Ways to Promote Your Brand Without Facebook

Facebook is slowly but surely adjusting its algorithm to require brands to pay for exposure to their own fans.Recently, a blog post from Weber Shandwick mentioned that a Facebook vice president social media marketing resume had announced that the free ride for brands is over. Frustrated by the lack of reach Facebook was allowing on the Dallas Mavericks Facebook page, owner Mark Cuban tweeted that he was looking for another alternative for the popular giant.I've been hearing the rumblings of smaller brands talking about leaving the platform for a while now. Many don't have the budget to invest in promoted posts and Facebook ads, nor do they want to take a chance on investing in something that many claim doesn't show a measurable return.What's a small brand to do? If you have been thinking that Facebook is not worth your time and money, here are three ways to boost your brand without it.Photo contests can be a fun, free way to attract, interact with and convert potential customers. Ask your Instagram followers to submit personal photos of your products and then post the best ones on your online store.To keep followers coming back day after day, launch a photo-of-the-day campaign. Change it up and invite your followers to submit captions for your photos or answer trivia questions about your snapshots. Pick daily or weekly winners and reward them with prizes.Make Instagram photo contests light and fun, but keep your eye on the marketing prize, as Levi's (@Levis) recently did with its iamlevis Instagram photo competition. In a bid to discover its next star model and reach a wider audience, the company asked fans across the globe to post Instagram photos of themselves wearing their favorite Levi's clothing. During the contest, social media marketing campaigns people shared more than 3,513 Instagram photo entries. Each follower’s image was a reinforcement of Levi's brand, basically a free ad, and the winner took center stage in Levi’s 2012 "Go Forth" ad campaign.Show your customers what happens at your company by posting candid snapshots of employees collaborating in their cubicles or kicking back in the break room.

Step up your brand advocacy strategies on and offline

Most small brands thrive on word-of-mouth. Companies such as Zuberance are dedicated to the message that spending time finding and cultivating people who already love your brand has a much higher pay-off than broadcast or reach strategies. social media marketing service Learn about advocacy strategies and implement the mindset into your marketing strategy. Data indicates that the vast majority of people never visit your Facebook page after they "like" you, asbrands struggle to build effective online communities on Facebook. How proactive are you at encouraging good customers to share your content?People can talk about you to their Facebook friends whether you're on Facebook or not. You can embed a "like" button on your website to enable people to share your website content on their Facebook page. The protocol isn't drag and drop, but it's doable. Encourage loyal customers to post positive reviews about your business on third party review sites (but do not offer incentives). But beyond the visuals, she observes how many people "like" the images and make comments; Shopatrend then uses that information to prune less popular images and guide decisions about what products to sell and what to display on the website.The instant feedback is invaluable. Once a photo becomes popular, more people are likely to view it and "like" it. Over time, Acosta says, the process of posting and refining images--including which to remove and which ones to build on--becomes "organic."Shopatrend also has a presence on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and Pinterest, and Acosta often uses one social media site to encourage participation in another. For example, she'll post a promotion on Twitter and Facebook promising a 10 percent discount code to anyone who clicks "follow" on Instagram.Though she won't release revenue figures, Acosta says social media has helped double Shopatrend's sales over the past several months, and the company now boasts customers as far afield as France and Australia. social media marketing conference The online growth has inspired Acosta and her sisters to start thinking about opening a brick-and-mortar boutique."We like the idea of an organic relationship," she says. "The business is built on close relationships. Nowadays, retailing has lost much of its personality. We want to put some of the fun [and] fantasy … back into fashion."

Experiment and engage more with other social media channels

If you have a walk-up storefront, have you tried geo-location social media yet such as Foursquare? Have you claimed all your online business profiles? effective social media marketing How about adding a blog to your website? If you don't have a website, how about putting up a free "website" on a platform such as Wordpress.com or Tumblr that has the interactive look and feel of Facebook? Do some research on other social media channels such as Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, or Google Plus. Experiment and see where you get some traction. Most of all, take some time to school yourself on engagement strategies. Even though Facebook claims to have a billion users, getting the attention of the fans you need to reach is a difficult task, and now, possibly an expensive one.Brands have alternatives. You can be successful at creating loyal brand advocates without Facebook. Maybe it's time to consider the alternatives. Do you need Facebook to survive?Post pictures snapped at company parties, charity dinners, product launches and industry events, too. Such behind-the-scenes glimpses help personalize your company and can create a sense of camaraderie and trust with your followers, making them more likely to do business with you.Zappos (@Zappos), a relative latecomer to Instagram, is already a standout at posting brand-reinforcing, behind-the-scenes pictures. The online retailer predictably posts many pictures of shoes, but its designers mix up the feed a few times a day with colorful images of models on a fashion shoot or workers’ cubicles decked out with fake mustaches and cute family and pet photos.Choose a follower of the day and promote him or her with an @mention. Similar to Facebook and Twitter, an @mention is how Instagram users tag each other in comments. This can fire up powerful word-of-mouth promotion and deliver more followers and potential customers. social media as a marketing tool Many people -- Instagram photo buffs included -- like to be personally recognized by companies for their loyalty, and they're more than happy to spread the word about their special status within their Instagram network.