Is Facebook For Business Worth Your Time?
As a small-business owner you have plenty of tasks on your plate. So, before you start adding more, you probably want to know if the new task is even worth your time.
Most businesses these days have a Facebook page dedicated to their company. Should you be doing the same? The short answer, is yes. If you have a small-business, using Facebook marketing is a great way to promote your business and to communicate with your clients.
As a budding new venture, social media can help you grow your audience, and as an established business with a solid presence, it can help you convert your social media traffic into leads.
With 68% of Americans using Facebook, and 74% of them using it daily, you can be sure your business will get great exposure.
We’re here to show you how to play your cards right so you can get the most out of your social media marketing.
5 Recommendations For Building a Solid Facebook Business Page
Before we dive in, it’s important to know what you want to get out of using social media. Do you need to make your brand known? Is your business doing well but you need to fine-tune your understanding of your customers? Setting a few goals will really help you decide how to approach each of the following recommendations and which you should prioritize.
1. Generate Interest in Your Website
Build your Facebook page while bearing in mind that your goal is to direct visitors to your business website. Create interest in what you have to offer, and people will visit your site to learn more and possibly make a purchase. Try your best to have your Facebook page be a liaison and not the final destination.
2. Quality Over Quantity
Start building your follower base with the people who already know and love your brand. Invite them to like your Facebook page and include links on various pages of your website and in your emails. Customers who already have a relationship with you are more likely to engage with your posts and share the material. In return, you get exposure to new and diverse groups of potential customers.
3. Relatable Content
Your customers want to be understood because that means your service or product will actually meet their needs. Use what you already know about your clients’ wants and expectations to supply them with useful information and enjoyable content. An important note about this, is to relax a bit in your presentation. You don’t want to sound like a textbook and you also don’t want to lose your professionalism. You simply want to sound human, and that means you can be a little more casual on social media.
4. Invite Your Followers to Dialogue With You
It’s great that you have a platform for your voice as a business, but it can feel aggressive if you’re constantly pushing content at your audience. Give them a chance to talk back, and watch your engagement skyrocket.
Pose questions, invite them to participate in polls, share your opinion on something and ask them to share theirs in return. Then, be sure to respond! It can be a simple thumbs-up, a word of thanks, or some other friendly reply.
Communication helps build trust, and from trust stems loyalty to your brand.
5. Protect Your Reputation
Not everyone who visits your Facebook page will have something nice to say. They may even be taking advantage of your traffic numbers to post links to their own, completely unrelated, pages. You should take steps to remove irrelevant comments that may ruin the experience for your other members.
However, you don’t want to ignore or delete negative comments because the way you respond is indicative of your customer service skills. For example, if a customer had a bad experience and shared that on your page, it is important that you respond with a statement that recognizes their feelings and addresses the issue. You might respond with:
“We are so sorry you had a bad experience and are here to help. Please email us at [your business email] so we may follow up with you personally. Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention.”
Handling negative comments with grace gives you lots of professionalism points in the eyes of your clients.
Getting Into Paid Advertising
Once you’ve built a strong Facebook page, you can then turn your attention to paid advertising using Facebook Ads. These ads can be designed to target the friends of your existing followers or other specified demographics. They can really help you expand your reach, boost brand awareness, and are pretty customizable in terms of budget. Speaking of budget, we compiled a list of ways to promote your business for free! Feel free to read through it and snag some good ideas!
Now that you have the tools to build a solid Facebook presence, what will you change about your marketing approach?