Despite the plethora of social media platforms coming into existence every minute, Facebook remains the wise old grandfather of the social world with over 1.8 billion people using the platform every day. As a business, ignoring Facebook would be as daft as a high street shop locking the door and covering the windows on the busiest day of the year. There is no way the social media giant can be ignored but how to get the most from it? With such a powerful tool it’s important that the manual is well and truly read. As a PR agency we make it our mission to know how best to use all platforms and we’ve compiled a ‘How to’ for Facebook.
Build your Presence: First and foremost you need to be in it to win it. If you don’t have a Facebook business page already, make one as soon as you’ve finished reading this. A Facebook business page allows you to communicate directly with customers, helping them learn more about your business while offering customer service and visually compelling stories.
Create and Boost Posts: For help with creating eye-catching and professional posts read our blog on How to…Get the Best Out of Social Media Tools here. To reach a larger audience you can boost your posts (paying to increase their reach) easily and effectively. When you boost a post, you select the audience that you want to see it. Choose people who like your page, extend it to their friends or even select a new audience that you tailor by age, location, interests and more.
You're in control of how much you spend on a boosted post; the budget that you select is the per-day price of boosting a post. Depending on the audience and budget that you choose, you may or may not reach the maximum amount of your budget each day. Facebook will even recommend which posts you should boost depending on their organic success; these posts already have more likes, comments and shares than other recent posts which usually means that they'll perform well after boosting.
Talk About Your Business: Keep people updated on all that’s new with the business. People can check your page for information and updates or follow it and sign up to get notifications about your Facebook posts. To keep people interested you need to tell your stories beautifully; share updates through text, photos, and videos to keep people interested and coming back to your page.
Connect with your audience: Get to know your followers, who are they and why do they like you? Facebook is the platform for humanising your brand and letting your followers see your warm, fuzzy side. As well as adding a face to your business with Facebook you can also add a voice and become an expert in your industry by sharing your blogs or tips that your followers might find useful. Share meaningful updates; whether its content related to your industry or updates on what your business is doing, stay in touch with your audience with Facebook posts. Use short, fun-to-read copy and eye-catching images to get attention. You can even schedule your posts to save time.
Get More Attention: When your post is published, you can bring more attention to it by pinning it to your page or embedding it in your website. When you pin a post, it will remain at the top of your page so it’s the first thing people will see.
Understand Customers: Once you've captured awareness and created demand for your business, encourage potential customers to sign up for more information, spend time in your app or on your website, or visit your shop – actions that signal that they may make a purchase. Understanding which groups of people are thinking about purchasing helps you reconnect with those people later to encourage them to complete the transaction, so you can boost sales.
Entice Customers: Use posts to make special offers to your customers, invite them to events or share the moment with a live video.
Boost Sales: Sell more by showing people things that they may want to buy.
Plan advertising campaigns for your leads, website visitors and app users or shoppers you haven't reached yet. With Facebook adverts, you can prompt people to purchase by showing them products based on interests they've expressed on your site, app on Facebook or other places online. You can also offer promotions and encourage people to shop online.
Know it’s Working: Page Insights allows you to see exactly how your Facebook page is helping you accomplish your business goals. It analyses the performance of each post so you can compare and tailor your posts to become even more effective.
Companies Getting it Right: We love a good Facebook page and we think these businesses have really hit the mark with theirs…
Farrow & Ball is renowned for its classy colour palette, the premium paint brand has transferred this seamlessly onto the Facebook page by using professional photography.
Hello Big Idea is really good at engaging other businesses (and therefore potential clients) with tips and blogs that are created to help and improve; these kinds of posts will always prove popular.
Stylist makes it its job to be at the cutting edge of all things trending in the fast-paced world of style and fashion, sharing articles like this that gives its followers the best hairstyles for hot weather is, as always, bang on.
Try it For Yourself – Have a good look at your competitors as well as your favourite Facebook business pages for inspiration. Think about how you want to come across and what your tone of voice will be. Compile a brand board for Facebook so that all your posts are consistent and can be recognised as yours. Once you’ve settled on who you are then you can start sharing with your followers, gaining more and more followers with your fluid, engaging and beautiful content.
If you don’t have the time or resources to dedicate to your Facebook page or if you would like some advice and creative ideas call the Sunny Bird PR team on 01202 293095 or email the team on hello@sunnybirdpr.com