The ease of using Facebook and its ability to communicate text, photos, and videos to a potential audience of millions has made it popular with businesses like yours who want to communicate with their customers, prospects and brand advocates. Many of the followers who you've attracted to your page eventually become regular customers. You consider the social media site a useful part of your marketing arsenal. However, Facebook also has several powerful features that can be used to expand your reach.
Using The Search Bar
You've already used the Search bar at the top of the Facebook page to find individuals or old posts in your feed. However, with a few clicks, that feature can also help you locate specific types of customers, suppliers, industry professionals, and business opportunities.
Look for people with useful interests. Need a graphic artist, someone who works for XYZ Company, or somebody who likes a product? You could hire strangers. Or you could find out if any of your friends fit the bill with the phrase “friends who work as graphic artists,” “friends who for ,” or “friends who like .” If none do, substitute the word friends with “people” and include in , such as “people in who like ” to find people nearby who can meet your needs. Examples include “Friends who work for IBM” or “People in Denver, Colorado who like craft beer.”
Find recommendations from people you trust. If you need an electrician to fix an office light, a plumber to stop the flooding in your lobby restroom, or any kind of professional help, turn to the people you know for recommendations. Look for a professionals that your friends like with the phrase ” in liked by my friends” such as “carpenters in Kansas City, Missouri liked by my friends.” Larger friend lists will produce more results.
Re-read old posts by friends. If a friend mentioned something useful in a post that scrolled by weeks ago, you can try to find it with the phrase posts by friends. One example is “marketing posts by friends.”
Power Searching
You may be used to using individual words when searching through Google. Facebook is more likely to find what you want if you use complete phrases. For example, instead of typing “marketing” or “friends” try putting in “marketing books liked by my friends.”
Your search results will appear with a bar at the top with tabs labeled like “Top,” “Latest,” “People,” “Photos,” “Videos,” “Pages” and “Places.” You can click on a tab to filter the search results, especially if dozens appear. For example, if you're looking for a photo that matches what you want, click the “Photos” tab. If you need more filtering classifications, click the “More” tab and choose an option from the pop-down menu.
Don't be afraid to expand your search criteria by making your search phrase longer. For example, if “friends who work at XYZ” doesn't turn up a large number of results, try “friends of friends who work at XYZ.” You can also expand the geographic area. If using your home town in the criteria doesn't work, try using the name of a nearby large city or your province. You could even try an entire country.
Conversely, if the list of results is too long, even when you've used the tab, filter the search by adding more parameters. For example, “friends who like computers” can be filtered with “friends who like iMac and live in Brampton, Ontario.”
There are many more ways to get more out of Facebook. Start with taking advantage of the powerful search function, then contact me for more ideas.
