In the land of social media, Facebook is the Goliath. As of March 2014, it had more than 1.28 billion monthly active users (up from 1.15 billion last fall).
This is head and shoulders above sites like Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, and the rest.
So What’s A Business To Do?
Before we get into specific points, your business needs to set up its account.
You need a page in order to rock it.
It doesn’t take long to set up the basic page. You need a valid email account and time to set up the cover image and profile pictures.
Once these are set up, you have the basics covered.
After you set up a Facebook page, these 4 Facebook tips for small businesses will help you rock it. They might be simple, but they aren’t always easy to do.
#1 ~ Text is a 4-Letter Word
Most people don’t pay as much attention to text as they do a picture. A picture will take up more space in a fan’s timeline, and therefore will garner more attention.
Remember the old adage “a picture is worth a 1,000 words”?
It’s true.
If you have your Facebook feed automatically going to Twitter, make sure to include the text of the picture in your post as well.
To get people engaged with your post, include a compelling image- one that fits you and your niche.
Depending on your niche, you can encourage customers to share pictures of them using your product. Don’t worry if they post something a bit risque, you control your timeline.
#2 ~ Don’t Post Blindly
While it would be easy to say that you should post on Friday afternoons between 3 PM and 5 PM. Most people are beginning their weekends a bit early.
You might find that your company could do best at 7 AM on a Monday.
How can you know? Test, test, test. Be sure to use the Insights feature. You can track when your posts get the most views and interactions.
#3 ~ Audience Size Matters Not
Master Yoda has a point, even if his English is suspect.
Don’t become obsessed with having more fans and followers than your competition.
Who cares if you have 100,000 fans if the most of them don’t spend money with you or engage with you?
It would be a lot better to have 1,000 fans that are rabid in their support of you. They will be more likely to buy from you and engage with you. And by engaging with you, that will help spread your message with others.
#4 ~ Build Engagement
The best way to grow your audience of rabid fans is to ask questions, post interesting pictures, and to run a contest.
People like to enter contests that they have a shot at winning. Even if it’s a small shot.
When you launch your contest, remember to use words like “content”, “win”, “enter”, and “promotion”. By using these, people are more likely to be interested. Announce when you will draw the winner and promote that post.
A simple content could be to select the best answer to a question. Posts that asks a questions usually gets twice the response as one without a question.
Next Steps
While some find that setting up a Facebook page is straight forward, others might not. If you need help with that, there is no shame in asking for help.
We would be glad to help you start your Facebook page and work with you monthly until you are comfortable enough to do it all yourself.
