Facebook’s casual, friendly environment requires an active social media marketing strategy that begins with creating a Facebook Business Fan Page. You will want to pay careful attention to layout, as the visual component is a key aspect of the Facebook experience. Social media marketing for business pages revolves around furthering your conversation with audiences by posting industry-related articles, images, videos, etc.
Facebook is a place people go to relax and chat with friends, so keep your tone light and friendly.
Facebook pages are far more detailed than Twitter accounts. They allow a product to provide videos, photos, and longer descriptions, and testimonials as other followers can comment on the product pages for others to see. Facebook can link back to the product’s Twitter page as well as send out event reminders. As of May 2015, 93% of businesses marketers use Facebook to promote their brand.
A study from 2011 attributed 84% of “engagement” or clicks to Likes that link back to Facebook advertising. By 2014 Facebook had restricted the content published from businesses’ and brands’ pages. Adjustments in Facebook algorithms have reduced the audience for non-paying business pages (that have at least 500,000 “Likes”) from 16% in 2012 down to 2% in February 2014.
Tips for Facebook Posts…
Post Content that Interests Your Customers
The key to developing a winning fan page that builds fans and pushes your business forward is to post content that genuinely interests your customers or clients. Don’t focus solely on you or your business. By providing valuable information to the reader you will build a stronger relationship with current and prospective customers.
Post a Variety of Content
Let’s imagine you own a pet grooming business. On your fan page, you’ll want to share a variety of content like:
Blog Posts – what’s new and happening at your business? Did Spot the puppy turn 1 this week?
Photos – in addition to photos of your store, take snap shots of workers and customers. Upload social media images and pics from events you’ve attended or hosted, like your canine Best in Show event.
Press Releases – let customers know about the updates and improvements you’ve made
Videos – do I need to even tell you how many adorable kitten videos are on the web?
End Every Post With a Question
I hate to sound like a scrooge, but the truth is that people are pretty self-absorbed. Fan page visitors are much more likely to pay attention and respond to your posts if you address them personally and encourage them to get involved
Pairing your Facebook posts with questions is a great way to accomplish this. You’ll get more engagement and better response if you post a link with a question or call to action, rather than just posting a link solo. Invite conversation whenever possible, with each post you do
Don’t Post Too Frequently
According to a research study by the University of Colorado Denver Business School, the No.1 reason people dump Facebook friends is that they get annoyed being continuously bombarded with useless posts (if you are looking to lower your friend count, just download a couple of Zynga games and you’ll be golden).
Plastering a fan’s news feed won’t make them like you any more. Make each post count!
Allow Fans to Write on Your Wall
This might go without saying, but you really need to enable visitors to write on your wall. Disabling this feature means you might as well not have a fan page at all, since the whole point of being on Facebook is to get into dialogue with customers.
Don’t Share Twitter Posts on Your Facebook Page
You’re talking to different audiences with different needs and expectations. It’s fine to have an announcement you want to share across Facebook and Twitter, but re-write it accordingly. And definitely remove the #&@s or people might think you’re saying some not-so-nice things.
Use Contests, But Use Them in Moderation
Of course we can’t forget about contests, the bread and butter of fan pages. Contests are great, but they should be a fun and exciting event, not the norm.
Pumpkin coffee and apple cider are awesome reminders of fall because you can’t get them just any day of the year. Similarly, you shouldn’t be hosting contests so often that they lose their edge.
Get Creative With the Contests
Try an essay, photo, or video contest to get a higher level of engagement with fans. It’s great to incorporate seasonal events, like a “Best Pumpkin Carving” or “Cutest Pet Costume” contest for Halloween. The Wildfire web application is a great tool for making interactive content like contests, quizzes, and surveys.
Try Selecting a Monthly Topic
One idea in attempts to keep fans engaged is to select a different topic for each month. Talk about and post links to sites that cover that topic.
Having a different topic you address each month demonstrates that you have a continuous online presence, making you appear much more interesting (even if deep down you are incredibly dull). Which brings us to our final tip…