10 Simple Ways to Boost Your Business on Facebook
Social media marketing is an important part of the business world these days, and your average company will have a Facebook page. Mark Zuckerberg’s creation is the most famous social media network and it offers plenty of welcome trade boosts for businesses across the globe, but few firms know how to tap into this potential properly.
The worst mistake any business can make is to view social media as a glorified marketing opportunity. It isn’t – the social media accounts you run are your business's voice to your customers and the world. If you make a mistake, or remain inactive, the world will either reject or ridicule you. Due to this it’s important to keep your Facebook page active as there are a billion users out there to tap into. In this guide I’ll note the ways to keep your customers entertained, and how to draw in more “likes”.
1. Engage With Your Customers
The worst thing a company can do is be inactive or boring – lay off the business spiel and engage with what is, essentially, your fan base! There are simply too many distractions online to risk not being immediately appealing; internet users are notorious for skim reading and will dismiss, or embrace, your Facebook account in a matter of seconds.
Being active with your customers is a good start – if they ask you a question respond immediately. If there’s a complaint, or a problem, strive to get the issue sorted as quickly as possible. A negative comment on your wall can become a terrific boost as customers will often respond gratefully based on your quick response.
2. Promote Fun
It’s important to remember to not flood your customer’s News Feed, so use moderate amounts of entertaining posts on your company wall. These can help keep customers entertained and will aid the viral success of your content, creating organic links (new traffic) to your website. Pictures or puzzles would always go down well.
3. Post Videos on Your Facebook Page
A great way to enhance your page is to include interesting videos that are relevant to your business. For example, if you have a hardware store, then a short instructional video comparing wood stains could benefit your customers. Alter this to your brand’s needs and you’ll be seen to be engaging with customers in new ways.
4. Link to Interesting Articles
Posting articles of interest to your business will also help your website go viral. This can be of your own doing; articles, blog posts, guest posts. Get them onto your wall! However, it wouldn’t go amiss to post links to interesting articles from other sources.
5. Run Competitions
Facebook don’t strictly allow you to have competitions in order to boost your “like” ratings, so what you can do is hold a contest for something which involves your current users “sharing” an image. This can be spread out amongst tens of thousands of people over the course of a few days as more “shares” lead to greater exposure.
Obviously people love winning things, but feel inclined to offer items which aren’t related to your products. Confectionary goods are always popular so promote as each season dictates; at Christmas offer food baskets, during April offer Easter Eggs, or promote the chance to win gourmet chocolates. Simple items like this can boost your popularity in a startling way.
6. Offer Discounts and Coupons
Reward customers for their loyalty with special offers available only to those who “like” your page.
7. Encourage Customer Participation
Allow customers to load photography onto your wall – this can even form into a competition where the best picture wins.
8. Offer Inspiration
A great quote can go a long way, which is why the occasional post should get away from business as usual and get to the higher areas of life.
If it is the 4th of July, then a quote from a former president would do well. On Christmas, a quote about generosity is appropriate. There are many ways to go with this and you can even include it into contests because people love sharing their own sources of inspiration. By giving them a place to post them, they will appreciate the opportunity to share, and will reward you with more traffic.
9. Donate to a Charity
Involving your company, and your staff, in fundraising work can act as a terrific boost to your public image, as well as adding much needed support for communities around the world, or locally. Don’t make too much of a fanfare about your efforts, however, as you do not want it to turn into a exercise in bragging. Make your donations a regular occurrence and promote the cause amongst your regular wall posts.
10. Don’t Be Verbose ... Or Loquacious
In the culture of online reading, people do not want to settle in like they do when they kick back to read a book. They want to find out what is going on without heavy research or being overwhelmed. It’s also important to ditch any pretensions and engage with your customers in plain English - long winded, business spiel laden rambles will do you no favours. Concise and to the point will keep your Facebook page looking sharp and informative.
