Facebook is now a household name, boasting over 1 billion active users who are constantly posting, liking, sharing and commenting. Without doubt it’s a great way to connect with either consumers or brands and chances are at some point you have ‘liked’ one of your favourite brands pages, only to be bitterly disappointed with either their lack of activity, or irritated by too many meaningless posts. It’s very easy for businesses to create a Facebook page for online marketing purposes, but in order to create a successful Facebook presence a little bit of strategic planning needs to be implemented. Below are a few best practices that won’t take up too much time, or budget, but should help get the most out of your Facebook presence.
Have a Goal
It’s important to identify a purpose for your Facebook page, tailor your activity to suit that purpose, and stick to it. Are you out to raise brand awareness, just for product promotion or perhapsas a way to open lines of communication for customer feedback? A single-minded goal and approach will help make the page more valuable to your business.
Use Visual Content
Image and video posts get the most attention and engagement from users on social media sites. If you want to create more conversation, likes or shares around your posts, then start including images or videos.
Allocate Resources
If part of your marketing goal is to use Facebook to generate sales leads then it’s going to take a two-fold investment on your behalf; time and money. Sure, creating a Facebook page is free, however every other form of marketing activity a business undertakes (print advertising, radio ads, etc.) costs money, so the same thinking really applies for Facebook too. If you are after results then you need to put aside the time to continually manage your page and invest in some of the paid marketing tools Facebook has to offer, like Ads or Promote Posts.
Add Relevant Content
Follow the principle of less is more. It’s better to post one outstanding item a day, rather than several mediocre ones. Ask your audience relevant questions that could shed light on their interests and improve your marketing objectives. Focus onposting updates that are relevant to the context of your business or page, but aren’t overly promotional. Write updates that are straight to the point; Facebook research has shown that posts between 100 and 250 characters get 60% more likes, comments and shares than ones that are more than 250 characters.
Hold a Facebook Contest
A contest run on Facebook is a great way to boost engagement and interact with your audience. It can also help you gain more followers if it’s shared around the online community. Keep the contest simple and offer something on brand as a prize. Make sure you follow the guidelines set by Facebook for holding a contest, or you run the risk of having your business page removed.
Use Facebook Insights
Take advantage of the data provided by Facebook Insights, as it’s a pretty useful tool for those wanting to better understand the performance of your Facebook page. By using Facebook Insights you’ll be able to determine the best time of day to post, the best day of the week to post and which updates are the most popular. You’ll also be able to delve a bit deeper into metrics such as Friends of Fans, and People Talking About This, which could provide some handy insights if you are considering adding promoted posts to your marketing strategy, or looking for potential brand ambassadors. Have any of your own tips that you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments below.