With the broadest user demographic of all the Social Media platforms, Facebook walks a thin tightrope of both personal & business pages. Your community of friends, family & customers will be present here & therefore be mindful that this is definitely not the place for a hard sell. Your aim should be to educate, inspire & if your message allows, make people laugh. Humour goes far here.
Facebook is potentially one of the slowest platforms for growth. It constantly changes the algorithm behind the scenes that dictates the visibility of the content you post. For business pages, Facebook’s goal is to drive advertising revenue which is why growth will be slow without any investment in advertising.
With a strong strategy, great content & targeted activity the opportunities are there for the taking.
This blog on Facebook business for beginners provides some tips to ensure you capitalise on them.
Prime your page for success
Strong Images- Make sure you have a profile picture & engaging cover photo in place. Depending upon your business, the profile picture could be your logo or a picture of you, if you are a service business. The cover photo is prime ‘real estate’ & consider using it as a place for both messaging & impactful imagery but be careful not to crowd as it will loose impact
Make sure you have a great biography or ‘About’ section by completing as many of the fields as possible with succinct but clear messaging about your business
Ensure you have a crystal clear ‘call to action’ so those visiting your page know how they can reach you for more information
Be sure you make a diary entry to review this regularly to ensure your messaging is still correct. Businesses evolve over time so it is important that the information on here reflects precisely what you do. Did you know that you can put offers on your page?
Did you know you can showcase offers on your page? If you have an offer or incentive running add it to your page.
Post Content- Educate & Inspire
It’s not all about you- infact as a rule of thumb only 20% of the content should be about you. No one wants to talk to someone who only talks about themselves
People need a reason to return to your page other than to buy which is why educational & inspirational content is so important.
Posts can be a mix of your own content and that of others (curated content). Share content from others explaining why you like the article.
Optimum levels of posting is 1 or 2 a day
Supercharge your results with rich media
Use impactful images- a picture tells a thousand words. Pexels, Pixabay or Unsplash have a huge selection of high quality stock imagery, which are free to use under the Creative Commons Zero license.
Tools like Canva and Wordswag are amazing for creating supporting graphics.
Use video and new features such as Facebook Live. It's more likely to be seen as Facebook algorithm prioritises this content
Competitions drive engagement and build awareness.
Facebook Stories will help you gain visibility. Behind the scenes style content works best, and you can share multiple images and videos together. You can push your Instagram Stories to Facebook to
Share viral video from external sources. Fun, attention grabbing video
Scheduling
Schedule posts using the Facebook publishing tool. Tools like Hootsuite or Buffer work well, although we're seeing positive effects from native posting.
Post when your audience is most active.
Pin your most important post to the top your feed
It wont work without advertising
A large % of your own page fans won't see your posts, unless the post receives engaging conversation.
Facebook is a low cost advertising tool, so budget accordingly to supplement your organic activity. Start with a small budget, as little as £3/day can have an impact.
Test it.. Boosting posts is the simplest way. The Ads Create tool in Facebook Ads Manager gives you more control including access to more advertising objectives.
Target based on location, demographics, interests and behaviour.
Target a competitor's / influencers fans. Target custom audiences - those you already have a relationship with. Retarget fans who have visited your website.
Target lookalike audiences. People who are like your current customers website visitors or fans.
Connect with Influencers & Groups
You'll need to connect with key Influencers / micro influencers - People who have a relevant engaged audience, who are passionate about your subject.
Source influencers from searching Facebook pages, competitor pages and google.
Like influencers pages 'as your page'. They will then show up in your 'Pages Feed' and you can regularly interact. Start by liking their posts, then commenting and sharing their content.
@mention key businesses / people in your own posts. Groups provide an opportunity for highly targeted connection with an audience. Can you access appropriate groups or is it worth starting your own?
Insights
Monitor what is and what isn't working with Facebook Insights. Days of week, times of day, types of content.
Do more of what works!
Check out your google analytics to understand what content is pushing the most traffic to your website.
I hope this is helpful. If you would like to talk Facebook strategy we would love to help!