How to leverage Facebook for traffic

This is a guest post from Matt Goulart

Every day, we hear more and more information about how Facebook is starting to dominate consumers' interaction with the web. Most recently, Hitwise reported that for the week of March 13^th, Facebook.com had more visits than Google.com. What is even more startling about the information in that report is that it indicates that while Google's share of the Internet has plateaued, Facebook's keeps growing: as recently as a year ago, Facebook had less than 3% of all page views on the Internet; it now has 7% of them.

Anyone who is doing business with their website shouldn't just worry about making it easier for people to find you from Google: you'll need to make it easier for them to find you on Facebook, too.

Facebook Fan Page Basics

Setting up a Facebook fan page should be your first step. It may seem elementary, but a good Facebook fan page is the best and easiest way for you to drive traffic to your website. However, there is a big difference between a good Facebook fan page and a bad one.

Coca-Cola's is a good example: in January 2010, it was the 17^th most popular Facebook fan page. It obviously doesn't hurt that Coca-Cola is a major global brand, but it beats out its competitors on Facebook because of its interactivity. The page wasn't started by Coca-Cola, but by two guys who wanted to show off their love of Coke to the world. Coca-Cola found it and decided to nurture it. Vandalism is deleted ("Coca-Cola sucks") but people are allowed to post preferences other than Coca-Cola ("I love Pepsi"). The result is a fan page that feels like an authentic fan page rather than a corporate site, and people enjoy coming back to it.

Make it Fun, and They'll Come

Other than authenticity and freedom of expression, visually entertaining and engaging sites will be the most "sticky" to users, and will encourage them to return to the page (and get directed to your website). Starbucks, for example, has drawn people to its Facebook fan page by helping you "Find Your Bold" - their page has an app that chooses a flavour of Starbucks to match your personality.

For things like this, you'll need to use Static FBML. Unlike Myspace, Facebook doesn't allow custom HTML and CSS, so you'll need to use Static FBML to put little widgets on your fan page. Go here to download the Static FBML application and then look at this site to get some programming tips. FBML is similar to HTML, so if you are programming in HTML, it will be easy to pick up.

Once you've added static FBML, go wild! There are a lot of plug-ins and add-ons. Add videos, push your tweets and blog posts to your fan page, or just change your URL to a vanity URL.

Facebook Ads

Starbucks didn't get to the top of the most popular sites on Facebook simply through fancy widgets. It also launched the biggest ad campaign in Facebook's history. Consider buying some Facebook ads that lead to your Facebook fan page. The benefit to Facebook ads is that they can be targeted to people who will likely want to join your fan page. For instance, Starbucks likely targeted their ads to people who chose "coffee" as an interest in their Facebook profile. It also helps your page grow faster than if people organically tried to find it on Facebook, or you waited for their friends to pass it along.

Turning Fan Page Visits into Website Visits

Getting people to come to your Facebook fan page is relatively easy. But once you are there, you'll want to get them to visit your website. For this, you'll need to do the soft sell.

1. The best way is to provide free offers, coupons and well, freebies. JetBlue's Twitter page is one of the most popular on the Twitter. Why? Because it is constantly letting people know about special offers. People want value from their websites, and they'll come to yours if you can promise them something useful.

2. Offer a way for people to resolve complaints and concerns about your services by coming to your site. Some people might come to your fan page to say, "I hate you!" but if you deal with the situation correctly, you can turn them into repeat customers.

3. Always leave them wanting more on your Facebook fan page. If you have some special promotion where they can see videos on your Facebook fan page, provide them with a way to see the rest on your site. Pepsi's Refresh Everything campaign on Facebook invites people to vote on charity projects on their own site.

And most importantly, consider if you even need to drive people to your site outside of Facebook. Starbucks doesn't offer a direct link to their site at all on Facebook - they are happy having people interact on Facebook. Having people remain on Facebook is good for gathering data about them through the analytics Facebook provides owners of fan pages.

Of course, this might not be the best strategy for your brand if you can sell things on your site. But it is always wise to understand why you want people to come to your site, and what exactly you can expect from your customers. Facebook is a powerful marketing tool - but for it to be truly effective, you have to make sure you know what kind of tool your project requires.

Matt Goulart is the Founder of WebStar Content, a content development and blog critique company. To read more of Matt's posts, subscribe to WebStar Content's RSS feed and the Free Newsletter via email.

Some other posts to look at:

1/ Using a lightbox to increase subscribers

2/ Four steps to blogging success in 2010

3/ A conversation about paying for content