Creating awareness is the first and most helpful thing you can do to increase traffic to your website. If no one knows you exist, no one will come. Seems pretty obvious, but creating awareness in your target market can be more difficult than it seems. You need to stand out in a crowd, being entrenched in the daily lives of your customers, and Facebook can help you achieve exactly that.
Facebook is no longer simply about people trying to connect with their friends. Businesses have begun leveraging the incredibly expansive reach to potential customers that Facebook has to offer. Facebook pages provide a platform for companies to create, not only a second home, but a voice. This “voice” allows them to promote themselves in an open and social manner, helping to foster relationships with their customers. New companies might build a Facebook page to promote their business, while more established companies might build one to create awareness about a new product or service being offered.
No matter where you go, or which business circle you belong to, people are always talking about the importance of SEO to the success of a website. Facebook pages are fully search engine optimized. If someone is searching for you, not only will they unearth your business website, but your business Facebook page will be found as well. The more links there are to your website, the higher in SEO ranking you land.
Facebook pages for businesses are a good way to encourage a call-to-action by your fans. Pages provide a place for you to promote ongoing specials or promotions, and can link directly back to your site. You can encourage your fans to post their own stories about your products or services, and send recommendations to their friends.
Facebook also gives you the opportunity to have other Facebook users promote your business while on your site. Once your customers have made a purchase and reach the thank-you page, you have the option of having a “share your purchase” box appear. This prompts your customers to post onto their own Facebook pages, a testimonial about which of your products they just bought, along with a link back to your website. This gives your business more exposure, and in effect, increases traffic back to your website.