Why Facebook to Market Your Business. Plus Facebook Page Success Strategies.

To say that every business needs a Facebook presence today would be an understatement.

Facebook is the world’s largest social network. It can do things many of us would never have dreamed of years ago: host videos, sell products via a chatbot, or even serve as a top news source for two-thirds of the population.

Facebook has 1.18 billion daily active users. Let’s put that in perspective. That’s over 5X the population of the United States, 15% of the world population … and it’s still climbing.

It’s not only the sheer number of people, but the amount of our attention Facebook owns. Globally, the average user spends 50 minutes per day with Facebook properties. Considering the average person sleeps 8.8 hours a day, that means one-sixteenth of our waking hours is spent glued to Facebook.

For many, Facebook is the internet. Is your business taking full advantage of it?

Pages are the gateway for businesses to market among this holy grail of users. A Facebook Page is a public presence similar to a personal profile, but allows fans to “like” the business. Fans receive content updates from the Page on their News Feed, while the business is able to raise awareness, deploy and track advertising, collect detailed audience insights, and chat with clients who seek customer service.

Facebook Marketing, the Inbound Way

There are many strategies to approach marketing on Facebook, but we’ll stick to the one I love most: inbound.

Inbound is about being helpful and relatable to your audience. It involves understanding the goals of your customer and partnering with them to overcome problems. One of the best ways to do this is to be available where they already spend their time — that means you need to be on Facebook.

Facebook’s tools cater to the business that wants to form an authentic relationship with their audience. It allows businesses to create and distribute quality content that’s helpful for readers. It allows you to make sales, do customer service and much more.

It’s not about being spammy, annoying, or deceiving.

If you’re building a Facebook Page just to check one more thing off the marketing to-do list, think again. True Facebook marketing requires a consistent, long-term commitment. But I promise, it will be worth it.

How to Set Up a Facebook Business Page

If you’ve decided to build a Facebook Page for your business, you’ve made the right choice. In fact, you’ll be joining 60 million businesses worldwide who already market on Facebook via a Page.

Before we jump into publishing posts and with boosting advertising, let’s start at the very beginning and walk through the setup process.

Creating a Facebook Page

First, there’s one crucial aspect to clarify. As you probably know, the majority of Facebook is made up of personal profiles. However, if you’re a business looking to establish your presence on the social network, you’ll need to create a Page.

Pages are business profiles on Facebook. Pages look similar to profile pages, but show specific information only applicable to businesses, organizations, and causes. While someone connects with a profile by adding them as a friend, you connect with a business Page by “liking” it and becoming a fan. If you create a personal profile for your business instead of a Page, you run the risk of getting it shut down by Facebook.

Scroll down on your personal Page and you will see create. Select Page.

There, you’ll have six different categories to choose from:

Local Business or Place
Company, Organization or Institution
Brand or Product
Artist, Band or Public Figure
Entertainment
Cause or Community

For use service business owners, I would select local business or Company, but that is up to you. If your business is all performed within a 30 mile radius, then pick Local Business.

Depending on which you select, the about fields in your Page will be customized. Choose the name for your Page wisely. Facebook will let you change your name and URL in most cases, but it can be difficult and time consuming.

To create a Page, you must manage it from a personal account; however, your personal information won’t appear on the Page unless you add it.

Press “Get Started” and you’ll be automatically redirected to your new Page. Before you share it with others, Facebook will give you four tips for building the Page.

Add a Profile Picture

The first step to giving your Facebook Page an identity is adding a profile picture. This will serve as the primary visual for your Page, appearing in search results and alongside any of your content that shows up in a user’s News Feed.

Think of your profile picture as your first impression, and be sure to choose something immediately recognizable (like a logo).

A Tip: Use the same image on all your social media accounts, it builds awareness, recognition and keeps your followers from being confused. I see the same people doing different avatars and profile picks on different media. It is not the way to build a business online. Could you imagine Nike or APPLE switching their logo on each media form. Say consistent.

Add a Cover Photo

Next, Facebook will suggest you add a cover photo. A cover photo is the large, horizontal image that spans the top of your Page. It should express your Page’s identity and can be updated often based on special offerings, campaigns, or seasons.

To upload a cover photo, click the “Add a Cover Photo” option in the welcome menu. Pick what you want, reposition if needed and press save. Mine are the same across all my platforms. So you guys know it is me.

Try going with an abstract image or pattern to catch the eye, or a landscape shot with your product as the focal point. Often, the best cover photos are the ones that use negative space to their advantage.

Add a Short Description

Your Page is starting to come together with some beautiful imagery. However, you’ll need a description to let your audience know what your business is about.

Click “Add a Short Description” in the welcome menu to get started. Add 1-2 sentences (or 155 characters max) about your business. This description will appear both on your Page and in search results, so keep it descriptive but concise. Show a bit of your personality!

You can edit your description by clicking on “About” in the left menu. You’ll also see the option to include a phone number, website, email, mission, and more.

Create a Username for Your Page

The last step on the welcome menu is to create a username for your Page. Your username will appear in your custom Facebook URL (also known as a vanity URL) to help people easily find and remember your Page. You’ll have 50 characters to come up with a unique name not being used by another business.

Your Page’s unique URLs is handy, when you begin cross-promoting your Page on your website, blog, and other advertising to get more Facebook likes.

Add to Shortcuts

We finished the four steps from Facebook’s welcome menu, but there are still a few things you can do to customize your Page. Every Facebook user has a vertical navigation bar to the left of their News Feed. By adding your Page as a shortcut here, you’ll always have easy access. Go to your News Feed and click on “Edit” next to “Shortcuts” in the left vertical navigation to make it easy to navigate to your Page.

We won’t get into roles on this page in this blog post. For now, you will be the Admin, Moderator, Editor, Analysist, Advertisier, etc.

Customize Your Notifications

While you’re in the settings menu, jump up to “Notifications.” This section allows you to customize how you receive alerts for activity on your Page. For example, you could choose to get a notification every time there is activity or just get one notification every 12-24 hours. For me, I like everything immediate and it also helps with your response rate review, by Facebook. It does help.

Add a Facebook CTA (Call to Action)

One of the benefits of having a Facebook Page for your business is the ability to attract, customers you might not have been able to reach with a website. The typical buyer’s journey doesn’t end on Facebook.

Facebook allows Pages to include a CTA at the top of the Page. Click on “Add a Button” above your cover photo. You can choose from many options depending on if you want viewer to book services, Call Now, make a purchase, download an app, or simply learn more. Then, choose a link for the CTA to direct to, such as your homepage, a landing page, or a whatever you want them to do.

Custom Tabs for Your Page

Want to take your Page to the next level? Add custom tabs to guide what content users see when they visit your Page. When you visit Starbucks’ Page, there’s an option to browse photos, see open jobs, or find stores near you.

To change the tabs on your Page, click “Manage Tabs” in the left navigation. There you’ll find some pre-made options.

Guys, I know all this can be overwhelming, with a little patience and time. You can master Facebook. As always, I am here to help.

How to Get Facebook Likes and Fans

You want your Facebook business Page to be successful. What success looks like on social media will vary based on your business goals. Your top focus could be launching new service, building awareness, driving traffic to your website, get calls or collecting leads.

But no matter what, you need likes. Most of you need to focus on getting the likes from potential customers not peers.

A “like” is how a user says they want to see updates from your business in their News Feed.

I will give you some strategies to get Facebook Page likes from the moment your Page goes live and how to grow that in the future.

Don’t Buy Facebook Likes

If you need Page likes to master Facebook marketing, that brings up a good question: Why not just buy them?

Don’t believe this is a real dilemma? Go ahead and Google “buy Facebook likes.” You’ll find pages upon pages of external services selling packages of likes for a flat fee. And for some, it may seem like a quick and easy way to make your business look credible.

However, the issue lies in where these likes actually come from. Companies that sell likes use click farms, fake accounts, or even compromised accounts to reach the promised number. That means it’s highly unlikely that any of these users who have liked your Page will ever engage with your content again.

Not every Facebook post not all posts show in News Feeds. When Facebook decides what to include, the algorithm looks specifically at engagement rates. Over time, the lack of likes and comments on your posts (due to fake fans) compared to the number of Page likes you have could prevent your content from being seen. The average user too will likely question your credibility.

Promoting Your Page on Facebook

Since, I have told you how not to get likes, lets talk about how to get them. We’ll start with promoting your Page on Facebook, and then through other marketing.

Take the time to fully fill out the “About” section of your Page. Description with searchable info, but don’t stuff it with keywords. Include an overview of what your business offers, and a link back to your website.

If you’re building a Page from scratch, consider sharing it with people you’re already connected to on Facebook. Navigate to the “Promote” button in the left navigation and choose the third option: “Share Page With Friends.”

When you choose contacts, be careful about over-promoting to people you know that don’t have an interest. Spamming Facebook does more harm than good.

Don’t forget to invite some peers to like your Page. Make content they would share with their own Facebook friends.

Finally, be active. The best way to gain Page likes is to build a community or as the buzzword says, a tribe. Post helpful or entertaining content that your followers want to like and share.

Respond to messages quickly and interact with comments on your posts. Have you ever noticed some Pages have a green badge saying they’re “very responsive to messages”? If you’ve received a 90% response rate and an average response time of under 15 minutes over the last seven days, you too can earn this badge. I mentioned this earlier in the article.

Getting Facebook likes isn’t just for the initial setup of your Page. You’ll need to build a consistent strategy to continue adding value to your followers.

The average page has less than 100 likes.

Set a goal! For example, if you want 200 fans, reverse engineer your plan. 200 fans over a period of time. Say 50 weeks. That’s 4 fans a week. So go to LOCAL groups and make friends. If your goal is 4 fans a week, try to make friends with 10 people. Invite them to like your page. 40% is the average rate, because for whatever reason, so won’t like or follow. In a year’s time, you will have reached your goal. Of course you can be more aggressive if you’d like in the amount or deadline for your goal.

You should cross promote everything you do.

Promoting Your Page Through Your Website

Promoting your Page doesn’t stop on Facebook. Include social media follow buttons on your website and blog to make it easy for your visitors to connect with your Facebook Page.

You can also use a Page plugin to easily embed and promote your Page on your website. Facebook will build the iframe code that shows a feed of your latest posts. That way, visitors can like and share your Page without ever leaving your website.

Promoting Your Page to Your Customers and Email Contacts

Think of creative ways to let your customers know you have a Facebook presence. Place a Facebook sticker with your Page’s name on your truck or van. Put the custom URL on your invoices. You could even run a promotion where people get a discount if they like your Page on the spot from their mobile device. Put a Page link in your emails.

Promoting Your Page on Additional Social Media Channels

Sharing your Page on your other social media accounts is a great way to gain followers/ The key is not to annoy them with too much promotion.

Post Types

When it comes to Facebook marketing, content is king. Without a consistent flow of content, your Page exists only as a source of information for people who are already aware of you. It’s no different than than a basic website.

When you use Facebook to publish and share content, you extend your reach into the billions of Facebook’s users. WOW, right! It really is like a message in a bottle. You don’t know how far it will reach with shares. That is what they call VIRAL. Post cool stuff, not always promotional.

Post Images

Posting an image is a smart thing to do, since Facebook posts with images see 2.3X more engagement than those without visuals and account for 87% of total interactions.

Try to keep a consistent style among all the images you post. Don’t be afraid to let your personality show. Another thing is thinking of your customers, what would they like to see?

Links

One of the easiest ways to start populating your Facebook Page with content is to share the blog posts you write. Pick ones that will resonate with your Facebook audience and hopefully get shared by your followers.

Write a sentence or two and paste in your link.

Video

If you’re looking to tell a story on Facebook, video is likely your best option. Recently, video has gained a lot of buzz, especially considering the Facebook algorithms now prioritizes both live video and longer videos with high completion rates in the users’ News Feeds. In fact, a Facebook predicted the social media platform will be all video by 2021.

Facebook auto-plays videos, so the first 5-10 seconds are gold. As you make your video strategy for Facebook, make the beginning as visually pleasing as possible to entice the user to view the full video.

Facebook Live

Aside from pre-produced video, Facebook Live is another option to explore. Facebook Live is a feature that allows live-streaming to users via their smart-phone. It’s available to all Facebook users.

To try it out, open up the Facebook app on your mobile device. Go to your Page and click on “Publish” as if you were going to write a new post. Then select the “Live Video” option.

If you haven’t used Facebook Live before, you’ll be prompted to give Facebook access to your camera and microphone. Press the blue “Continue” button. Don’t worry — you won’t begin recording yet.

Before you enter any information, go ahead and check the privacy settings. Under the description, you’ll see a choice to broadcast to the public, just your friends, or only yourself. If you’re testing out Facebook Live for the first time, we suggest using “only me” to ensure your live stream doesn’t show up on the News Feed.

Write a good title that will show up on your live video. To keep your viewers engaged, ask questions and encourage them to respond in the comments. The video will automatically stay on your Page like any other video post.

Pinning a Facebook Post

Now that you know some of the types of Facebook posts, let’s customize how they show on your Page. By “pinning” a post, you can determine which post sticks to the top of your Page. Any other posts will appear below, even if they were published more recently than the pinned post.

To pin a post on your Page, click on the small down arrow in the top right corner of a published post. Then select “Pin to Top of Page.” This post will remain pinned until you choose to pin another post and replace it.

How to Create a Facebook Marketing Strategy

Now that you know some of the types of posts you can publish to Facebook, you’ll find that posting is the easy part. Knowing what — and when — to post is the difficult part of Facebook marketing.

To build a successful Facebook marketing strategy, you’ll need to know your customers. Only then will you know the right mix of content to drive results, scheduling posts into your editorial calendar, and exploring Facebook’s new offerings for connecting with prospects.

By understanding the problems and goals of your customers, you can decide what content would be best to post.

Take a look at your competitors.

Explore their Facebook Pages, look for a few key factors:

Visual quality
Post frequency
Content mix
Engagement on posts (likes, comments, and shares)
Response time

Audience Insights

Audience Insights allows you to look at data about your fans and that of your competitors. It helps advertisers target their ads better, but it’s also a tool for social media managers and editors to determine the type of posts their fans are looking for.

Create a Content Calendar

Social media managers juggle a lot of tasks on a day-to-day basis: posting content on multiple channels, responding to comments, monitoring mentions of your business, staying on top recent trends.

How do social media managers keep up with all of those posts they need to publish? A content calendar. Just as it sounds, a content calendar is a spreadsheet where you write out posts in advance and slot them for specific times. A content calendar will help you keep track of what you are doing.

Every content calendar should have a few things:

Tabs for each platform (you can use this for more than just Facebook)
A day-by-day schedule broken down by time slots
Columns for message, link, campaign name, character count, and image
A monthly view to plot larger campaigns

I know you just want customers. Well, this is what successful, beyond belief means. Your competition doesn’t stand a chance and you will be the big dog in your area.

Scheduling Facebook Posts

No matter how far out you build your content calendar, you’d never be able to take a vacation if it wasn’t for scheduling posts.

To schedule a post on Facebook, start by creating a post in the white box at the top of your Page’s timeline. Instead of clicking “Publish,” select the small arrow next to it and select “Schedule”.

To manage all of your scheduled posts, find “Publishing Tools” at the top of your Page and click “Scheduled Posts” in the left column. There you can edit or delete posts, as well as preview them for both desktop and mobile viewing.

Best Times to Post on Facebook

How often should you post to Facebook? And once you determine how often, and what time?

As frustrating as it sounds, the answer to both of these questions is, “it depends.” Your region, goals, and how your target audience interacts with the social media platform must all be accounted for when determining the best times to post.

Believe me, it’s about knowing your customers, looking at the insight data and a little luck. What works for a painter in Ohio may not work for a landscaper in Florida or work for the same type of business in another region.

I set-up and/or manage several accounts a crossed several platforms. It isn’t easy to get results, but that is what I am paid for.

Generating Leads on Facebook

I already mentioned that your Facebook Page goals will vary depending on your business and it’s likely that much of the content you post will be to gain views or awareness.

But what about using Facebook to get leads. A lead is a person who has indicated interest in your company’s service by giving their information in some way.

To turn your Facebook fans into paying customers, you’ll need to be strategic about posting content that directs to a form. For example, you could post:

Landing pages for offers
Blog posts that you know generate a lot of leads based on historical conversion rates
Videos to promote lead generation offers
Facebook Lives to remind people to register for an offer or service you provide
Facebook events for upcoming sales

You don’t want every piece of content you post to be lead generation, but experiment with a content mix that works for your business.

You can also use Facebook lead ads to capture lead information from the Facebook platform and avoid the making a landing page and longer click-through path. This feature allows potential customers to access your offers without ever leaving the Facebook app.

Guys, this article is about as long as I want to make one. I think this is all the information you would need to build your Facebook Page and get results. I know it seems impossible, but I know you can do it if you try.