Social Spotlight: Facebook
As one of the founding fathers of social media, Facebook seems to be used by everyone and their grandmother. While you may feel like a pro posting family pics and liking your friends’ photos, going about Facebook to promote your business is a different ball game. Let’s examine some basic to get you on your way to a home run!
Know the different options. A personal account is designed for individual use. You can add and follow friends here, as well as keep your posts privately for your friends only if you chose. A page is designed for a business, celebrity, or product and is visible to all other users on facebook (“public”). Individuals as well as other pages can “like” a page to receive notifications in the newsfeed. Your best bet for business promotion is probably a public page.
Know the newsfeed. An individual’s newsfeed will feature recent posts from friends and pages that they have liked. Beneath each post are the options to like (including a slew of other reactions), comment, and share. When someone likes or comments on a post, it may appear in the newsfeeds of their friends. When someone shares a post, it will appear in their friends’ newsfeeds and on their personal profile. Create your posts to grab attention, knowing they will be amongst many others in the newsfeed.
Design your presence. When people click on your page, they will first see your cover and profile photos. In almost all cases, it is best to have your logo as the profile picture and another professional picture as the cover photo (perhaps a picture of your team). You should also list hours and contact information, in addition to a small statement describing your business for the “About” section.
Invite contacts. Take advantage of Facebook’s feature to invite your friends to like your new page. This can be a great way to get some starting likes and keep professional contacts updated if you happen to be friends on Facebook.
Cater your content. Use Page Insights to get statistical feedback about which posts work well and which ones are not striking the same chord, and cater accordingly.