Using Facebook to Connect and Market Locally

Facebook was created initially to be a source of connections amongst college students. Since its inception, however, Facebook has expanded globally. Today, millions of users access Facebook on a daily basis. Facebook can be an incredible marketing opportunity, but many business owners and marketers make the mistake of reaching too far with their marketing experts.

This is especially problematic for attorneys and legal professionals who use Facebook to advertise services. When you spend money to create ad campaigns and generate high quality content, those marketing dollars will be wasted if the content is not seen by consumers who are physically capable of seeking out your professional services. This is why learning how to market and connect locally via Facebook is so important.

Why Connect Locally?

Connecting locally allows you to pare down the enormous Facebook population to a group of consumers that is much easier to manage. Attempting to market to the entire population of Facebook users is a waste of time, money, and other resources. For attorneys, prospective clients must live near the area where attorneys are able to provide assistance and practice law. Without local constraints on ad campaigns and Facebook fan page targeting, a huge portion of Facebook activity will be directed to consumers who simply live too far away to be valuable customers.

Encouraging Local Sharing

It's also important to encourage consumers to share Facebook posts and activity with other local Facebook users. By posting content that is relevant to a specific location, you will improve the chances of users selecting local consumers with whom to share articles, photos, and industry news. Local sharing can dramatically help your business expand its potential leads.

Start Focused, Move Outward

When using Facebook as a marketing device, it's a good idea to begin with a very intimate population grouping. Start with a local area that is quite close to the physical location of your firm or place of business. By starting with the most intimate grouping of potential clients possible, you can ensure that you develop a core group of interested followers. Much of the outward spread of your focused target group will occur naturally. As your Facebook followers begin to share the posts and updates you include on your Facebook fan page, the reach of your page will spread outward. Most Facebook users have a large population of friends that live in close proximity to them. However, Facebook users also have friends that are spread out across the country or even the world. When you market your services to local customers, the outward reach of your page will occur organically.

Facebook can be an excellent resource for businesses and firms that want to market their services to customers within a set area. Attorneys often need to market their services only to consumers who live close to specific offices and in specific jurisdictions. Facebook offers an excellent opportunity to create lead lists that are grouped by area. Because Facebook encourages consumers to include hometown information in their public profiles, the process of finding consumers in a specific area is quite simple.