In just a short period of time Facebook has taken the world by storm, changing the face of the online world as people know it. A company headed by Mark Zuckerberg that is now worth more than 135 billion dollars, Facebook built up a community of online users that has already surpassed the 1.23 billion mark.

These are simply practical reasons why business owners and digital marketers should use Facebook for lead generation. It has become a very useful tool for marketing and advertising, levelling the playing field for any business regardless of size, industry or even country of origin. The following describes the basic ways on how you can use Facebook for lead generation and attract targeted customers through its FREE or PAID promotion channels.

FREE Facebook Lead Generation Methods

Facebook, and the rest of the social media network community for that matter, rely on the power of word-of-mouth. Although it does not really involve actual speaking (except the video chat facility), word-of-mouth propagation exists within the various social activities users can participate in to engage with brands, products and services.

These are free services that people can leverage on to reach their targeted markets within Facebook. But just like any other methods or tools available, there are certain procedures and techniques to follow so you can get the best results from your campaign.

1. Abide by the Facebook Rules of Engagement

Social media is all about engagement and Facebook is THE Social Network. Social interaction abound within its framework and users must abide by proper rules of engagement. With lots of scammers, trolls, spammers and other undesirables online, people have the natural tendency to engage only with people they know and trust. As a business owner or digital marketer, you can build up and establish this trust through proper engagement and giving your targeted audiences value for what they need.

2. Set Up Your Facebook Pages

Pages are great channels for marketing your brand within Facebook. It’s like your own website within Facebook where you can develop a following and interact with them through social signals and other available features available through your page. Customization is a bit limited though but you can make use of third-party tools and apps to improve your Page just a bit more.

3. Set Up Your Facebook Groups

Groups is Facebook’s equivalent of an Online Forum or Discussion Board and is very useful for generating leads and potential customers. Groups can focus only on one topic or genre depending on how you intended them to be. You can setup your Group as a member-only community, or have it Open for greater attraction of targeted audiences interested in the theme or topic of your Group.

4. Set Up a Good Vanity URL for Your Facebook Groups and Pages

Attract organic leads from online users looking for the kind of topic or theme discussed or presented in your Facebook Pages or Groups by using an appropriate vanity URL. That’s one of the personalizations Facebook allow users which is similar to the subdomains offered by free blog and website platforms. Make sure that you set a vanity URL that is relevant and can immediately identify your brand, product or services – making it easy for targeted audiences to find you at Facebook.

5. Post Quality Content on Your Profile, Pages and Groups

Quality content that your targeted audiences will be interested in should fill your profile pages and groups – it’s what social networking is all about. This could be a great article coming from your blog or website, complete with compelling graphics, pictures or video. You could also post a link to your Infographic and generate more leads. Post something that your targeted audiences will enjoy – enough for them to want to share it with others. You also need to post useful and relevant posts and content from other related websites so that your readers won’t find your posts self-serving.

You should also be consistent with your postings and do it on a regular basis. This is important particularly if you’re already building up followers for your brand. Keep your postings relevant, but at the same time your post should also generate excitement that feeds your targeted audiences’ need to be amused, curiosity-satisfied, and entertained.

6. Interact and Reciprocate

One of the mistakes people are doing right now in social media (not just on Facebook) is that they only care about promoting their contents while not paying attention in interacting with other liked-minded individuals which is actually the true sense of social media. Social media is about interacting with your targeted audience and like-minded people that may potentially turn on as a lead or as someone who may be interested in your products and services. The idea here is to connect with liked-minded people and if possible influencers in your niche or market then interact with them on their posts and share them to all your social media accounts. Slowly but surely these people will notice you and reciprocate your efforts of sharing their posts to your own accounts.

Let me also be clear that there is no guarantee that by doing this idea, those people will return the favor to you. It also should be noted that if other people are sharing and promoting your contents that you should reciprocate them by also sharing their contents and even thank or appreciate them for what they have done.

PAID Facebook Lead Generation Methods

Just like other Pay-Per-Click Advertising channels (such as Google Adwords) can generate highly targeted leads to your website or landing pages, Facebook’s paid advertising can significantly increase your reach in this social network, generating more targeted leads in the process. Not just any lead, but valuable leads that may eventually convert into a loyal paying customer – if you do the process right.

The right process of lead generation on Facebook using paid methods.

1. Identify your target market (age bracket, gender, location, educational level, user device, profile interest). This process is very important, because targeting people not interested in your products and services will just waste your time and your precious advertising budget.
2. Decide if you wanted to directly promote your products and services or create a lead generation sales and marketing funnel.
3.  Split Test everything (ad messages, landing page, interests and images) and analyze the actual data. This is also an important part of the process because this is where you will see what’s working and what performs better.

Organically (meaning normal free posts), a regular post can only reach a maximum of 16% of your network. Using Facebook Ads however will boost this by as much as 70% — generating more social signals (likes, comments, shares, etc) to your posts, links, photos, video, questions, and other content. The following can guide you on how you can set this up.

Standard Guide for Setting Up a Facebook Ad

• You can either promote a Page or just a particular post when you make use of a Facebook Ad.
• When you promote a Facebook Page, social signals such as likes and shares will increase as your posts generate more reach.
• When you promote a particular post, you can do it directly by clicking on the Boost Post tab. Only page admins can see this tab which is found on every post.

• The maximum reach of your ad depends on the maximum daily budget you specified. You should also specify what particular Facebook users – your targeted audiences – should be shown these ads.

• The higher the budget would of course mean greater reach – and bigger possibilities for generating leads. You can pay by credit card or through Paypal.
• To maximize the effectiveness of Facebook ads in generating leads, make sure that your links and posts will eventually drive your targeted audiences to your landing pages. Just be creative in how you can incorporate this with the compelling content that you share

Facebook Paid Advertising Models

Different businesses have different ways of generating leads. Their targeted audiences vary in so many ways, so it is important that digital marketers make use of a particular Facebook Paid Advertising Model that will attract their targeted audiences. You can choose from any of the ones available below:

Paid Post Engagement – You can set this up by either using the ad manager or directly boost through the Boost Post tab integrated with your post which is only visible through your page’s timeline. The process is simple and straightforward as follows:

• Select a post you want to promote
• Click on Boost Post tab
• Set your daily budget
• Select your targeted audiences (either target friends of friend of your fans or target people based on Interest)
• Place your order
• Wait for leads or inquiries to come in!

Page Likes – Subscribers to your Facebook Page joined in by clicking on the “Like” tab. Page Likes not only provide an indication of the current reach of your page but it will also create greater awareness of your brand. This in turn may generate more leads from people who are already interested in your type of business, topic or theme.

Clicks to Website – Just like PPC advertising, Facebook Ads can also be used for generating clicks to your website or landing page.

Website Conversions – You can also promote not only your website as a whole but also the specific action you intend your audiences to take when they visit your pages.

App Installs – Facebook Ads is a great way of promoting a new App you have just created, enticing targeted audiences to install.

App Engagement – Installing your app should not only be the action you would like targeted audiences to take, but it should also generate engagement from users.

Event Responses – Facebook Events is a great way for promoting a particular event, either online or physical, and you can use Facebook Ads to generate even more Event Responses.

Offer Claims – Facebook Offers is also a great way of establishing your branding and increasing reach to targeted audiences. Facebook Ads can be used to generate more Offer Claims that will generate traffic that will eventually join your Offers.

Facebook is a very effective tool for marketing and generating leads that has successfully integrated the social aspect that is very important in this current online atmosphere. Unlike traditional media marketing that has no or one-way interaction, Facebook caters to the inherent human need to socialize – even through online methods – generating highly valuable leads for your business.