Facebook is the biggest and most used social media platform on the planet. The platform boasts of more than 2.25 billion active users across the world. This makes the platform most strategic for conducting your business especially with regards to digital marketing. Most businesses the world over have understood this and that’s why there are over 5 million businesses actively advertising on Facebook. The fact that the lion’s share of Facebook’s revenue comes from those advertising on the site is a testament to that. So if you’re contemplating or are already using Facebook for business you’re on the right platform. There are some things you must know though if you’re to effectively use the platform. That’s what this article is all about – some tips on how to use Facebook for business.
Use The Right Avenue For Your Business
On Facebook, there are 3 main avenues through which you can build your digital presence there. These are profiles, groups or pages – they serve different purposes. Bear in mind that profiles are exclusively for your personal or individual account. For the purposes of brand awareness and marketing, you must create a page for your business. Never use a profile to advertise your business; rather, use your personal profile to direct people to your business page. Groups are usually used for exclusive groupings for the facilitation of guided discussions. For instance, you can create a Facebook group for your loyal customers.
Two-Way Communication
The secret to the effective use of social media platforms lies in cultivating two-way conversation. Most businesses make the mistake of just posting on the page thinking that’s all there’s to it. You must find ways to engage with your customers or prospective customers so that you get invaluable insights from them. Some of the ways you can use to achieve this are asking questions, making calls to action or running competitions. Another excellent way to promote two-way communication is through Facebook Live sessions.
Visual Content Is Most Engaging
People aren’t generally wired to read long text-based content these days. This is because of people’s waning attention spans amongst other factors. Usually, the best way to ensure people go through long text-based content is through gripping story-telling. Generally, people mostly prefer visual content i.e. images (photos, drawings, infographics and so on) and videos. A survey of 20 000 influential Facebook pages was conducted last year by Buzzsumo. The top 10 pages have Strive Masiyiwa’s page as the number 1 page. Strive Masiyiwa’s approach is mainly text-based story-telling posts. The other 9 in the top 10 all employ video-based content as their main approach. So take a cue from these examples I’ve just cited – they should give you a picture of what type of content excels. Strive Masiyiwa’s page is definitely an exception to the general principle but video content is most engaging.
Ads And Post Boosting
Take advantage of the Ads and post boosting features that Facebook has. The advantage of these features is that you get to target your ads or posts according to your specifications. You also get to reach a much bigger audience as opposed to organic (unpaid) posts. The other cool thing about these features is that they provide you with comprehensive insights that will help you track and evaluate your ads or paid posts.
Strategically Schedule Posts
The most elementary advice you would hear about posts is to post regularly. There’s more to that than just regularly posting content on the page. Ensure that your posts are uniform, consistent and reasonably sized all the time. People easily get accustomed to a routine so inculcate that in how you formulate and post your content. Know when and what to post – always pay close attention to your page users’ habits in how they interact with your page. It’s quite true that you must post regularly but it mustn’t be too regular. After making a post you must allow enough time for people to access, interact with and respond to your post. Here’s what happens, when someone gets on to your page they have a natural affinity to go to the most recent post. So if you’re relentlessly posting without leaving any time in between most people will never go through most of your posts.
I’m confident these 5 tips will help you make the best of Facebook for your business. There’s one cardinal rule of thumb that I must emphasize here. Don’t make your page wholly or predominantly about shoving your products or services upon people. Facebook is mostly regarded as a social networking site so try by all means to cultivate social interactions more. Desist from being too formal and rigid! The secret is in first of all establishing human connections with your page users or visitors to gain their loyalty. Once that’s done, selling your products or services to them will be quite easy.
