There’s a digital divide in the small-business world—between those companies that know how to use social networks like Facebook and those that don’t have a clue.
If you’re on the clueless side, it’s not too late. You can learn.
First, before you even begin a Facebook presence for your business, you need three things. You need an appealing website, you need fresh content on your site regularly, and you need email marketing or some other mechanism to capture customer email addresses.
Your Facebook page is the sizzle, your website is the steak. It’s a waste of time to spend hours posting on Facebook if your site sucks.
Once you’ve got your Facebook profile up and running,the best way to connect with existing and potential customers is with quality content.
You can’t just post and say, ‘Hi, I’m in the barbershop today‘. You need to make your content engaging. Create a survey or a photo contest for people who like your business. This is not complicated. You can do it easily on your own. But you need to do it, first and foremost.
Remember: The purpose of your Facebook page is not to sell stuff to people, it’s to engage them. Luckily for you, that’s simple to do. If you’re a veterinarian, you might post photos of various pets—a dog, a cat, a tarantula—and ask your followers to vote for their favorite.
The key to Facebook is getting people to know, like, and trust you. Once they do, they’re more apt to buy what you’re selling.
I have two main principles when it comes to Facebook. First is to post, frequently and relevantly. Second, pay a few extra bucks to have sponsored posts that amplify your message.”
Facebook Promoted Posts are posts that appear higher in the News Feed of fans and friends of fans. Promoted Posts cost a flat fee to reach a given number of users.
Yeah, you’re paying Facebook money, but you can do really good targeting. If you’re interested in women in the Southwest who like knitting, you can granularly get to them.
There are also a number of tools you can use to measure your Facebook campaigns. Facebook Insights is functional and free. It tells you about your traffic—where it’s coming from, who the visitors are, their age, gender, and all sorts of other details.
What I tell small-business owners is to clearly articulate their goals at the beginning of their Facebook efforts. Is your goal to drive traffic to your site? Or get people to purchase? Or to get more walk-ins to your store? Based on what your goal is, you can have Facebook work for you. And you can do it all by yourself.
