Leveraging Facebook for Marketing Campaigns

INTRODUCTION

Facebook was, for quite a bit of its history, seen as a solely personal network where users can relax a little and interface with their school and college mates, family and friends. They used to share photos and recordings from late excursions, parties and get-togethers. They also posted about their genuine beliefs on arbitrary subjects, for example, their most loved restaurant, their hobbies, etc. If marketers wanted to do any promotion, there was LinkedIn. The issue that aroused is Facebook is developing at such a quick pace, to the point that one can't overlook it. Thus, an ever increasing number of organizations started promoting by means of Facebook too. They considered setting up their presence on Facebook as a brand since it humanizes the brand. Through the sorts of substance that marketers share on a Facebook Page or Group, they can demonstrate that their organization is not just a logo but much more than that. It helps to uncover all the immense identities that make up their organization (Carter & Levy, 2015).

Geho & Dangelo, 2012 explored that how social media has become a new tool for marketers in this digital age. Facebook is the new trend and marketers are creating Facebook Business Pages where the fans of the pages can interact with each other and marketers to share information and also boost their sales by sharing the links to their websites. To know how that page is doing i.e. whether it is successful in achieving the objective, Facebook Insights is used which helps marketers in calculating the ROI. Marketers, who create Facebook page, can create impression on their fans by using right type of content. This impression will further lead to engaging the users. It was found that posting only informative content lessens the engagement of the consumers. Persuasive content is also needed to grab the attention and keep them engaged. It increases the engagement of the consumer. Persuasive content can be in the form of philanthropic or emotional content (Lee et al., 2014). Facebook is the foremost social media platform which a marketer thinks of whenever he thinks about promotion. It is the most transparent form of communication between users and users and marketers. Creating a Facebook page is important and today businesses are even using it for recruitment and selection purposes. It is important to have a strategy while marketing on Facebook and how marketers are using Facebook Insights for tracking and analyzing the content that has been posted (Yang, 2014). Ashley & Tuten, 2015 highlighted creative strategies that social media is using. They divided

focused on the content of the message marketer wants to give to its audience. For this various appeals can be used like emotional, functional, celebrities may be used to make it credible and the content should be exclusive. In sales promotion, marketer uses discounts or contests to approach users. User-generated content is found to be the most credible one amongst consumers as users share their opinions and beliefs which is more believable for other users than what the marketer is saying. Dehghani & Tumer, 2015 found that Facebook advertising is more effective in generating purchase intention amongst the consumers. For this, they gave a theoretical model suggesting that Facebook advertising leads to development of brand image and brand equity amongst the users. When a brand has good image and the perceived value of the brand is also good, then it ultimately leads to purchase intention i.e. consumers intend to buy that product. Thus, marketers has to see that the advertisements that he does on Facebook should be such which helps in generating good brand image as well as brand equity. Facebook Connect gives sites a chance to enable their users to confirm against Facebook. So websites having option of registering the users also has the option of letting users to simply "interface" to their Facebook account by entering their FB login and password, giving access to whatever information they need to share. At that point, the site can get to the mutual information and perceive that user as long as the user is signed in to Facebook in same browser - the user doesn't have to sign in again to that site, they'll simply be recognized in no time. This helps save time as well as they have to remember less username and password. Same ways Facebook Places help marketers in locating consumers who are nearby and offering them their exclusive deals (Carter & Levy, 2015). Dvorak, n.d., gave five tools that are used by marketers to leverage Facebook for their promotion. They are pages, engagement in groups, posting about events, focusing on not always selling but providing information too and using paid advertising. Facebook offers a boundless number of communities/groups in view of a wide assortment of themes and interests. These gatherings enable marketers to target audience who have interest in the products same as offered by them. Marketers either create such groups or they look out for such groups to participate in which users would conceivably be keen on their products.

etc. The paper presents the basic tools that marketers are using for their brand communication on Facebook. Some of these tools are the basic features of Facebook and some are the advanced features of Facebook. Figure 1 presents the tools used by marketers on Facebook.

Facebook is increasingly used by marketers for brand communication. They are finding it an effective and efficient social media platform which helps them in grabbing attention and then engaging the users with their brands. Facebook is providing certain tools that are helping marketers and they are:

Source: Author‘s Study

• Setting-up Corporate Presence: - Building up a presence means creating a Facebook page which is especially created by organizations, celebrities and brands to give users a peek into who they are. It is a public profile to which everybody has access to and if users like it, they can become the fan of the page. After becoming the fan of the page, users can see all the updates posted by marketers on their Facebook page in form of notifications on their timeline. A Facebook page and a fan page are somewhat similar giving information about them. A marketer can upload photos, videos and text with photos or videos (posts). Apart from this, they can customize it according to their products or brands like a shop option, upcoming

etc. Users can interact with the Facebook pages by giving a reaction, commenting upon the posts and sharing the posts (Olczak & Sobczyk, 2013). Malhotra, Malhotra & See, 2013 gave brand engagement factors on Facebook. As indicated by the subject of posts, they can be about products, brand or any other sort of information like launch of a new store or announcement of a contest. Another sort of information can be something which is unrelated to the product or brand, such as vacations, sports, music, and art and so on. Anything that can draw users‘ attention and motivate him to look at the brand page and continue to do so is posted by the marketer. As it's all given in the social networking, posts that contain feelings enables fans to pass on their own feelings to their group of friends. Realizing that excitement is the solid thought process to join the network, there is a need to distribute entertaining posts, similar to kid's shows or something topical, which may be associated with occasions like the proposal to send an instant message on Valentine's day or purchase a cell phone as a present for Christmas. By sharing approval, for example, users sharing the brand information can flag endorsement while likewise luxuriating in the radiance of a brand they relate to. There may be posts about the accomplishments, the brand have won or celebrities who are endorsing the brand. There's likewise a methodology to instruct fans through posts, as clarifying them the highlights of cell phones. What is essential is to make posts differing and engaging. This way Facebook gives a marketer the chance to discover the fans and actuate them by giving them a network in which they can communicate with each other and with the organization. Gone are the days when a marketer could drive his prospects, consumers and aficionados of his brand to go to his website and check the product. These days, a marketer needs to go where his prospects, consumers, and fans hang out and create networks with them there. This can urge them to visit the corporate site and thus, engage them. In case, marketer ignores it, they are missing significant chances to build up a more grounded network. • Facebook Advertising: - Facebook has an add-on feature for marketers which allow them to advertise in different ways (Lee, 2012). They are link click ads, video ads, boosted page posts, multi-product ads dynamic product ads, lead ads, canvas ads, collection ads and page like ads. Marketers can choose from this huge variety of ads according to their objectives, products and brand. Gone are the times when push advertising was followed now the purpose of ads is to fully engage the consumers and is to be created; it allows choosing from 11, given under 3 categories i.e. Awareness, Consideration and Conversion. Further sorting option is also available like choosing the audience, interest, budget for the ad and lastly the ad format (Conley, n.d.). • Facebook Page Analytics: - How successful are Facebook promoting and communication exercises of a marketer? What numbers of their fans are seeing the posts? Which posts get greater engagement, and why? What should be done to enhance the outcomes? Facebook offers an abundance of measurements and bits of knowledge into the performance of Facebook page and posts. By checking on these, marketers can realize what their fans react do and don't, what's shielding them from giving more reactions, and how to improve. Marketers have found over the previous decade that using analytics is fundamental to progress, and marketing on Facebook is no exception. Facebook provides basic analytics facility for free. They are (Carter & Levy, 2015): □ Impressions & Feedback Rate: - Whenever a marketer posts something on his Facebook page, then above the post, impression and feedback rate can be seen. Impressions are the total number of times the post has been shown to users. Feedback rate is the total number of comments and likes divided by impressions. □ Insights: - On the Facebook page, right side there is a link for Insights option. It is a free analytical tool given by Facebook to enable marketers to know about their Facebook Page's posts and fans. The kind of data marketers get is which posts are liked, shared or commented upon by the users and which are not, how many users are growing as fans of the page and how rapidly and what number of users see the content of the page (Cleary, 2017). If a marketer wants to know about a particular post that how it is doing, then through sorting that can be done. Additional sort options are also available like demographics, page views, people reached and people engaged, etc. (Facebook Business, 2014). If a marketer wants to go in further detail, then third-party apps are also available which probes into detail and letting the marketer know:

□ Are the demographics of a page‘s active fans unique in relation to the general fan base? □ Which sorts of content and posts get the best feedback? □ What's the best time of day to post on the page? There are multiple paid as well as free third-party apps to assess the performance like PageLever, BrandWatch and Sprout Social, etc. • Developing Facebook Communities: - A Facebook community/group can be best depicted as a genuine intrigue or group or an alliance or relationship with individuals and things... that one is creating a network of individuals and companions to advance, share and examine important topics. Facebook contains a huge number people and these people create communities. Davey, 2016 said that individuals frame communities around their interests, leisure activities, occasions, organizations, products, superstars and schools, etc. They connect with each other, bond, share articles, photographs and recordings, and welcome others with comparable interests to join. Benefit of creating a community is privacy as users need to request for access or if existing member may add them. Communities are incredible for centered discussions by the most enthusiastic fans. Each time a member of the community likes or comments on one of the posts, Facebook informs the member‘s companions and also demonstrates that communication in other fans' newsfeed. When there is continuous interaction, the brand remains grabs the attention of prospects, users and fans. A strong Facebook community can be build by keeping in mind following things: □ Provide information □ Connect regularly □ Be a connector □ Upload photos and videos on a regular basis □ Ask questions □ Provide exclusive information □ Ask them what they need • Facebook Places & Deals: - Check-in Deals are built on the back of Places and their other location-tagging features. Facebook users can share their locations as they travel as well as upload content from previous travels. In August 2011, Facebook added the capability to tag almost anything – photos, status updates, videos – with a location as well. Places can be business locations, and marketers can claim or create their business/place on Facebook. By creating or controlling a Place on Facebook, marketers will have more ways to promote and grow their business. When a potential customer can check in at a marketer‘s business place, they can tell their friends about it enabling free word-of-mouth marketing. Facebook is now adding a level of location data to virtually everything on the network i.e. users can tag their photos with the location depicted and people can tag their statuses if they are posting while traveling. Facebook Deals are socially enabled digital coupons. As a business owner, this gives marketer the opportunity to motivate customers to check in when they visit, increase awareness of their store through their friends, increase store visits, and grow loyalty. • Facebook Connect: - Facebook's social plug-ins or Connect is a powerful set of APIs for developers that lets users bring their identity and connections everywhere. For marketers, integrating Facebook Connect helps to bring more eyes to the website, thus giving marketers more opportunities to connect and convert, as well as to implement other features within Facebook connect. Additionally, it provides more resources to the user who visits marketer‘s website and doesn‘t need to create a new login just to leave a comment or interact with their website in some other way. Social plug-ins include like button, send button, comments, activity feed, recommendations, like box, registration, facepile and live stream. When Facebook created Facebook Connect, it instantly enabled 400+ million users to have a single sign-on. By becoming a single sign-on resource, Facebook also benefits because users become more reliant on the social network. Because users have the ability to use Facebook to sign into all their favorite websites, they are more likely to interact with Facebook more often.

signs a user in to all the websites that they use Connect with. • Facebook Marketplace: - In recent years more people have been using Facebook to connect in another way: buying and selling with each other. This activity started in Facebook Groups and has grown substantially. More than 450 million people visit buy and sell groups each month — from families in a local neighborhood to collectors around the world. To help people make more of these connections, Facebook introduced Marketplace, a convenient destination to discover, buy and sell items with people in their community. Marketplace makes it easy to find new things people will love, and find a new home for the things they‘re ready to part with. Marketplace opens with photos of items that people have listed for sale. To find something specific, users search at the top and can filter their results by location, category or price. They can also browse what‘s available in a variety of categories such as Household, Electronics and Apparel. Also, the built-in location tool can be used to adjust the region they‘re looking in, or switch to a different city altogether.

The tools discussed above are the advanced features of Facebook which help marketers in doing customized advertising. They enable marketers to know what the expectations of consumers are from them and what they can do satisfy them. Facebook, now not only helps in the promotion of products but it also helps in selling the products which has especially been proved beneficial for small businesses who have less financial resources at their disposal. It also helps other websites to connect with the users and know about them in order to fulfill their needs. Local consumers also get to know about the deals, offers that are offered by nearby marketers and get benefit from them. Facebook Connect feature save users from hassles of signing in to every site they visit and websites benefit by getting users‘ data. Facebook Pages are on one hand open for all i.e. it is public whereas Facebook Communities are private, only those join who are interested. Facebook advertising has proved to be very beneficial for the marketers and make targeting easy simultaneously supporting multiple types of ads. Least but not all, Facebook Analytics helps in measuring the effect of all the tools used and marketers get to know where they stand and what they should do to improve.

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Research Scholar, Department of Management Studies, B.P.S. Mahila Vishwa Vidyalaya, Khanpur Kalan, Sonepat, Haryana, India