How to use Facebook to Promote your Business

There are multiple social media platforms so Why should you use Facebook to market your business? Simply because ALL your customers are using it. You are, and there’s a good chance everyone you know is on Facebook. According to Business Insider, today Facebook is the largest social network in the world with 1.15 billion active users per month.

No matter how big or small your business is, you need to have a Facebook Business Fan Page and implement a social media marketing strategy to create exposure and visibility, increase interaction, brand loyalty and help your SEO ranking.

Facebook Business Fan Page

Create a page for your business not a group nor a personal profile.

Page name: Should be up to 3 words not more and should be exactly like your business name.

Page Info: Go to page settings, fill up all the sections (address, map, hours of operation, phone number…), one important section is the Facebook web address this shows up on Google and you can’t change it so think carefully when choosing the address (preferable to be same as page name).

Profile picture: Should always be your company’s logo, make sure the logo is visually attractive and not blurry.

Cover photo: Should sum up what your company sells or provides for example if you own a restaurant your cover photo should include images of tasty platters, deserts… include type of cuisine your restaurant serves, add other social networks icons/names and you can also add a call to action to promote a special offer. Note: use a high quality picture.

Content: Simple your content should include Post industry-related information, infographics and videos, So if people landed on your page they will actually see its active and informative and might actually covert from being random visitors to actual fans. For example, if you own a fashion store you should add well organized albums of your latest products through high quality images and associate full description to each and not random pictures. The content is should be related to your target audience, in the case of a fashion store, young girls are targeted so add fashion tips or designers updates or funny fashion and shopping pictures. Always add a caption above your images, around 15 words not more. The number of posts and the time of posting depends on your page business and the number of fans which varies between a newly launched page or a page that already has developed a close relationship with its fans. Post everyday 3 to 5 posts, starting from 10 am till 8 pm although you will notice Thursday to Sunday most of the posts will receive more engagement especially between 1 and 3pm. Tips: If your new to posting and have no idea what to post check what your local competitors and international pages in the same industry are posting about and the type of posts going viral. Note: Trial and error is always a fundamental method to detect the best strategy.

Promote your Fan Page

Facebook gives you the ability to advertise and promote your page by creating ads. On your home page, you notice on the right side the word sponsored. Under that section your ad will show and within your news feed there is a section for ads while scrolling down through the home page. Facebook ads can be directed towards Facebook Pages, Facebook Posts, Landing pages or websites. Now to create an ad for your page and show up on your potential client’s home page, on the right side of your screen click on build your audience then click promote page. You will see a list of settings, the country you want to target, age group, interests, gender… which gives you the ability to target your audience specifically. You can also choose the budget you want to spend on a daily basis as low as 1$ per day. Note: use really high res pictures and check if the pictures look good and not cut on different platforms. ALWAYS add a caption to your ads. The text should be brief, attractive, describing what your page does and includes a call to action such as, Click “Like” and check out….You can later on change or manage your ads performance to check your campaign’s success on: https://www.facebook.com/ads/manage. which shows CPL (cost per like/fan), Total money spent, duration of the ads and much more detailed information. The effect of the campaign is reflected on the page’s insights tab and an increase in the number of likes and interactivity will be noticed.

Tabs

This is a bit advanced but if you actually plan to work on your Facebook page, you need to install a Landing page and direct your ads to it instead of the Facebook page directly. A Landing page forces visitors to click “Like” to proceed to your page unlike usual ads that are directed automatically to your Facebook page, where people might check and leave without becoming a fan. So a Landing page will decrease CPF. You can install a landing page through shortstack. Its not free but once you register you get access to other creative ideas such as voting competitions, photo contests…

Facebook introduces new features everyday that you can take advantage of and some companies already achieved great success through creative marketing strategies and are making lots of money. So what are you still waiting for!