Social media expert, Louise Thomas, offers some ideas on how you can harness the power of Facebook for your business
As arguably the largest social network website around currently, it's impossible to ignore the marketing potential of using Facebook for your business.
However, over the past few years, Facebook has made it increasingly harder for businesses to reach as many users as they've had the freedom to in the past. In an attempt to focus on creating an enjoyable user experience, Facebook has put in place certain measures to limit how many marketing messages are exposed to the average user. The rules that determine how Facebook decides who your posts will be delivered to are formed by quite a complex algorithm, but there are a few pointers worth noting that will improve how you use Facebook for your business.
Starting from scratch?
If you're building your business a new Facebook page from scratch, then you're actually at a huge advantage. A great deal of how Facebook determines how many users your posts will be delivered to, is calculated from how well your posts have performed in the past – the more likes, shares, comments and general interactions your posts have had, the more likely they are to show up again in the future. Don't panic, however, if you've had your Facebook page for a while – the next pointer will still help improve your posts' reach.
Get off to a flying start
A great way to kick start activity on your Facebook page is to run a giveaway or offer a free download. This will naturally lead to a great deal of interaction from Facebook users, which you can easily even promote based on how you run your competition – you'll see many pages use the 'share and comment to enter' technique. In the long run this will demonstrate to Facebook that your posts are interesting – obviously! – and that people want to read what you've got to say!
A photo speaks a thousand words
This quote has never been truer than on social media of 2015. While in the initial stage of social media a lot could be said for long blog posts and articles, it's now clear that social networking sites are geared largely towards image and video sharing. Even networks originally based around text exchanges – eg Twitter – have since been redesigned and updated to encourage users to communicate with images.
Photos are always a popular option to share on Facebook, and a good way for users to feel closer to your brand or business. They're particularly a great way to break down the barrier between brand and consumer, making your business seem more personable than ever.
Educate or amuse
When planning your posts always remember the above, as the most popular posts on Facebook are either posts that teach us something fascinating or new, or posts that just make us laugh and we can't wait to share with our friends online. Always ask yourself, 'Is my post interesting or amusing?'
Analytics – a marketer's best friend
Facebook has handily installed its own Facebook Analytics software for every page user. This is an extremely useful and informative tool, which will help you assess the strengths and weaknesses of your Facebook marketing. If used to its fullest, you can learn when your users spend most of their time online – and schedule your posts to coincide with this – and which type of posts they enjoy reading most. You can also learn who your online target market are – sometimes this can be slightly different to your offline market, so this is particularly useful!
In for a penny, in for a pound
One final point worth mentioning in regards to Facebook marketing, is the ability to pay to increase the reach of your advertisements. For those hoping to use social media as a free form of marketing, this might not be of interest. However, it is an interesting feature and can be really fine tuned to your own business needs. For example, if you're running an independent women's fashion business in Surrey and want to reach new potential customers on Facebook you can pay as little as £5 to reach an extended audience online. You can then narrow down who exactly this paid ad will reach by location, age, and even gender. The feature enables you to control how much you wish to spend on your advertised posts, and naturally the larger amount you spend the larger reach your post will have online.
If you have any more queries about social media marketing for your business in general, then you'll find lots more hints and tips in Issue 1 of The Sneak.
