In the past, if you didn’t have a website you were deemed an illegitimate business and “behind the times”. Now that attitude has shifted to social media marketing. If you’re not where your clients are you are losing business.

So someone chimes in at your staff meeting that “we need a Facebook” and everyone nods in agreement, though completely uncertain of what that means.

Create a Facebook Page:

  1. Create a page, not a profile. Just go to www.facebook.com and towards the bottom you’ll see a “Create a Page” option. You can and should sign up a new user as the page  owner (I recommend something generic within your company like facebook@company.com and NOT creating the page using an existing employee’s Facebook profile).
  2. Fill out as much info as you want for your page and then promote!

Now Work Your Facebook Page:

  1. Most people are signing up to “like” your page because they want you to treat them special and give them great things. Why should I like your page? What is the value to me for that effort? Do I get early availability on products or discounts? Do I hear the news first? Do I get a special, deeper discount? Work your page.
  2. Engage. Post, comment, reply, post again, comment again. Interact! People generally are ok with a post every other day so don’t let it overwhelm you. Take 30 minutes a day to start and see what happens, but at least show up. Make sure to post engaging content. Your content can be visual as well so videos and images, stories, questions. Don’t just re-post what you already have on your blog, make the experience worth it for your followers.
  3. It’s been found that the greatest time to post an interact is in the morning and the weekend. This is when the majority of the people can take time from work to actually re-connect and interact so take advantage of that!

Going Beyond With your Business Facebook Page:

  1. Create a custom tab/menu. With the new layout of pages the “tabs” are now left menu items. Creating custom tabs is a great way to make your page stand out. You can determine a default/landing tab under your page settings so if someone hasn’t “liked” your page yet, it will take them directly to that page first. This is a great way to quickly tell your story and encourage them to like the page.
  2. Create an app. Facebook recently changed their protocol for this allowing you now to create an app that is just an iframe of some other page. You can use this app to integrate a newsletter sign-up form or even a donation form. There are better opportunities for analytics and basically cracks wide open the possibilities for what can exist on these apps.

As with any venture online, the value is really in the consistency. With a little effort and focus you can thrive on Facebook and take your online marketing to a new height.

 

Author

With over a decade of experience, I have managed online marketing for a wide range of industries including biotech, high-tech, financial, higher education, non-profit, manufacturing, hardware providers, and startups. My specialty is helping business make the right turn with their online efforts focusing on lead generation and analytics.

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