Last week I had a call about the biggest myths of marketing on Facebook.  One myth I mentioned I see discouraging small business owners is that “Facebook alone will get you clients and customers.” This would be wonderful if it was true of course.

Do people get clients and customers as a result of being on Facebook?  Absolutely.  But throwing up a profile and expecting the money to roll in is not going to happen.  You’d be surprised how many people end up discouraged because they’ve been on Facebook a good while and they are not getting results.  It’s because they don’t understand how Facebook fits into their overall marketing picture.

It’s about consumers CONSUMING what it is you are putting out there—which essentially, is content.  You are steadily and gradually building momentum from relationships, the know like and trust factor and word of mouth–which leads to traffic, to subscribers and eventually to sales.

Facebook is excellent for establishing credibility and expertise, for exposing your brand, boosting your visibility in front of your target market and even for market research—finding out what people want and need so that you can then go create and package those solutions and give it them.

Honestly, there is NO faster way to create credibility and brand recognition and quickly connect to hundreds of thousands of people who are looking for what it is you offer.

So what is the ultimate goal?  Traffic.  Before you even get on Facebook, you MUST have a website or blog to drive people to FIRST.  You need to be able to continue to build those relationships OUTSIDE of Facebook.  And the best way to do that is to have a way to get people on your list.

People don’t buy from you right off of Facebook.  They also don’t buy from you the first time they visit your site, right?  You have to build up that know, like and trust.  But Facebook is amazing for building that familiarity and credibility and for driving people to your site so they can get to know even more about what it is that you do.

What has been your experience on Facebook?  Does it drive a lot traffic back to your site? Do you see it increasing your blog or newsletter subscribers?  Let me know your thoughts.

Photo Credit: benstein