Facebook for Business

For many businesses, having a dedicated Facebook page is a no-brainer. After all, it is the number one social media platform for both users and businesses. However, using Facebook for your business requires foresight, planning, and deliberate strategizing in order to maximize returns on your most valuable investments—time and money. 

Let's take a look at the why, how, when, and 'what the heck do I do' of Facebook for businesses. 

Why Facebook?

Because it's the number one social media platform worldwide, for starters. With nearly 3 billion users worldwide, it's not only massive in terms of users, it's also no slouch when it comes to activity: approximately 37% of the world's population uses Facebook monthly, and 67% of users log in daily. If it's US data you're looking for, 63% of Americans have a Facebook account. In 2018, 78 percent of Americans found products to buy on the platform. 

But beyond numbers, Facebook is one of the most effective ways to reach your audience, engage with them, and share important information about your business.  Facebook is the perfect place to highlight the services or products you provide, of course, but also events, reviews, contact information, and often overlooked elements such as what you stand for, who you work with, and much more. In fact, many businesses today forgo having a website and just use Facebook as their online presence! 

Social media is a crucial component of growing a business today, and Facebook is unmatched for many businesses. While it can sometimes be tricky to keep up with the changes and find the perfect approach to reach potential customers, it's still well worth the time and effort. 

Creating a Business Page

Your first step is to create a Facebook page for your business. Facebook walks you through the steps to setup, and initially all you'll need is your business name, photos for your profile and cover, and an idea of what kind of action you'd like visitors to take—this is the call-to-action (CTA) and should be based on your business goal for the page. For instance, if you have a website you want people to visit to buy your product, you can use the Shop Now CTA. You can also make it easy for potential customers to contact you via Facebook, download your app, or learn more about your business. 

Though a successful Facebook business page goes beyond this initial setup, it is quite simple to get started and can get you online quickly. Be sure to fill out as many of the sections as you can early on, including adding events, services, current offers, photos of your store or product, links to your site, etc. Plus, if you have products to sell, you can utilize the shop functionality and sell directly to Facebook users. 

Create Content 

It's not enough to simply have a Facebook page; you've got to be active on it, too. Sharing content on your page is one of the key ways to be visible to your current customers and attract new ones. However, businesses also need to be strategic in their social media posting. That is, you should create content that aims to reach a specific audience for a specific purpose, and it should be part of an overall strategy that keeps your goals, values, and long-term objectives in mind.

So, what kind of content should you post? While the answer depends on a number of factors (especially your strategy—do you get that you need to create a strategy yet?), here are some of the options available to you:

Text

This is a no-frills post type, but that doesn't mean you should discount it. Text posts tend to do pretty well in terms of engagement, though they can also get lost in users' feeds among the colorful images, videos, and other content. These kinds of posts are primarily used for engagement or updates, but they can help grow your audience. 

Text posts offer an opportunity to:

• Provide updates on your business (ex. Your storefront has extended hours this weekend)
• Ask questions of your followers, for fun or to help guide your future content, or even products or services
• Connect to specific members of your community (ex. A relatable, niche joke or comment)
• Offer tips, tricks, or insights related to your industry

Links

Most businesses share links often, especially if they have a separate website. Sharing links helps drive traffic to your website, but you might also want to share links that lead to other sites or media in order to connect with your audience. 

Link posts are a great way to:

• Share recent blog posts on your site
• Let customers know about a sale going on on your site
• Highlight external media, like YouTube videos
• Showcase new products or services

Pro tip: Make sure to include a well thought out caption and don't just drop the link into your post! 

Photos

No one wants to see a wall of text, which is why visual posts are so important. Photos are great for engagement and for humanizing your business. 

Here are just a few types of photo posts you can create:

• Infographics
• Product photos
• Behind the scenes
• Your office, employees, customers, or pets

Video

Sure, creating videos takes more time and effort, but there's no denying the importance of video content on social media. Facebook's algorithm loves video, and rewards posts accordingly. You don't have to invest a ton into video production, but you definitely need to make videos a part of your Facebook strategy. 

Some simple video ideas include:

• An unboxing of your product
• Demos
• Interviews with industry experts, including those on your team
• Quick, fun, TikTok-style videos
• Behind the scenes at your office or an event
• Livestreams of a Q&A or specific event

Stories

Stories on Facebook, like Instagram, disappear after 24 hours. These are short videos or image-based posts that can connect you to current and potential customers and help to humanize your business. Though these tend to be more casual compared to posts or videos that remain on your page, you should still have a strategy in place to ensure you're not alienating your audience or embarrassing your company. 

Use Stories to:

• Tease upcoming launches or events
• Provide a how-to or life hack
• Advertise a new product or service
• Create timely messages
• Share behind the scenes of your company

Other Stuff

There are so many possibilities when it comes to creating content on Facebook. In addition to everything we mentioned, you can also create:

• Events
• Fundraisers
• Facebook Live videos
• Contests or giveaways
• Facebook Groups

Engagement

The term engagement gets thrown around a lot when it comes to social media, but for good reason. Engagement on social media, and Facebook in particular, are actions users take on something you post. That could be reacting, commenting, sharing, clicking on your link, sending a message—all things that can increase visibility, connect you with a broader audience, and generate leads. 

Engagement matters, but understanding how to increase it requires patience, testing, and persistence. It also requires—not to beat a dead horse—a strategy that takes into account your audience, your goals, and your industry. Another factor that can dramatically impact engagement is Facebook itself—the platform is constantly changing, and oftentimes those changes have an effect on engagement. 

Increasing Engagement on Facebook

As you build out your strategy and begin using Facebook regularly, here are some tips to help increase engagement:

• Give your audience what they want. Is your content for your audience, or for you? If your content isn't performing, you may want to rethink your strategy. 
• Give them what they want, when they want. The best times to post are completely dependent on your audience, so play around with timing to find what actually works.
• Use your past to inform your future. Look at your most popular posts and analyze them to determine what resonates. 
• Scope out the competition. Do some stealth research and check out who you're competing against—not to copy them, of course, but to get fresh ideas and perspective. 
• Experiment with everything. In addition to trying different times to share content, try out different methods, visuals, post types, etc. Change can be good!
• Engage. Are you engaging with your audience—like responding to comments and messages—and engaging with other content? If not, it's time to start. 
• Boost your posts. Paying is a surefire way to get your content in front of more people, so consider paying to boost posts—especially high-performing ones. 

Getting Followers

In addition to engagement, attracting new followers is a key part of success on social media. You can, of course, pay to get your business out there in the form of boosted posts and targeted ads, but that shouldn't be your only approach. Like engagement, increasing your followers is a long-term goal that should be incorporated into your strategy. 

Getting new followers is similar to increasing engagement in that you have to try different approaches. You also need to be creating valuablet, shareable content that resonates with people. Your current followers can be your greatest asset, especially if they like what you do and what you post—they, in turn, will be more likely to share your content, increasing your visibility. 

Your engagement matters here, too. Reacting and commenting on posts as your business page, for example, helps increase visibility and can pique the interest of those who see your engagement. You also want to stay active on your own page—posting regularly, of course, but also taking the time to respond to comments, messages, tagged posts, and reviews.

Other tips to help grow your followers include:

• Host giveaways on your own, or partner with other businesses for even bigger participation.
• Include a link to your page on your website, in your newsletters, and promote it across other social media platforms.
• Encourage your customers to follow you on Facebook. 
• Have coupons, deals, sales, or offers and promote them on Facebook. 
• Join or create Facebook Groups. 
• Use a few relevant hashtags on your posts.
• Invite people who’ve engaged with your posts to like your page.  

Advertising on Facebook

Many businesses opt to spend money on Facebook ads, especially if they're not delegating other budget to Google Ads. Facebook offers several different options for advertising and you can spend as much or as little as you'd like and advertise to increase brand awareness, drive website traffic, or get conversions. 

Here are a few different ways you can advertise on Facebook:

• Brand Awareness Ads. Increase your business’s visibility by running brand awareness ads on Facebook.
• Engagement Ads. Utilize engagement ads to grow your following, increase engagement with your content, and drive traffic to your website.  
• Lead Generation Ads. Generate new leads for your business by sharing an offer, encouraging sign ups for an event, or providing a helpful resource, such as an ebook.   
• Shopping Ads. If you created a Shop on Facebook or Instagram, you can create dynamic shopping ads to sell products directly to Facebook users. 
• Conversion Ads. Find new customers through targeted conversions ads that drive people to purchase your products or services. 

Having trouble getting your ad approved? Here are common reasons Facebook rejects ads. 

Get Help with Your Facebook Strategy

You don't have to go it alone! Social media management takes time and effort, even if you're just using Facebook. Successful strategies require more attention than businesses without dedicated social media marketers can handle. We have the experience and dedication to help you elevate your social media game—let's chat about how we can help.