After being on Facebook nearly every day for a few years now and managing over 15 different business accounts, I have learned a lot about what to do and what NOT to do with your business on Facebook. Here are my rules that we (here at Tarte Advertising) live by when it comes to using Facebook for businesses.
1. Don’t post too many times per day. Not sure how many times per day is too many? If you have under 250 fans, I recommend 1 time per day. Once you hit 500 fans, I think there are days where you can post more than once. Most businesses shouldn’t need to post more than 3 times per day – even when you have a very large fan base. There are exceptions to this rule.
2. More importantly than #1 for me is, making sure that WHAT you are posting is something that your fans want to hear about. If you only post 1 time per day – or even every other day – make certain that it is relevant to your business and your customer – not just to yourself. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and really think about what they would WANT and NEED to hear from YOU. Just because you think something is interesting, doesn’t mean that your customers, the ones that keep you in business, will.
3. Building off of rule #2 is this: Keep your personal posts on your personal wall. Keep the business page for business. Trust me when I say that no one, that is truly interested in your business, wants to know about your personal life and how much fun you had out with your friends last night or what you are doing on your vacation. Unprofessional posts = loss of fans.
4. Don’t post too few times per week/month. For every business, the number of times you should and shouldn’t post will vary. I don’t think any one can tell you that you HAVE to post 1 time every day or 10 times every week in order to be successful with your marketing through Facebook. What I can tell you is that it will take a little trial and error to figure out exactly what your audience wants and expects from you. Be careful not to post too little – in this economy, people will think you are taking an early retirement. For example, if I go to a Page and see that no one has updated or posted to it in over a month, I immediately rule them out as a business I want to be connected to. There is SO much competition on Facebook – if you don’t post and your competitor does – you lose.
5. Do more for your business than JUST create and update a Page. Shockingly – not everyone is on Facebook. My mom isn’t. My dad isn’t. My husband has a page, but never uses it. None of my grandparents have pages. My daughter doesn’t have one either. Yet – all of those people fall in to many different target audiences for many different businesses. Facebook will most likely not be the means that drives all your customers – it is just another tool to use in conjunction with various other marketing tools.
6. SOCIAL media. SOCIAL media. SOCIAL media. Facebook is SOCIAL. Be SOCIAL with your fan page! I like to think of Facebook, and some other forms of social media, as a form of Word-Of-Mouth advertising – the most effective means of advertising for nearly every business. People “talk” on Facebook. They ask questions and give recommendations and suggestions. They respond to what other people say. If you only have time to post a few times per week, make sure that you are at least logging on quickly, for 3 minutes, and seeing if anyone has posted questions to your page that you need to answer. A sure-fire way for me to UNLIKE a page is for me to post a question on a business’s wall, and wait a month for anyone to respond. Keep up!
7. Know, upfront, that Facebook DOESN’T work for EVERYONE. Facebook is just like any other advertising – it might work for you, and it might not. It depends on who your target audience is. If you are marketing to an older demographic that doesn’t use a computer very often, then Facebook probably shouldn’t be your number one means of marketing your business. However, if you are trying to reach mothers in their 30′s, then you will probably find them pretty quickly.
8. Use images & links to help make your posts stand out in the crowd of the News Feed. When you add a link or a photo to your post, it increases your real estate on the News Feed – which will in turn help you stand out a bit. There are LOTS of people, especially the GEN Yers, that have OVER 1,000 “friends” on Facebook – all of them posting multiple times per day. If you can’t make your posts stand out amongst all of their posts, you lose the battle of gaining their attention.
9. If you are posting more than 1 photo, use a Photo Gallery to group them in to. No one wants to see their entire News Feed filled up with 20+ individual photos from one business. This is an easy way to get your fans to hide or even unlike you.
10. Be creative – not boring. You have got to think outside of the box with your social media to get people’s attention. Facebook can be a very fun environment, especially when you starting thinking creatively.
11. Understand that Facebook is not REALLY free. Sure, it doesn’t cost to sign up or start posting anything, but it does take time. And time is money. Whether you are posting for your business yourself, or you have someone that is doing on behalf of your business, it is going to cost you time & money.
12. Don’t expect miracles and over-night success just because you have a Facebook Fan Page. Just like all advertising – it takes time. And you have to GIVE it time. Be patient and follow the above rules and after a few months, you should know if Facebook is going to be something that you and your business should stick with for the long haul.
There are plenty of other rules and ideas that I have learned and come across, but these are the ones that I feel are the most important ones when it comes to getting yourself and your business started on Facebook. If you have questions, comments, or any other kind of feedback, I would love to hear it. If you need help with your Fan Page – give me a call.
