If your business is not using Facebook, should it be? I’m not going to say a big resounding yes on this one because the true answer is, it depends. Facebook is one of the most used social media platforms that you can use to promote your business upon. But it’s not for everyone and because of this, it’s not for every business.
However, your business should be using Facebook if that’s where your target market is, and I’m going to walk you through a few tips and suggestions to get you started.
Beginning to Use Facebook for Your Business
Facebook has been around for the public to use since 2006. What was once a directory used by university students to share their profiles online has since become one of the world’s busiest websites with 2.85 billion monthly active visitors. Read that again – 2.85 billion monthly active visitors on Facebook. Using this platform to promote your business is worthwhile if that’s where your audience hangs out.
If you’re a beginner though, this can seem daunting. To get started, you’ll need to:
- Set up your personal profile – if you haven’t already, you’ll need to firstly create a personal profile for yourself in order to create a business page.
- Set up your business page – like a profile for a business, this is where you will create posts which engage, educate and entertain your target audience. Having a business profile is essential for many reasons, not the least that Facebook requires it (it goes against the terms and conditions if you use your personal profile for business purposes). A business profile can create paid ads, view audience and visitor statistics and link directly to your website. A personal profile can’t.
If you need help in setting up your Facebook personal profile or business page, that’s where I can step in and assist – so get in touch.
Top Tips for Newbies Using Facebook for Their Business
It can be a long road to learn and master all the features a business profile has access to on Facebook. So don’t feel discouraged if your initial attempts to engage your followers fail to get the results you want. As a social media manager, I have multiple business owners who outsource all their social media management to me. But I still believe that they should know basic skills and info too, including:
- Be a real person – it can be all too easy to hide behind your graphics and paragraphs. Instead, get our there an interact with your audience’s comments upon your posts. Share photos of yourself and your business. Be a real person and someone they can relate with.
- Post regularly – this doesn’t mean five times a day, or twice a year. But rather the right balance of putting yourself and your business out there, which for many businesses is once per day or every other day.
- Go visual and go short – Facebook posts which contain graphics and photos usually receive more views than a text post does. People don’t have the time to stop and read a long paragraph. Work towards getting your messages across quickly.
- Avoid over promotion – while you can use Facebook to promote your business, that should not be the main reason you use it. A good guide is 20/80 – where 20% of the time you promote and 80% you entertain and work towards building a positive rapport with your followers.
Here at Spigot Digital, we understand that not everyone wants to or has time to spend on their business’ Facebook presence. We do though, and that’s why I’d like to invite you to get in touch and have a chat about how we can take care of it all for you.