Claire Saxton’s Social Media Basics – Facebook

Today I want to explore using Facebook effectively for your business marketing. I think it’s fair to say that most of us have a Facebook account that we use to connect with friends and family. So, we naturally think that we must have a Facebook business page when we want to use social media for marketing, but this isn’t always the case.

In this blog, I’m going to guide you through using Facebook correctly, so you can get things off to a flying start.

Make sure that Facebook is the right social media channel for your business

If you have read my previous blog in this series about Twitter (handy link right here), you’ll remember me discussing the importance of doing your research regarding target audience. One of the most important things for you to consider is where your ideal customers are engaging with social media, and it might not be Facebook!

Women are more likely to use Facebook than men, so if you’re trying to target a male-dominated audience, this might not be the right platform for you. However, there’s some good news to be had here. Women are more likely to use Facebook for social reasons whereas men turn to social media for business-related purposes.

Once you know that Facebook is right for your business, it’s time to set your profile up correctly

First impressions count so getting your profile right is key for Facebook marketing success.

You need to make sure that it’s consistent with your website and the other social media platforms you use. That means the same colour palette, images, tagline and overall appearance. It’s all part of creating your online brand and ensuring that you’re instantly recognisable to your audience wherever they find you. It’s this repetition and familiarity that kick-starts the buying process in most cases.

You need to be sure that your profile is optimised for search engines and that the keywords you select are right for the platform and audience on there, but also what’s being searched for on Google, and other search engines.

This doesn’t have to be as difficult as it sounds.

Think about how you’d find your products or services on social media and Google and make a list of the search terms you use. Would your target audience think the same way? Make a list of search terms and alternatives and use this as the basis for your profile and content.

Top tip – have a video-based profile cover ‘photo’ rather than a static image. It’s a great way to introduce yourself to your audience and stand out.

Pay attention to the sections of your business page

Make sure your ‘about me’ section is accurate on your business page.

This might seem obvious, and if you’re creating a new page from scratch it’s going to be the case. But if you’ve had the page a while, when was the last time you checked the information is still relevant? Our businesses and how we sell our products and services tend to evolve over time, as we understand what works, what our target audience are looking for and how we can take advantage of our unique selling point.

So, make sure you review your about me section every now and then to keep things up to date – a lot of followers will check this to find out more about you, and what you do.

Use the services section to showcase your offering.

You need to be somewhat selective here and decide on one key offering that’s going to resonate with your Facebook audience the most. This might only be a small part of what you do, but the principle here is to get them interested and engaged with you. Presenting your full product or services portfolio and closing the deal comes much later in the sales process.

Content isn’t always king, but it particularly matters with Facebook

While Facebook doesn’t have the quickly changing feed of Twitter, it’s also being used primarily for social purposes. So, the type of content you post here is important if it’s going to hit the right note with your audience, and why it doesn’t always work so well for b2b type marketing.

If you sell products rather than services, it’s a little easier to create a content strategy that’ll work for your audience. A mixture of sales-based posts along with memes (funny, cute or inspiring dependent on who you’re talking to), video and curated content from other sources is the best approach to take in my experience.

Video works particularly well on Facebook, and you’ve probably come across quite a few ‘lives’ on your personal profile already. A follower will get alerted if you go live so they can join you straight away and listen to what you have to say, but pre-recorded video can work just as well. Don’t be afraid to go live with your marketing and grab your smartphone for a video. It’s a break from the norm, allows you and your personality to get across and establishes a rapport that can be built on over time.

Top tip! Upload the video to YouTube and embed the file into Facebook. Google owns YouTube, so uploading videos there and linking back to your website with relevant keywords is an easy way to boost your SEO. 

Sharing testimonials is a good way to reinforce your credibility as a business owner and being good at what you do, so don’t be afraid to share them with your audience. Using software like Canva to turn them into a colourful and attention-grabbing meme is a great way to do this that’ll stand out on a busy timeline.

As with all social media – aim for relationships rather than leads

You’re going to be hearing me say that a lot but that’s because it’s so important. We do business with people and so focusing on relationship building is the key to Facebook, and any other social media platform you choose to use.

Facebook groups area good way to achieve this. There are networking groups specifically for business owners to interact and engage with each other, although they can be heavy on the sales promotion side of things. Most groups will have a rule of sales posts only on selected days of the week to avoid this bombardment of ‘buy from me’ messages and focus on conversation instead.

Interest groups are likely to be of greater benefit to you, and we’re talking about the interests of your target audience here. If you sell clothing for toddlers then joining parent groups, working mum groups and anything related to the early years and childcare are where you’re going to find your target audience, for example. Focus on helping them with advice, friendly conversation and pointing them in the right direction of resources and you’ll find their interest in you and what you do will naturally come.

Facebook Ads are where you want to be focusing your sales message and marketing

This is where you can really sell what you do in an ad specifically designed for your target audience. It’s a fairly involved process and can be costly when done wrong, so I’m not going to go into too much detail with that right now and save it for another blog.

I would advise that you always used the ‘Ads manager’ when creating your campaign as it helps you to organise and manage your ads more easily. Be sure to have a clear objective in mind before you start, do your research in terms of target audience and what they want to see and split test your campaign so you can see what works best for your audience (this can be the heading, tone, content, etc.)

Make sure you’re monitoring your insights on a monthly basis

 Insights is the section on your business page that tells you how well it’s performing regarding page views, actions, engagements and how big a reach your posts are achieving. It’s invaluable data that should be used to inform and refresh your Facebook strategy often.

There’s a whole range of information you can glean from this section, and it is worth exploring each of the different sections to discover more about the performance of your page. Some features are only available if you have a Facebook pixel on your website so don’t worry if you get a message saying ‘this information is unavailable’.

Facebook is one of those social media platforms that can work incredibly well for business owners, or leave you feeling frustrated and tearing your hair out. If you’ve done your research well and know this is where your target audience are hanging out, it’s a trial and error process to finding the right buttons to press to make your marketing successful.

To find out more about my social media marketing services, including strategy and support, get in touch with me today.