Facebook….the current addiction for all generations…from the young hipster crowd to the stay at home moms all the way to the overly busy but very successful CEO of large corporations. What’s not to love? Facebook reaches almost the same amount of females as males, get 1.32 billion users logging in every day and has more active users per month than WhatsApp, Twitter and Instagram put together.
While the average time spent per Facebook visit is 50 minutes and might most probably seem like a lot to you, but with almost 65 million local business pages and 293,000 statuses updated every minute…somehow it is starting to feel like mission impossible. What this means for you is that there is a short time period to make your impression, so use it wisely with relevant, interesting and unique posts and offers in order to get the most return on your efforts.
Before giving you the secrets to save your FB business world, you need to remember that ‘likes’ are nothing personal. The two most popular reasons for liking a brand on Facebook is because they are an existing customer (58%) and to get access to discounts and promotions (57%). For me personally, I have a third reason, getting very useful information for free!
With that in mind, let’s make Facebook work for us:
1. Update Your Facebook Profile
Image by William Iven
First of all, don’t be lazy and half-a*$e your profile. Make sure you creatively entice through your About Section, making sure to have details such as addresses (physical & email), opening hours, phone numbers, descriptions with profile pictures & cover photos/videos to help keep them hooked.
Second, go a little crazy and make your profile special. Try out tip number 10 to customise your page look with awesome themes! Make sure to create several updates so there is content on the page. An empty page just screams scam warnings to people.
Third, make sure to ‘call-to-action’… don’t just sit and wait. Ask prominently! Have a dedicated button. But don’t stop there…rally friends and your social media buddies with your profile link.
2. Strategise Your Content Plan
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Don’t just guess…with limited chances for first impressions, try not to just post ad hoc. Get the sweet spot in balancing the content you will be posting – not too much fluff, not too serious, not too boring, not too confronting! Make sure to have different content types with a mixture of images, tips, engaging post asking your followers questions, contests and promotions.
Apparently, the highest traffic occurs mid-week between 1 to 3 pm while a Facebook post at 7pm will result in more clicks on average than posting at 8pm. So, take the time to plan it out and create your own content plan, even a simple google doc that will keep you on schedule.
3. Post Great Content
Image by Victoriano Izquierdo
Remember that information and knowledge is meant to be shared so your content needs to be educational and entertaining. Do not just post a sales pitch of your product or service, or just ramble on about yourself, but offer advice, tips or insights that is actually useful to your audience.
Make it all about your readers…flip the switch and produce content from the audience’s perspective…not how it can or will benefit you. It is definitely more about quality, not quatity. In a sense, this equates to karma…what goes around comes round. Read more in detail on how being a informer gives you twice the followers as compared to meformers.
“Advertise the right content to the right audience so that new audience are aware of your brand.”
Mei Ying, Founder, MYRIS Consultancy
4. Be Consistent in Your Content Schedule
Image by Tobias Fischer
Consistency is key! Be it in posting great content or boosting, engaging and all to see results. Be patient with yourself and everyone else too…it will take time. Don’t be anxious or go over-board. Just note that more than half of unfollows come as a result of bursts.
5. Engage With Your Audience, and Other Pages
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Use social media to your advantage. Show off your skills, knowledge and smarts by participating in the conversation around your industry and followers. As mentioned before, what goes round comes around, so if you want them to participate in yours…make sure to scratch their back first.
6. Boost Your Posts – It’s Not Free!
Photo by Christine Roy
You should know by now a FB business page and a personal one is not the same. Only 2% of your page followers will see your post if you’re not boosting (advertising) it. So don’t be stingy! Educate yourself on how to advertise your posts effectively so that the amazing content you made with blood, sweat and tears can now be seen by your audience.
Focus only on those who already like pages in your niche. By targeting ads to users by interest using Facebook’s Graph Search, you can find out which pages your existing fans like by typing in, “Pages liked by people who like my page”. Make sure to also take the time to boost every post. In fact, go the extra mile and use Ads Manager, instead of the blue button to boost posts. Let the new tech work in your favour.
“Because a lot of clients are hesitant or do not want to spend on advertising, then it’s a pity, because your content that you work so hard on would not reach people you want to reach.”
Mei Ying, Founder, MYRIS Consultancy
7. Check Facebook Insights to See How You’re Going
Image by Olu Eletu
The final and most important step of all is to check the performance of your posts. Just doing the above steps cannot guarantee numbers but by tracking and cross referencing your results is very beneficial in ensuring that you are constantly improving on them. Set aside time each month to do a quick review of what you’ve done, and what you could do better. Also, don’t just focus on the number of likes and followers… take into account what has the most responses or has created active discussion.
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