How can you make customers really follow you on Facebook? It starts by tossing out some old ideas.

Here are four common — and fatal — mistakes that’ll make sales and marketing campaigns fail on Facebook.

1. Making marketing the No. 1 goal, instead of building connections. Just because people are interested in you doesn’t mean they’ve given you permission to market to them. Instead, consumers who’ve “fanned” a site did it to endorse or express approval of the company with their own Facebook friends. Other reasons people are going to businesses’ Facebook pages:

• Freebies and giveaways draw 31% of customers, and
• 25% are looking for news of sales.

2. Creating a site that’s no fun. Why do people spend time on Facebook? Because it’s fun. You need to entertain and amuse potential customers, if you’re going to sell to them.

3. Using Facebook as another search channel. People don’t come to Facebook to search for specific information. Instead, they like to come there for the adventure associated with not knowing where they might go next or end up. It’s the countless social connections that’ll carry your message.

4. Taking too long to make your point. If you don’t make your point right away, you risk annoying potential customers because you’re elbowing more important posts out of the way. Jump right out there with promises that’ll convince them to linger — like entertainment, monetary incentives, etc.

Tags: campaigns, Facebook, incentives, marketing, sales, search