Yasmin Purnell — October 4, 2017 — October 4, 2017
Whether your company has had a neglected Facebook page for years, or you’re just now setting one up, getting to grips with Facebook marketing is a must. Despite launching over 10 years ago, Facebook shows no signs of slowing. It’s currently the largest social media app with over 2 billion monthly users, and far outranks the next biggest app (YouTube) by over half a billion users.
Facebook has helped to shape the world we live in today, and more and more people are using the platform every single day. For businesses, this means Facebook is a must for your marketing strategy. Not tapping into the potential of Facebook with a page for your business is ignoring the possibility for huge growth in engagement, loyal followers and conversions for your business.
However, Facebook is no longer an easy game to play – despite it’s consistent rise in popularity, so many users mean businesses are now faced with a lot of competition and much lower engagement levels. Simply putting a funny post and a cool photo up will not work any longer. You have literal seconds to grab the attention of your readers, so your Facebook marketing strategy needs to be completely streamlined to get the most out of the time you get in.
1. Perfect Page Profiles
When is the last time you updated your businesses Facebook profile? Chances are, not recently enough. Your profile needs to be attention-grabbing, full of your brand’s personality, and make it instantly clear what your business is about.
Profile Photo
Your profile photo is essential to get right as it is the first thing people will see relating to your company on the timeline, newsfeed, comments etc. Using your company logo is best – but make sure the logo fits the square size for the profile and is clearly identifiable even on mobile – no blurry or half-cropped images here.
Cover Photo
The cover photo is not as important as your profile photo, but it is one of the first things a user will see when visiting your page. Your cover photo should instantly identify your brand and what it is you do. Again, using a photo that fits the size requirements is important – use a free photo editing site such as Canva to design a cover photo with the exact size required.
About Section
It’s important not to neglect this section, as doing so could lead to missed likes and interaction with your brand. This is your space to outline your mission statement as a company, who you are, and what you do. Remember that social media is a space where the formal lines of corporate companies can be blurred, so add some fun and personality to your description box. You only get 155 characters – so make this section clear, concise and all about you.
2. CTAs
In 2014, Facebook introduced the option to add a call to action on your Facebook page. This can be anything from ‘Sign Up’, to ‘Watch Video’ to ‘Book Now’ – choose a call to action that relates most to your company and supports your goal for using Facebook.
If your business has the option to book courses, events or accommodation, or sign up to courses online, the CTA button can be very important in converting those people looking at your Facebook page into customers engaging with your business website.
3. Easy Engagement
If you’ve only recently started your Facebook page and are struggling to grow your audience, don’t be afraid to ask your audience on other social media platforms to give your page a like! For example, if you have a huge and engaged following on Twitter, the chances are high that many of these followers will have Facebook and be willing to connect with you on there.
Give your page a quick boost by growing your likes amongst the audience you already have – you can then focus on acquiring new followers with your audience behind you.
4. Use Videos and Photos
Videos and photos are a great way to increase the engagement you receive on your Facebook page, being 40X more likely to be shared than any other form of content!
Photos are a wonderful way to offer a more in-depth insight into your brand and the behind-the-scenes story. Use photos to showcase what your company is achieving, and share some insights into the typical working day – Facebook users want to connect with personality, so show the people behind your brand and you’ll boost your chances of engagement far more than a generic post about what the company offers.
Likewise, videos are a great way to boost engagement amongst your followers. Consider making how-to videos, behind-the-scenes ads, and even doing Facebook Live to give your followers an in-the-moment view of your company – just make sure you’re prepared to do this first!
5. Share Other Content
Don’t just share your own content or links to your site on your Facebook page. Engage your audience by sharing related content, fun photos and videos and updates from the company. Facebook is a social space where you can go beyond the corporate side of your brand and have fun with your audience, so take advantage of that.
What’s more, sharing content that has gone viral in the past is a great method of guaranteeing interest in what you post! Just make sure you’re getting the right balance between other content and your own content.
6. Timing is Key
Finding the ideal times to post to your audience is essential for any successful Facebook marketing strategy. Posting at the times when your audience is most engaged boosts your chances of more followers, higher engagement and ultimately, a rise in conversions.
According to CoSchedule, the best times to post on Facebook are at 9am and between 1pm – 4pm. Try to do some research and analyse your social media stats on when your posts get the highest amount of engagement and replicate this success to grow your Facebook page.
The scheduling tool on Facebook is extremely useful for this reason – you can plan out your content months in advance, but instead of having to post there and then, you can schedule posts to be published at the optimum time for your company! Be sure to consider how much you’re posting too – too much, and you’ll turn users off, but too inconsistently and you’ll lose their attention.
7. Try Pinning Important Posts
Facebook has a great feature that allows you to pin your most important (or most successful!) posts to the top of your feed. This way, your high-performing posts won’t be lost under newer content.
If you find a post – such as a photo or video – has been particularly popular, pin this to the top of your page so it’s the first thing new and returning users see and boost your chances of them engaging with your content.
8. Run Contests & Giveaways
Who doesn’t like a freebie? Facebook is the perfect platform to run contests and giveaways, and guess what – it’s a brilliant way to grow your page likes and boost engagement amongst your audience.
Just be sure to only run giveaways for products related to your brand and that your audience will want – don’t fall into the trap of trying to appeal to everyone or you’ll end up with an audience totally uninterested in your brand!
9. Connect Other Social Media
Most people are active on multiple social media platforms, so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be either!
Connect your facebook page to your website and other social media platforms such as Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn (if you have them).
This can boost your Facebook pages success by sending traffic from those platforms to Facebook, and vice versa – ultimately helping your brand grow a lot quicker as a whole!
10. Use Facebook Ads
With so many people, brands and companies vying for attention on social media these days, Facebook Ads can be one of the most effective ways to get your company in front of people.
You can run Facebook Ads for a number of reasons:
- To promote your page
- To promote particular posts
- To encourage people to visit your website.
The key thing when deciding to use Facebook Ads is to plan your strategy. It’s very easy to waste a lot of money on ads when you don’t have goals in mind and a plan in place to achieve those ambitions.
Decide what you want your ad to achieve: do you want to grow your page? Increase conversions? Boost engagement?
Once you’ve decided this, you can tailor a post that targets your specific audience. The more niche the better. Facebook’s targeting tools allow you to narrow down your audience by age, location, gender, and interests, so use these tools to make sure your ad is absolutely perfect for the people you want to reach.
At the end of the ad, be sure to analyse your results! See what worked, and what didn’t. What works on Facebook is always changing, so evaluating your results, growth and engagement frequently is the only way you can establish what is working for you. Once you know what works for your brand, you can replicate those successes and massively increase the growth of your Facebook page for a smaller fee.
In Summary
Maintaining a business Facebook page takes time and effort, but there are multiple ways to increase engagement by tweaking your approach. Once you gain some ground with Facebook, you’ll find that your page becomes busier, shares increase, and your content makes more of an impact on the wider web.
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