A Small Business Guide to Getting the Most Out of Facebook Pt.1

Still, you have to admit, they have created a genuinely brilliant platform to allow us to converse and interact with our friends in a series of new and wonderful ways.

Facebook constantly evolves, it constantly improves, and that’s why Facebook is the perfect platform for YOUR business.You can create an official page for your business, you can help shape the online discussions that impact your brand, and you can promote your services to your EXACT demographic in ways which weren’t possible just a few short years ago.If you have raving fans, like we do, you’ll know your clients end up closing your sales for you! Just the other day we had an inbound lead who rang in and said to our sales guru…

“I’ve checked out all your competitors’ Facebook pages and all their customers do is complain about them; then I looked at your page and your clients rave about how awesome you are, so I want to buy a website from you. Can you give me a quote please?”

No joke, this actually happened and it’s not the first time.

I don’t know about you, but the potential for Facebook to make my business EXPLODE makes me a little bit giddy. 😀

Yep…. for us small to medium size businesses, Facebook is helping us level the playing field and allowing us to make more money – even in the most competitive of industries.

So to celebrate the launch of our NEW ‘Facebook for Business’ eBook, I’m going to give you an introduction to the wonderful world of Facebook. I’m going to show you:

  • Part 1: Why creating GOALS for your Facebook page is a must! (You’re reading it now!)
  • Part 2: Get your customers to INTERACT with you for more sales.
  • Part 3: Get your post TIMINGS right and know when to strike.
  • Part 4: The ABC’s of getting the most out of your Facebook IMAGES.
  • Part 5: Effective Facebook ADVERTISING for an awesome bottom line.

 

We’ll be releasing sections of this blog throughout October! So check back every Tuesday as we reveal more Web123 secrets on how to launch and manage the ultimate Facebook campaign!
How exciting! Let’s get started.

Week 1: Creating goals for your Facebook business page.

What is the goal of your Facebook page? What is the POINT? There must be thousands of businesses online who create a Facebook page for their business ‘just because.’

The sad fact is that there ARE thousands of businesses who make Facebook pages with no purpose, and if you don’t create a Facebook page with a clear and concise goal in mind, then that Facebook page will not help your company one iota.

Below are the most popular goals / reasons for creating a Facebook page:


Goal number 1:  To keep in touch with current / potential customers.

When a customer visits your website, you only have one opportunity to make a good first impression. However, if you successfully get them to *LIKE* your Facebook page, you may have a second chance to convince them to buy from you.

This best way to collect ‘Likes’ for your Facebook account is to offer your customers incentives to get them to like your Facebook from your website. Some come up with grandiose ways to collect these likes, but they can be as simple as the examples below:

Ways to attract ‘Likes’ could include offering exclusive discounts, eBooks, quick quotes… in fact you can lock key content on your Facebook page unless they ‘Like’ you, so you can really hold them over a barrel if you have something they really, really want.

However, once they ‘like’ you, you need to keep their interest by regularly contributing fun and relevant information to your new ‘likers.’ Eventually, they’ll come back to buy from you and if not, they may at least tell someone else about you instead.


Goal number 2: To help shape your reputation or for social proof.

Facebook is the perfect place to promote yourself as having positive attributes such as being charitable, ethical, affordable, customer-focused etc.

 

For example, Starbucks love to use their Facebook page to create the impression that it’s the perfect place to curl up after a hard day’s work and chill out with a book, or to highlight their passion for quality, ethically sourced coffee.

Ultimately people WILL talk about your business both online and off. Therefore you need to help shape your reputation as it unfolds online.

In addition to that, you can create another way for customers to contact you. If you have a Facebook page, your customers are more likely to send you their customer service issues or criticism. Then you can publicly respond with a tactful response that can make you look better in the long run.

Trust me, if you don’t have a Facebook page, your customers WILL go elsewhere to complain! And creating an official online space can help prevent this.


Goal number 3: To cultivate and grow your audience.

Depending on the product or services you’re selling, sometimes it can be difficult to create a Facebook page that people will naturally flock to.

In other words, a popular tactic is not to create a Facebook page just about your company, but instead create a Facebook page where you can cultivate a Facebook community of like-minded people. 

 

For example, if you sell home maintenance products, start up a Facebook group about how to make money from renovating homes. If you run a car hire business, create a Facebook group about places to go in Australia…. etc.

This way you can attract an audience that is not only passionate, but is a natural fit for your product or service.

So what do you do once you’ve cultivated this Facebook audience? Why you need to capitalise on it! You need to recommend your product or service to your new Facebook followers, make them realise why they NEED to visit your site.

Once you get them onsite, you can obviously go for the kill right there or then and try and get the sale through call to actions to buy, or if not, collect their email address (e.g. through a newsletter or special offer email collection feature).

THEN you can reach them outside of their Facebook as often as you want. 😉

Goal number 4: To attract search engine traffic from Google

In regards to SEO, it can sometimes be good to have a Facebook page for two reasons (1)  because Facebook pages can appear in Google search results and (2) there are many who believe that linking your site to an official Facebook page can improve your main website’s Google search result ranking.

If you do create a Facebook page for SEO purposes, it’s important to not only have content that people will search for, but also have content designed to direct people to your official site to enquire or buy.

 

So for example, you could create a page called ‘makeup tips’ and fill it with articles and content advising your potential customers how to, not only apply makeup, but how they can go to your site to buy the latest makeup.

People WILL find this page via their search results
and then go on to your site to buy your latest make up products.

Also, on a quick side note, people USE Facebook as a search engine itself, as users use it to find communities that match their interests and needs. So keep that in mind when creating your Facebook page.


What’s the final magical ingredient? Why… the three E’s!

Above I laid down the 4 most common goals for a Facebook page but if you want to get the most from Facebook, you’ll combine a number of these ‘goals.’

In addition, it is important to remember that Facebook is a SOCIAL experience for its users, so you must above all else offer these three magical ingredients;

                                            Educate, Entertain and/or Empower.

If you can do this, your Facebook page will natural grow with fans over time.

So whip out a pen and paper, or open a Word document, and fill in your top 3 goals for your Facebook page in order right now.

 

My top three Facebook goals are:

  1. …………………………………………………………………………………….
  2. …………………………………………………………………………………….
  3. …………………………………………………………………………………….

 

Check out part 2 of this blog, where I talk about the top 10 ways to get people chatting on your Facebook page.

To go part 2 of ‘A Small Business Guide to Getting the Most Out of Facebook’ simply click on the link.

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