How to Use Facebook for A New Product Launch

Launching a new product or service is always a very exciting venture for the business or the innovator who is introducing it. However, a truly successful launch is one that others wait for with bated breath, particularly when the customers as your primary target group are just as excited as you are before the product launch. Here is a look at how you can use the new Facebook for business to power your launch:

Build a Buzz

Set up a Facebook page and work towards generating a buzz around your new product launch.

Prior to launch, start posting teasers in the form of updates, snippets of information or videos.  This will arouse the curiosity of the target audience. Ask questions or post trivia and most importantly, engage with your audience.

Target your Audience with Care

Lonely Planet India recently launched the Escape Express Campaign.  Its Facebook page was abuzz with action before as well as during the campaign, thereby sustaining the interest of its target audience throughout the duration of the campaign.

As it seeks to position itself as the one stop source for information on Indian travel, Lonely Planet chose its audience well. They targeted travel buffs who would love to know about quick getaways, and their audience comprised of mainly young, working professionals looking for quick getaways from the city.

Similarly if you are launching a take away service you need to target a local audience like working professionals, double income families and singles all of who have no time to cook but are looking for healthy, home cooked food.

Host a Facebook-based contest or develop a dedicated app that speaks directly to the audience’s interests. The Escape Express contest focused on their audience's love for travel which was the right thing to do.

Run a contest and make it exclusive for fans only

When you make your app fan-gated, it means that only people who have liked your Facebook Page can participate in the contest.

This is a winning strategy to drive new Page Likes and ensure that those participating in the challenge are interested, high-quality fans. Integrating the app to encourage people on Facebook to vote for participants who are friends and family will help your campaign become truly social, not to forget potentially “viral”.

Indianise advertising principles

Native advertising integrates targeted, high-quality content into the organic experience of a given platform. With your Facebook app, instead of primarily promoting a product, you should subtly integrate details into their users’ contest experience — i.e. focus on engaging rather than selling. Take for example, a new health drink product line. Focus on whether people felt energized after consuming the health drink, or if it helped them work more efficiently despite skipping breakfast.

Keep it Simple

Long drawn out contests with too many stages can be boring and a huge turn off.  So limit the number of stages a person has to go through to enter, and it will encourage more users to want to participate in your contest.

Build urgency; and don't stretch the contest over two months!  If it’s over in a week people will be more interested in it. In times like these, when attention spans are rather constricted, don’t test people’s patience with lengthy endeavors.

Personalize It

Encourage people to share pictures and videos as part of your contest.  This will help you put a face on your campaign and increase identification at the level of the masses.

Choose the Right Prize

When you select a prize make sure it is attractive.  So if you say “win a new phone” people won't be interested, so say “win the latest Samsung or Apple phone” and people will queue up to participate.

Having said that, if I were to use Facebook to launch a new product here’s what I would do:

1. Set up my page and post teasers to stir up interest.
2. Invite family and friends to “like” my page.
3. Tweet about my Facebook page and drive traffic from Twitter to it.
4. Use the power of images to let people get a feel of my product.
5. Start a contest with my product as a giveaway thereby making the product the focus of the endeavor.
6. Post updates giving people pertinent facts about my product and its features.

If you were to use Facebook to launch a new product, what would you do?