The execution of a marketing strategy is far more likely to be successful with the use of social media marketing. Marketing has always been a challenge, especially for cash-strapped small businesses. If social media is leveraged appropriately, it is possible to improve your company’s online and offline marketing efforts.

Facebook, specifically, is an exceptional way for a small business to market its products and reach out to a much broader market than would otherwise be accessible. If the recent usage statistics are anything to go by, Facebook can help you to reach out to a upwards of 700 million users worldwide.

Set Facebook Marketing Goals

For starters, it is important to outline the goals you have for social media marketing. This will make it easy to figure out how to start your campaign and how to measure the success. There’s very little difference in online versus offline marketing goal definition. The differences often lie in determining the return on your marketing efforts.

Establish a Branded Username

After signing up on Facebook, the next step is to ensure that you create a user name for your company. Take note, however, because there are many precautions to observe when setting up your Facebook presence. For instance, if you have reserved the name of your company from your personal account, it will no longer be possible to use it separately for a business fan page. Be sure to make yourself aware of all of Facebook’s rules and regulations for fan page use, as they can be quite intricate and very specific.

Size-Up the Competition

What do your competitors’ presence look like on Facebook? Don’t hesitate to look up your competitors on Facebook and assess and evaluate their presence. For instance, the type of pages they have created may be unique to their setup or it may be fundamental to your industry. Don’t forget to securitize their posts, photos and videos as well. This may give you some ideas of your own and improve upon the presence they are providing.

Make it Easy to ‘Like’ You

While your Facebook presence may reside at Facebook.com, it’s certainly not constrained to a single domain. Make sure you provide easy access for customers to ‘like’ your products and services on your company website as well. Adding social sharing capabilities is a key success factor for any social platform, including (but not limited to) Facebook.

Social medial marketing can present one of the most economical ways of marketing for small business. It can take your business to the next level if you follow the right strategies.

Daniel Ruyter is a social media marketing consultant for small business and co-founder of the digital marketing startup Alpha Tree Marketing.