It’s time to get your Facebook ducks in a row. With over a billion users, Facebook  has become a social media platform that any business would be willing to commit marketing resources to.
Also, remember that your target market likely have an interest to see what you’re up to on Facebook. But before you can start running a successful Facebook business page, you’ll need to take the time to understand what you hope to accomplish and how you are going to do it.
Once you have defined your Facebook marketing goals, it will be far easier to manage and measure the effectiveness of your campaign
Tips for Running A Successful Facebook Business Page
- Know where your target market hangs out. With one tenth of the human population as users you would expect that your potential clients/customers would be on Facebook and you are probably right but… If you are a B2B business your best customer may have a Facebook profile but he or she is not on Facebook looking to do business.
Finding alumni from Ole Miss or other fanatical Yankee fans may be his or her motivation for spending time on the site not looking for the latest info on business related information.
Make certain the market you want to communicate with is in fact active on Facebook.
- What do you want Facebook to do for you? Now that you know the crowd you want to talk with is out there, decide what your Facebook business page should do.
There are a ton of options and there is no rule that says you can’t do them all but the more you ask for the more you have to put in.
Brand awareness, top of mind, establishing yourself as an authority, driving traffic to your website, building a community or even using the page as your principal customer service platform are legitimate objectives but the work involved and the different strategies required may overwhelm you.
Pick one or two objectives to start and build from there.
- How to make your studio apartment look bigger. Unlike your website you don’t own this piece of digital real estate; Facebook does.
And they are not overly generous with the space they allow for your cover image and profile image/description.Your cover image is the most important “first impression” element you will have on your page.
This is where you want a professional grade graphic and a tagline and text that quickly identifies who you are and what you do.This is your opportunity to look bigger than you are. Just as a realtor might “stage” a house to make it more appealing, your cover image can do the same for you.
- Posting and playing fair. All too many small businesses build a Facebook page, post three or four items and then give up on it. Results will not come overnight. They will never come if you don’t work it regularly. Consistent, quality content is the key to engaging your market. Timely responses to comments are also essential.
Using Facebook in your marketing mix can be time consuming but the potential is huge. Don’t risk losing that opportunity by running afoul of Facebook. Read, understand and comply with their TOS to preclude getting shut down for a violation which of course blows any good will and brand awareness that you have built.
- Know how you are doing. In tip number 2 we talked about identifying objectives and goals but how do you really know if you are meeting them? The answer is Facebook’s “Insights” which provides valuable information on the behavior of your visitors.
Among other metrics it will tell you fan reach, engagement, click through rate, negative feedback and more. By carefully analyzing this data you can tweak your content to focus on topics that truly resonate with your audience.
Facebook is a great opportunity for most B2C, Non-Profit and affinity organizations but like any new marketing channel you have to understand how it works.
If you feel that running a successful Facebook business page can benefit your organization take the time to learn it, set reasonable expectations and then (and this is key) stick to it.
If you do that you will be rewarded on so many levels that are simply outside your reach with traditional marketing media.
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