5 Top Tips for using Facebook for business
As the largest social network in the world, Facebook has over 2 billion users. It’s highly likely that you’re one of those people, but is your business using Facebook?
Facebook can be a great platform to build awareness of your brand and reach audiences directly, but there are some things you will need to consider in order to get it right:
Here are our 5 top tips for using Facebook for business.
1. Create a Facebook business page not a personal page
If your business isn’t already on Facebook you’ll need to create a business page, not a personal profile. Not only will having the correct type of page to maximise your business’ potential, it’s actually against Facebook’s terms of service to use a personal account to represent anything other than a person.
When creating your page make sure you use a name people will search for, if you’re on any other social media platforms make your facebook name the same as these.
Facebook pages look similar to personal profiles but they come with an array of useful tools.
Image: Rose Media Group Facebook page
Facebook page tools include:
-Call to action button, when you create your facebook page you’re able to choose a call to action button that best fits your goal. As you can see on the image above, Rose Media Group has got Call Now as their call to action.
-Reviews, your customers are able to review your company using the Facebook review tool. This is a great way to utilise Facebook for customer service benefits.
-About section, this allows you to include useful information including; contact details, business story, general information, milestones, awards and if you’re a restaurant you can even include your menu.
-Insights, measure and manage your Facebook page by using the page insights feature. This will allow you to monitor things like; page views, page likes, reach, highest ranking post etc. Monitoring how your page is performing can help you further define how you will continue to go forward with your content strategy.
-Tabs can be added, you can edit the tabs on your side bar and add new custom tabs.
-Facebook Shop section- this is really useful for small business without an E-commerce site
-Facebook messaging, you can turn messages on for your page. This feature allows people to privately message your company. This will make your page more useful for customer service enquiries.
People can like and follow your page to see updates from you in their newsfeed.
Choose the right cover photo/video & Display picture
First impressions count. The cover photo and display picture are the first things people will see when they go to your page. So make a good impression.
The display picture should be your logo. This gives your page a brand identity, making your Facebook page recognisable to existing and future customers.
You’ll now need to choose the correct cover photo, this should show what your brand is all about. Use strong photography or video to really catch peoples attention. If you’re a B2C business why not show your latest range of products?
Earn the ‘Very responsive badge’
Facebook is a great tool for marketing but it’s also a great customer service tool as well. Show your customers you care and engage with them.
There is nothing worse than filling out a customer service enquiry, to finally get a response when the issue is no longer relevant. Social media is often used as a way for customers to get a quick response from companies, so make your response time quick, this will not only please your customer but it will also encourage others to engage if they know you are ‘very responsive’.
2.What’s the best time to post to your Facebook business page?
There’s no best time to post, as every brand will find different times more effective. B2B brands are more likely to engage with people during working hours, for example.
That said, evenings and weekends are often seen as good times to post on Facebook. Thursdays and Fridays see an 18% higher engagement rate, followed by mornings and lunchtime slots during the week.
3. Keep your Facebook posts short for more engagement
Facebook posts with 40 characters or less get 86% more engagement, but surprisingly shorter posts are far less common. Remember it’s quality, not quantity; get straight to the point and do it quickly.
4. Post Videos and photographs to your Facebook page
Give people a good reason not to scroll past your post on their newsfeed and give them a reason to interact. The key to a successful social media post is to use strong, compelling content.
Live Video on Facebook
The Facebook live feature which launched in April 2016, is a live video streaming service allowing users to broadcast live straight to Facebook. Since launching, Facebook live has become extremely popular. Live videos see 3x the engagement of other videos shared on Facebook.
It is a popular feature used by influencers, marketers and consumers. But why is facebook live such a popular marketing tool? As a social media platform, Facebook is the largest of them all and broadcasting live on Facebook allows you to reach your target audience, with nothing more than the smartphone in your pocket.
360 Video & Photography on Facebook
Bring your content to life with 360 Video and photography and showcase your most compelling stories in a new, exciting and engaging way. Facebook 360
Facebook 360 allows you to create dynamic video content. It allows viewers to choose what angle they want to see the photo or video from, by simply dragging around with their finger or tilting their device. So whether you’re giving a tour of your work space or showing off an amazing event you’re attending, use Facebook 360 to really bring your content to life.
5.Target your audience with Ads on Facebook
Facebook is a pay to play platform. You don’t have to spend a lot to make a huge impact. Just £10 per week can go a long way. Using Facebook Ads will increase the reach of your posts and you can segment your audience from niche areas.
Ready to Start using Facebook to benefit your business?
Now you know almost everything you need to know about marketing your business on Facebook, what are you waiting for?
If you want help setting up and creating the perfect brand experience on Facebook take a look at our Social Media services and get in contact.
