Building website traffic through the use of Facebook

Chris Brydon

ContentsWhy Facebook? 3

Traffic Building 4

Creating a Profile 4

Content Generation 5

Building a Network 9

Facebook Functions 10

Case Studies 18

Why Facebook?

Facebook is now the largest social networking site in the world. With over 600 million users in over 213 countries. This user base is incredibly diverse in terms of culture, nationality, age, socio economics and just about any differentiating factor you can think of. There are over 900 million objects on Facebook that users can interact with, as well as 30 billion pieces of content shared each month. There are more than 200 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices. Since social plug ins launched in April 2010, an average of 10,000 new websites integrate with Facebook every day. This report aims to demonstrate how the social networking site Facebook can be effectively used to generate traffic for a website.

Traffic Building

The first step for most companies who use Facebook as a traffic building tool is to create a profile. This gives the company a physical presence in the virtual world of Facebook. An example of a companies profile is to the right. To create a profile all the company needs is a name and an email address and they are underway.

Profile NameCreating a Profile

Once this has been done, the next step is to provide the link to the companies website, as this is one of the main ways that traffic will be generated.

Now that the company has a Facebook profile with a link to the companies website, the goal is to attract users to the profile. This will increase exposure to the website link which will hopefully be used to get to the companies website, generating traffic.

Content Generation

The profile should be populated with information about the company that will be of interest and use to the user.

Photos and videos can also be uploaded to the profile, providing additional content that will encourage users to access the profile.

Video

Photo’s

This content can be viewed and commented on by the user, thus creating additional content

It is important that new content is added regularly, so that the profile remains fresh and interesting. Microsoft adds content almost every day.

Regular status updates and content uploads also ensure that the companies profile appears in the news feed of its users or “friends”.

Building a Network

Once you have built the profile and filled it with good content, it is time to create a network. The more people that you can connect with the better. Start by adding clients, other businesses and groups of people who have an interest in the company. The more “friends” you have, the more exposure you get.

Once a user has become your friend they will receive updates on the profiles activity. Also users who view the friends website are able to find a link to the companies profile.

In addition to the companies profile, a fan page can be created. This allows further exposure by giving users the chance to “like” the business, which will make the companies fan page appear on their profile. This exposes the Skoda fan page to anyone who views that persons profile. Also HTML, Flash, or even Facebook applications can be added to the pages, making it more flexible than a standard profile.

A link to the companies fan page will also appear in the news feed of all the users friends.

Facebook Functions

Applications can be created and made available to Facebook users. These applications are a great way of attracting users to the companies profile.

These applications can vary from simple to very in depth and are a good way to attract both unique visitors and repeat visitors to the companies profile, some of which will then hopefully access the companies website.

Facebook messages functions as a simplified alternative to email. Functionality such as sorting and searching that you find with more comprehensive email providers have been removed, however Facebook provides excellent spam protection with its Facebook message service. Like email, anyone can be messaged so long as you have a name, list or email address.

Facebook Marketplace is a classifieds listing service. For-sale ads can be created and posted as well as wanted ads. These can be posted in the companies networks for free. If you want to post an ad in multiple networks however, you have to pay $1 per network per listing. Facebook marketplace is not widely used, however it’s user base is expanding.

Facebook Events application permits users to promote marketing events, parties, product launches and pretty much anything they want.

An event receives its own page which features a wall, discussion, photos, videos, and links as does a standard page.

Friends can be invited to the event and are given the option to respond on whether they will attend. This allows the event holder to collect information such as expected attendance.

Most of the methods of traffic building discussed so far have been through utilising Facebooks free to use features. This can be extremely effective however it is somewhat limited. The company does not have full control over who they are targeting with their profile. Anybody can access the profile and they may not be reaching the people they want to reach. Furthermore there is no guarantee that anyone who views the companies Facebook profile will actually use the link to the companies website.

Facebook offers a Facebook Ads service which allows companies to advertise to specific groups of people on Facebook. The Ad will consist of an image, some text, and a link to an external URL. In this case the Ladbrokes website. This will increase traffic to the companies website.

These ads can be targeted at specific Facebook users based on their age, location, demographics, likes and interests, sexuality, gender, relationship status education and employment. This level of depth and accuracy in targeting consumers makes Facebook advertising extremely worthwhile.

Facebook ads are paid for by companies on a pay per click basis.

The amount companies pay per click depends on what targeting options they select. A broad range of targeting options spanning a huge variety of people will cost more per click than precise targeting options. In this case targeting options were extremely wide, leading to a high pay per click price of $1.26.

The ad can be scheduled to run for as short or long a time as the company wants.

The company can also decide a budget for their ad, in this case $50 per day. This means that companies ranging from huge conglomerates to local niche businesses can use Facebook Ads. Small companies who

cannot afford a TV advert slot or a billboard have the opportunity to target a specific group, for example single lesbian women in the London area with a degree, giving them a chance to advertise.

This kind of opportunity is not available for small businesses through traditional advertising means.

Case StudiesLadbrokes

Ladbrokes are currently running an ad on Facebook to drive traffic to their main website.

This serves a dual purpose. Firstly it is building the brand. The advert on Facebook, even if not clicked is creating exposure for Ladbrokes.

Once the ad is clicked it takes the user straight to Ladbrokes main website. This website serves to inform the user about Ladbrokes and also to sell them their product, which is their gambling services. The Ladbrokes ad is clearly B2C focused.

The UFC

The UFC are utilising Facebook in a very unique way. Specifically, to broadcast live TV via their Facebook profile free of charge to those who “like” their profile. This is an excellent way to draw traffic to the profile and through that, the UFC website.

In another very creative move, the UFC have taken driving traffic to a new level. Rather than taking the user to the website, they have brought the website to the user. The UFC have created a shop that operates within Facebook, allowing users to purchase items from the UFC straight from their Facebook profile.

The UFC uses their profile to provide links to all of their main websites, including it’s accounts on other social networking sites such as twitter.

The UFC Facebook profile is B2C focused

Blue Sky Factory is an example of a B2B company that utilises Facebook.

Blue Sky Factory provides an e-mail subscription form in the side bar of their Facebook page. By doing this it creates a possible way to build e-mail newsletter distribution and leverage that newsletter to generate sales.

Forrester research is a B2B company that uses Facebook effectively as a traffic building tool. Forrester is a market research company, they provide lots of relevant industry information that is of use to many companies. After being drawn to the Facebook profile by useful and free information, customer businesses will then be encouraged to visit the Forrester website, hopefully purchasing their services.

Facebook is clearly an excellent resource for generating traffic to a website. It has hundreds of millions of users to reach, It is brimming with useful functions, it has an architecture that allows companies to get creative with how they appeal to their audience. It is already being used with great success by thousands of businesses around the world. If you want to generate traffic, Facebook is great place to start.