CONTENT STUDIO

With its ubiquitous presence, Facebook has become the default Social Media of choice for every business. As of Q1 2016, Facebook had 1.65 billion monthly active users. That is reason enough for your business to have a Facebook page, especially if you are a B2C company. Even B2B companies can benefit from having a Facebook presence to enhance their reputation, attract talent for recruitment, and to make major newsworthy announcements. Its large user base provides a great platform to promote your business, connect with existing customers, as well as to find new customers.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when using Facebook for business to get the most out of its wide reach and universal appeal.

1. Choose a Profile photo that helps your business get recognized quickly. It could even be a logo or a mascot.
2. Choose the right CTA button for your business page. Facebook offers a wide range of buttons including Use App, Watch Video, Sign Up, Contact Now etc. Choose one which best suits your business goals.
3. Fill out the About section completely and accurately. Make use of the Description section of the profile to clearly state your business purpose, services offered and what followers can expect from your page. You should also use your industry keywords to help people who are searching.
4. Use the cover photo, pinned post, profile CTA, apps etc to promote your current campaigns.
5. Use of visual content – especially photos and videos are great for viewability and tend to attract more likes and sharing.
6. Facebook has now launched 360-degree photos and videos – be willing to experiment with them to see if your audience likes what you have created,
7. Facebook’s new Instant Articles is also a great platform to publish your content. If your business regularly creates great content (strongly encouraged!), then you should consider Instant Articles as an avenue for publishing and sharing.
8. Find out the best times to post – what times during the day your audience is likely to be surfing on Facebook and fire away. This needs some experimentation, although some research, understanding of your target audience’s habits and common sense can also help you figure out the ideal posting times.
9. Boost your popular posts to reach more people – both within the group of people who already like your page and preferred audience who are not followers yet.
10. Promotions, contests and discounts are a great way to keep the audience interest intact. Use it as platform to offer special promotions and previews of product launches to create a buzz.
11. Be proactive in replying to comments and private messages on your business pages – it improves relationships, and builds trust and retention.
12. Share interesting content, but do not post too frequently. While frequency may be subjective for a business, posting more than 2-3 times every day is considered excessive by many.
13. Add apps that help enhance your brand and would add value to your users. For example, you could add Mailchimp to your Facebook page to capture email addresses and it automatically goes into your subscribers’ list. If you would like to put your Instagram photos on a tab on your Facebook page, try out either Pagemodo or Iconosquare.
14. Measure engagement for your posts. Visit the Insights section to see which posts are doing well and which posts are least interesting to the user.