Tried and true steps to grow your Facebook business
Ah, the frustration. Almost 3 billion Facebook users and only a handful are fans of your business. Worse still, no one is actively following your page or sending business your way. You decide, like many, that Facebook is probably not an avenue to increase business or sales. Before you delete your page or let it die a slow death through neglect, here are some proactive steps that can give your page, and your business a boost.
Step 1. Learn the competition.
Take a look at your competitor’s page and see what they’re doing right, and doing wrong. You can find the page by going to www.facebook.com/search. Facebook’s search engine works like Google, Bing, Siri, etc. Type in a keyword and location and see what businesses show up. Click the competitor you want to explore and navigate to their page. Once on their Facebook page take a look around. You want to look for how the Cover photo and Profile photo compliment each other. Do they make sense? Do they enhance the brand? How often does this page post? What seems to be working for them? What kind of content are they posting? Imitation is the highest form of flattery. Flatter your competitor.
Step 2. Learn some of the best practices.
There are no hard and fast rules to social marketing, but there are some strategies that work better than others. Here are a few:
- Don’t sell, engage. Most companies that complain about Facebook as a business platform do so because their sales campaigns don’t deliver results. If all they’re trying to do is sell, they have a long wait. Successful brands that have thrived on Facebook don’t sell to their fans, they engage them. Check out how Diet Coke engaged their fans on November 11, 2012:
By soliciting feedback Diet Coke engaged their fans in a fun way that encouraged them to engage with the page and invite friends who may not be fans of Diet Coke.
- Post every day. It may seem to be unnecessary but not all of your fans see every post. If you only post once or twice a week, it may be quite some time before a fan sees a post from you.
- Include a call to action. In Diet Coke’s case, the CTA was filling in the blank. For you it could be to click into your website. You can ask your fans to answer a question, or participate in a survey. Anything that encourages a fan to interact with your page is worthwhile.
- If you do sell, don’t over do it. One sales related post out of five is plenty. Beyond that and you’re probably disengaging your audience.
Step 3. Add to your page.
Replace your cover photo and profile picture on a regular basis. Create a video to introduce yourself. Build a gallery of images that reflects your work or your product. Insert a contact or email form. You may highlight a product.
Step 4. Plan your posts
Don’t go about posting willy-nilly. Have a plan for what you are going to post and when. Plan for the short term and longer. The shorter highlights everyday events and news. The longer view highlights sales promotion, large events and the like.
Step 5. Consider a paid ad campaign on Facebook.
Facebook lets you build a page for free, accumulate fans for free, and create a brand presence for free. Their free services are limited. Facebook is in the money making business and to reach a lot of people fast you have to spend some money. The good new is that you don’t have to spend a lot to reach your market.
At first glance, the Facebook platform appears similar to Google’s Adwords. But there are differences. Keywords are not important in Facebook, interests and demographics are. You can micro target an audience to certain categories such as age or interest, demographics, likes and dislikes. Images play a key role in the Facebook model so be sure to upload one. You can promote a post to get it a wider audience. Promoted posts will get broadcast outside your network of fans. The cost for a Facebook ad won’t bust your budget.
Facebook is an effective advertising tool when page owners realize it’s not free and sales results will be generated over time. For more information on social media marketing, search engine optimization, or any other online marketing matter, call us at 203-882-0171 or visit us at https://onlinemarketinginct.com.