How Self Publishing Artists Can Benefit From Using Facebook

One of the most powerful tools any self publishing artist or photographer can use on the Internet is the social networking community, Facebook. A social networking community is a place where people who share common interests meet and interact with one another. Currently, there are more than 350 million active users on Facebook. There are also more than 700,000 small businesses that use Facebook to communicate with their market. Are you using Facebook to interact with your market?

Communicating with your market is the best way to build a relationship with your market. When you communicate with your market, the people in your market will trust you and your business a lot more. Facebook has several tools built into the community that make communicating with your market easy. Today, you are going to learn about the power of Facebook Fan Pages and Facebook Advertising.

Facebook Fan Pages

If you currently have a personal Facebook account, you probably do not want to mix your personal account with your business account. Facebook does not allow multiple accounts per user, but they do allow multiple Fan Pages per user. A Fan Page is a page that is dedicated to a specific person or group of people. You can create a Fan Page, dedicate it to your business, and use it to communicate with your market.

Since Facebook is an authority site, Fan Pages naturally rank high in the search engines. So, when someone searches for your business using a search engine, your Fan Page will most likely appear at the top of the search engine results. This is very important, especially if you are unfamiliar with optimising your main website for the search engines.

A Facebook Page about your work as a self publishing artist or photographer is a great place to get exposure, over 10 million people become fans of Facebook Pages every day. When people "fan" your Page, their friends see it and your brand spreads organically. With a little extra work using HTML you can have a custom Page with many extra features.

Another benefit of creating a Facebook Page for you business is that a Fan Page encourages discussion and interaction. Your Fan Page can easily become the only market research tool your business will ever need! You will be able to obtain feedback from existing customers, learn about objections, and craft your marketing plan around the information you collect from your Fan Page.

Find out more about starting your Facebook Page here.

See Redcliffe Imaging's Facebook Page here

Facebook Advertising

You already know there are more than 350 million active users on Facebook. According to Facebook, on average, each user checks their messages twice per day. That means, at least twice per day, 350 million people are checking their Facebook messages. Using Facebook Advertising, you can place your advertisements in front of those people checking their messages. In fact, you can even set your advertisements so they only appear in front of your target market.

Facebook Advertising comes in two forms. First, there is the CPC model (cost-per-click). Using the CPC model, you will only pay for the advertising when a Facebook user clicks your advertisement. Then, there is the CPM model (cost-per-thousand impressions). Using the CPM model, you pay for every thousand times your advertisement is displayed.

The Facebook Advertising model you choose to use should depend on the your goal of your advertising plan. When you want to drive targeted traffic to your website or landing page, you should use the CPC model. If you want to get massive exposure to your business and its brand, the CPM model would probably work best for you. Since you are not forced to use one model exclusively, you should test both models until you find the model that works best for your advertising efforts.

Be Sure To Stay Active And Interact With The Facebook Community

The only way to get the most out of Facebook is to stay active and interact with the community. A Fan Page that has not been updated in weeks is as useless as not having one at all. Do not be shy! Participate in the conversation. The people you build a relationship with today could become your customers tomorrow.

For more information or advice on Giclee Printing call Tim Sale or Adrian Chambers on 0117 952 0105 or use the contact form to tell us your requirements, we can suggest the most appropriate solution for your fine art printing needs.