Ahhh, Facebook. So many marketers have a love-hate relationship with it, myself included. It provides such an awesome place to keep up with people’s lives. The marketing aspect, however, can be difficult to manage. How do you reach people when they keep changing the rules and algorithms? How do you make your page stand out in a sea of similar pages? Hopefully these Facebook tips will help you navigate the unknown.
Facebook Tips for Your Business or Organization
1. Hold off on Inviting Everyone You Know
Wait, what? Doesn’t that seem counterproductive? Well, let me explain. If you opened a physical store, you wouldn’t invite people to come see it before you had painted, put in furniture, and made it visually appealing, right? The same holds true for your Facebook page. Inviting people to a Facebook page without preparing it is like asking people to an empty storefront.
Even so, I’ve received many invitations to like Facebook pages only to find them incomplete when I visit them. At the very least, have your profile and cover images looking nice. One of the first Facebook tips I tell people is to make sure their images are the right proportions. Very few things look unprofessional like having images distorted or cut off because they weren’t the right size to begin with.
Other items to complete before you invite people to like your page include:
- Adding products (if appropriate)
- Creating coming events
- Completing your history (see below)
- Starting a poll or asking a question to get the conversation going
Now you have a professional looking page that will attract those you invite to spread the word!
2. Fill In Your History
Did you even know that you could put a history on your Facebook page? First of all, it’s not the most obvious thing to find. If you look under your business name on the left hand side, click About. Right next to that, you’ll see your business information and a place to edit it. If you haven’t entered a start date, there will be a link you can click to do so. Now people can see that you have an established business and that you pay attention to details.
In addition to your start date, you can add milestones to your history. Under your cover photo, choose the option with the dots. Under that, you’ll see “add milestone” all the way at the bottom. When you click on that, you can add the date, all the details, and an image to go along with it. Now click on your About area again. You’ll see a list of those milestones, and people researching your company can find all the detail they need.
3. Stop Trying to Sell All the Time
Another item at the top of my most used Facebook tips is that you shouldn’t spend all your time trying to sell, sell, sell. In a previous post, we discussed that social media is like a cocktail party. Don’t be “that person” at the party who dominates all the conversation and gives everyone this look…
We’ve all been there… eyes rolling in the back of your head at hearing someone drone on and on.
You want to show your followers that you care about them. Most people aren’t on Facebook to buy something. If you keep pounding them with a message of “buy, buy, buy”, they will quickly find the unfollow button. Let them know that you care about them and what they think. Which brings me to my next point…
4. Cultivate Relationships
The ultimate goal of Facebook is to cultivate relationships. Unfortunately, many organizations miss this mark. You want people to trust you and see you as the number one source of information for your topic or product. No list of Facebook tips would be complete without mentioning this. To be seen as a thought leader and resource for your industry, you have to prove that you know your stuff. A few types of posts that can help with this could be:
- Give a virtual (or video) tour of your physical location so people know what to expect when they visit.
- Feature a “tip of the week” about your product or industry.
- Feature an employee and show his/her picture and what they do for you (and why they’re good at it).
- Lead people to interesting articles (not necessarily on your site) that relay more information about your topic.
- Post about something you just learned… people like to know that you’re excited about what you do and are continuing to learn and grow.
5. Remember Your Goals
I seriously thought about making this the first of the Facebook tips to emphasize its importance. In a recent post about social media goals, I discussed the importance of having direction on social media. Why are you there? What is your organization’s mission and vision? That, above anything, should drive everything you do on social media. Whatever you do on Facebook, keeping those goals in mind should be paramount.
Your Turn
So if you’ve been floundering (Get it? Floundering… fish reference?) on Facebook, take heart! These simple Facebook tips can help get you swimming in the right direction. I’d love to hear in the comments which of these you plan to implement or any tips of your own you’d like to share. In the meantime, keep swimming along!
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