With over 1.1 billion users, 75% of small businesses say that Facebook is the most valuable network for marketing their brand. Late to the party? Here are 7 things you need to do to launch your business on Facebook.
1. “Page” not “Profile”
Set up a Facebook ‘page’ rather than a “profile” — A ‘page’ is open to the public and anyone can become a ‘fan’ whereas a ‘profile’ is for personal use and others connect by requesting to be your “friend.” There are six options for a page but most small businesses will only need to be concerned with two: “Company, Organisation, or Institution” or “Local Business or Place.”
Which to use?
- Company, Organisation, or Institution: If people DO NOT visit your location, or if your events are always someplace different.
- Local Business or Place: If people DO physically visit your location—for example, a bakery, concert venue, hospital, theater, museum, or art gallery.
(NOTE: Only “Local Businesses or Place” pages offer Facebook’s Check-in feature, allowing your fans to tell their friends that they are at your place of business.)
2. Pick the right profile picture and cover photo
You have two key visual elements on your page—your profile picture and the larger cover photo.
Profile picture: This will the image your customers already associate with you—like your company logo. It will appear in communications and news feeds.
Cover photo: This photo will be the first impression you make. Use it to tell your story in a more visual way—this is not another place to sell product. However, you can now use text in cover photos to draw attention to particular aspects of your page. (NOTE: The dimensions for the cover photo are 841×315 pixels. If you upload a smaller image, it may not appear the way you intended.)
3. “About” your business, and “Basic Info”
People who read your “About” section are people who are not current customers. To ensure this section speaks to that audience ask a friend outside of your business to read your content and give you feedback.
Under “Basic Info” is a form where you can share key details of your business: hours of operation, accepted payment methods, and parking. You can also add customised fields related to your industry.
4. Tell your story by marking your milestones
Like a CV, adding milestones (with photos) to your page—like the launch of a new product, the opening of a new store — is a great way to tell people about your business.
5. Post news that people will want to share
It’s not all about you. What will your fans want to read? Make your text look good with either a photo or video. This is no time to play wallflower — you want fans to remember you and to want to tell their friends about you too. Every ‘comment’, “like,” and ‘share’ you receive is another opportunity to reach a new audience. It can be intimidating to see competitors with 1000s of fans, but remember they all had to start somewhere. Learn from them. Pay attention to what type of content is getting the most engagement. You can also connect with other local Pages and start to build a valuable social support network within your community.
6. Build and engage your network
Building a fan base is not easy. But don’t forget you already have fans! If someone has joined your email list, they most likely would love to connect with you on Facebook too. Invite your email list to “Like” your business on Facebook. It’s easy to do with Constant Contact’s email templates. Once they have clicked “Like”, you’ll automatically show up on their newsfeed.
7. Keep engaging!
- Be human! People come to Facebook to interact, not to buy your product or read every blog post you’ve ever written.
- Keep your status updates short and sweet, use photos and videos
- DO consider what time most of your fans will be online and checking Facebook
- DO apply the 80/20 principle: 80% of your posts about the interests your fan base and 20% about your business
- Don’t post more than 1 or 2 status updates per day
Once you feel comfortable and have started to build your community, then you can start to achieve actual business results from your Page. Our Social Campaigns tool can help you do just that.
This article is part of our series on getting started with digital marketing. Miss last weeks article? Read it here.
Author Bio:
I’m interested in helping small businesses and non-profits recognize their full-potential through marketing and social media. I want to hear your story and learn the creative and innovative ways that you’re marketing your business. I’ve worked in small businesses my entire life and now I’m excited to work with them!
