6 Secrets to Facebook Success
for Freelancers
By Henry Bingaman

If you follow the Internet-marketing buzz online, you’ve probably heard a lot of people recommend using Facebook as a marketing tool.

That’s about as helpful as, “Go to the gym to get in better shape.”

It sounds good, until you show up at the gym and see 40 machines and a row of treadmills. Where are you supposed to start?

You may jump on a few and try them out for a while the first day … maybe try some different machines the second day. But after a month or so with no clear direction, you just give up and become part of the crowd who makes their monthly donation to the gym and never goes.

I’ve been experimenting with social-network marketing on Facebook for almost a year with mixed results. After two failed attempts, I realized I needed a system. So, I analyzed my mistakes and came up with solutions.

But, before you can use these six secrets, you have to make sure you start in the right direction …

When you sign up for Facebook, you’ll have the option of creating a “Profile” or a “Fan Page.” Profiles are for individuals. They’re fine if you’re getting on Facebook to socialize. But for marketing purposes, you want to set up a “Fan Page.”

Fan pages were designed for businesses so they have better functionality for what you’re going to be doing when you start your social-network marketing campaign.

It also defines you as an authority and someone worthy of “fans.” It’s a small but important shift in perception.

Got it? Alright. Here are the six secrets to use when planning a Facebook campaign:

Start With a Goal.

If there’s no clear idea of what is expected, how can anything happen?

Think about what you really want to achieve with the page. Maybe getting clients from your Facebook page isn’t the goal. You may just want to learn how to better serve the clients you have.

Some example of goals could be:

To get a better understanding of what your clients expect from you. If you find that many people expect a copywriter to write them video scripts, you might consider building that into your set of skills.

Or you might find out that they need more clients and you could begin offering SEO services.

Maybe your goal would be to gain one new client every other month from your social networking. This doesn’t seem like much, but since Internet copywriting is such a high-value skill, it could mean an extra $10,000 or more a year for a modest time investment.
Listen to Your Fans.

People are full of opinions and always looking to have them validated. When a fan tells you his opinion, he’s telling you what your strongest benefits are, or what his biggest objections are. When you see several of the same opinions popping up, you’re really seeing a clear path to a better sales message for your business.

Follow that path to the pot of gold at the end.
Give People a Reason to Stay.

If people don’t become a fan of your page, they won’t remember to check back often. So give them a reason to become a fan.

Clients are never there to serve your needs; you’re there to serve theirs. If you don’t have anything of value to offer them, they won’t become fans. You have only a few seconds to prove that you have value, so choose your landing page on Facebook carefully. (You can change this in your page settings at any time.) Then make sure there’s content on it.

Examples:

You can try a Q&A box where you answer questions. (Make sure there are already questions and answers before you make it a landing page.)

Write notes that offer helpful tips and suggestions and send new visitors there. Be useful and relevant.

Don’t hog all the attention for yourself. If someone else wrote a great article on a topic related to yours, post a link on your wall. (The Facebook wall is one of the main features of a page. It functions like the comments section of a blog.) Your page should add as much value as it can.

Test, test, test. Try each landing page for a week and see which gets the most interactions. Interactions are an expression of interest … in other words, people are telling you what's keeping them around.

Remember, content is king. If you’re constantly posting good content, people will constantly come back to see it.

Bonus tip on content: Here’s a killer secret that most top marketers are using today … give your best ideas away for free.

It sounds crazy, but it works. You’re not going to lose business over it. In fact, you’ll see the opposite effect. What people really say is, “Wow, she’s just giving that tip away? I wonder what she charges for.”

Here’s the sneaky part of giving your best tricks away. The people you want to do business with don’t have time to implement them. They can recognize it as a brilliant idea, but where-oh-where are they going to find someone to do it. Oh look, this lady is a freelancer. Who better to implement the idea than the gal who thought of it?
Plan for a “Facebook Mentality.”

Facebook users are there to socialize. They want to interact, keep up with friends, and be entertained. There’s not much you can do to help them keep up with their friends, and entertaining people is a big job in itself … so your focus should be on interaction.

Ask relevant questions. State strong opinions, then ask for feedback. When fans respond, it’s like having your own focus group. Learn from them.

If you direct people away from the Facebook page and onto your website, make the transition an easy one. Facebook’s dominant color is blue, so if possible, use a lot of matching blue on your landing page. This creates the feeling of familiarity and keeps the fan in the same mood.

Also acknowledge that they came from Facebook. A simple “Welcome Facebook fans,” is usually enough.
Start a Buying Cycle.

Turning someone from a fan into a customer isn’t easy. If you’re using Facebook as more than just a focus group to improve your business, you have to start a buying cycle.

Buying starts with a single word: “Yes.”

Get your fans to say yes in as many places as possible.

“Did you like this note?”

“Did you like this wall post?”

“Would you like to learn more?”

Plan your path of yes’s. Remember, they’re starting cold in the buying cycle, so you’re probably not going to do well if they click a link in Facebook that says, “Yes, I want to know more,” and they land on a page that says, “For $3,000, I’ll write your sales copy.”

However, if they say yes the first time, you have a good chance of getting them to say, “Yes, I’ll join your mailing list for a free report.”
Ask for the Action You Want.

This is a mistake that no direct-response copywriter should make. Don’t forget to ask them to do what you want.

If you want them to write on your “Facebook wall” or answer a question or comment on a note … ask them to. Tell them you value their opinions, and they’ll be glad to give them to you

Social-network marketing is a great opportunity to grow your freelance business. But it’s more than just an opportunity to get new clients …

Once you’ve learned how to effectively use social-network marketing, and you’ve proven that it works by landing one or two of your own clients, you can begin to sell it as a service to the clients you already have.

By simply adjusting the persuasive copywriting skills you’ve already developed, you can see a nice boost in income every year.

You could even take some time off to learn how to use all those machines at the gym.

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Published: July 1, 2009