Photo Credit: Dave Rutt/Filckr
We all know that Facebook has a tremendous reach, and that it has massive potential for your business. What you may not know is how you can effectively use Facebook in your business.
There are however, some ways to be smart about it. We've found a few do's and don'ts you want to keep front of mind when marketing on Facebook, lest you find yourself running afoul of the largest social media giant on earth.
Let's have a hard look at a few of the things to do and not to do when using Facebook for business purposes.
Be sure to…
- Respond quickly – Don't leave people hanging for days. Aim to respond within an hour if possible.
- Make shorter posts – Studies are showing that posts of less than 80 characters get 66% more engagement.
- Grow your page naturally – The best way to grow your business page is by having great word of mouse. Asking your readers to share, perhaps running a Like campaign to a targeted group.
- Be sure to ask questions – A surefire way to greater engagement.
- Post interesting content – The best way to get your links shared is to come up with killer content that people can't wait to share.
- Post often but not too often – Once a week is too little, and over ten times is probably too much. Test and find the sweet spot.
- Use Facebook ads – Strategically using Facebook ads can be a great way to reach followers and a potential new audience with content and offers.
- Share – Be sure and share your best around all of your channels.
- Engage with Fans – Responding and talking to your fans is an excellent way to build your brand.
Be sure not to…
- Constantly sell – If all you do is pitch your audience, they will eventually move on.
- Ignore people – Don't answer people and you'll never see them again.
- Post lengthy tomes – Shorter work s better here. What you can do is tease your longer content and link out to it.
- Buy likes – A fake audience is worse than no audience. We've all seen Facebook Pages with thousands of fans and zero interaction.
- Post irrelevant content – Don't treat this as your personal Facebook page: this is for your business so keep it relevant.