groups/funnelhackerspro
It’s easier to share, type, remember, etc.
Tip #3
Because your group is essentially a lead magnet, you must, ASAP, get a funnel up to send the members to for the next step in your sales ladder, and get a link in your group description.
It’s great giving value through your group, but without leading them to your online sales funnel, you don’t get anything back. Get this done as soon as possible.
Tip #4
You want to hit 100 members as soon as possible. Growth will then start to occur organically. After that you can cull those who aren’t related (quality over quantity). But getting 100 gives your group gravitas.
So now, at the launch only, invite everyone you can, in every way possible, PM, email, the lot.
If you can, always over something in return for joining (yep, another lead magnet!). Same old mantra, give first in return for getting.
Tip #5
Get some posts in the group, pump it with content to avoid it looking “empty”. If your group looks like a ghost town when people take a look, they are far, far less likely to join.
Before your publicise your group, and as soon as it’s created, start putting in your best posts possible.
Make them posts that will get engagement as discussed earlier in this topic.
So have fun with your group. You should enjoy it, as should the members. Post regularly, post valuable and engaging content.
If you do this, and have a clear call to action in your description as a link to your online sales funnel, it will reap rewards. Don’t forget to remind people of your online sales funnel from time to time in your posts.
Download “Sales Funnel Secrets” for free at https://t4s.site/idea-to-reality/book.