When a social networking site (read Facebook) has over 1.39 billion active users it’s wise to have a good brand establishment over there. Whether you are a blogger, artist or a small business, marketing on Facebook could surely get you tons of exposure and leads for your business.
If you are a small business owner and want increased exposure on Facebook, then read on. This post will walk you through ten Facebook marketing strategies that will help you get more likes on Facebook and maximize your business presence on the platform.
1. Get a fully optimized business page.
There is nothing worse than having your business page not optimized properly. If you are to create an impression, start from what you have in hands. Optimizing a business page shows how seriously you take your business and brand. On the other hand an un-optimized page would depict your careless nature and drive away prospects.
Make sure your about section is compelling and creating trust in the mind of your fan.
Setting up a full-fledged business page is no difficult task. Andrea Vahl has written a beginners’ guide to starting a business page.
2. Start attracting your potential fans.
In order to get your potential prospects you need to get into their radar. Get your Facebook page at every potential place your fans hangout at.
First, try to add a like button ion your website. This is the first place people related to your brand visit. If you are on WordPress, here are some of the best plugins to do that.
You could also act as your page (instead of your profile) and interact with pages similar to you. For that you have to click on the dropdown (or inverted triangle) at the extreme right of the top bar of your Facebook account. This gives you the option to use Facebook as your page (you can choose if you have many).
Now start liking pages related to your niche and interact with them. If you provide value both the page owners and their followers would notice you and start liking your page. This is called follower hijacking (very much like we do competitor traffic hijacking using SEMrush).
3. Don’t cross promote, please!
Okay, I know I have sparked a controversy on whether we should cross-promote our social accounts or not, but I have a compelling reason for what I say.
I personally don’t like cross promotion because it in a way disrespects your fans’ choices. If you have a follower on twitter, he is there because he loves to be there. Why on earth would you tell him to like your Facebook page when you know he would never hangout on Facebook.
Don’t miss follow Fridays.
Instead, you should focus on finding fans that are already in your sweet spot, i.e., Facebook. For this you can participate in follow Friday posts where everyone comments on a post and interested people like each other’s page.
One such post is this one:
(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3”; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));
Ready for FACEBOOK FRIDAY?! If you would like to meet some new peeps, get some new fans and build some…
Posted by Boom Social with Kim Garst on Friday, June 5, 2015
Participate in exchange shout-outs.
Here you have to update your fellow brand’s page and ask your followers to like it and in return they do the same with your page on their profile. This way your fans get a related brand to know more about and you get an increased audience base to showcase your page.
4. Use your cover photo as your branded billboard.
Facebook cover picture comes with a huge size of 851*315 pixels. Don’t leave this huge estate in vain. Instead, use it to showcase your upcoming event, a product launch and simply offer your lead magnet.
Colossal pages like Mari Smith’s and John Haydon’s use there cover image real estate to promote their upcoming events and courses respectively.
5. Offer free incentives to your Facebook subscribers.
Before proceeding let me clear out that, Facebook is very strict regarding its usage policies and could ban you if found guilty of bribing your likers.
Instead, you can use an email app to collect leads from Facebook and give them something in return. This way you get double benefits.
- Your page fans will get a chance to enjoy premium gifts without having to leave Facebook or visiting your website.
- You get an additional landing page opportunity to collect leads.
Here are some of the apps that allow you to set up a quick landing page that collects leads in return of a free incentive on Facebook.
Want inspiration? Check out Jon Loomer’s landing page where he gives away his guide on Facebook power editor in exchange for emails.
Below are some more tips that “work” on Facebook.
6. Change your posting style.
Posting on Facebook is all about experimentation. Despite of tons of guides on what to post, it’s you who should decide what and how to post. The reason being, every page is different and so are its audiences. If you want to know what works, try all that you think could work and the result will dawn on you.
Buffer for example, saw huge response when they used links instead of images. Images recently have seen a dip in performances. But that doesn’t mean it won’t work for you. Pages like Kim Garst’s have the whole strategy around beautiful and eye catching graphics and it works for them.
Similarly, using non-peak hours, i.e., just before and after work hours is said to increase your Facebook post’s organic reach as well as engagement.
Here is a beautiful graphic which shows what type of content performs the best on Facebook.
Here is how to use user generated content for getting colossal authority:
7. Provide your fans the best of industry news.
One of the best ways to establish your authority is to curate content that is relative to your industry. This way you would show up as a brand that understands its field.
Sharing insider news from other authority blogs and bigger brands could eventually bring you to the focus of both your fans and followers. As a result your fans will stick to your Facebook page as they get all the latest news there.
When this goes on for a time you will be seen as a thought leader on the social media platform and people will take your words seriously.
If you are wondering how to curate content, let me say it isn’t an easy task at all. The paradox is it isn’t that difficult a task either (once you know how to do it).
For starters, you could create a list of blogs to follow on feedly and track their latest blog posts. You could also visit alltop to collect the best and trending articles from your industry. Twitter lists are a great way to curate content from the influencers and later post them to Facebook.
For this, you could save the desired posts to your pocket account and then blast them to Facebook page at suitable times.
TIP: Do not start posting articles from uber-popular sites like mashable or Huffington Post. Not that their content is uncool but because everyone reads those sites and why someone would stick to your page for stale news.
8. Frame each update for a specific group of fans.
Every successful business laser targets its audience. If you are speaking to everyone no one will listen to you. That’s why you should also target your audience on Facebook to serve them with what they need.
Facebook organic targeting lets you control who sees your posts on their news feed. While all posts are still visible at your page timeline, you could target them to selectively appear in the news feed of certain groups of fans to get maximum engagement.
For example, if you post something about “Facebook marketing” you might want it to be visible to people who have liked Mari Smith or Jon Loomer’s Facebook page. Since these two pages are mostly about “Facebook”, your targeted audience might find your update relatable.
Similarly you can target your custom audiences based on their gender, relationship status, educational status, age, location, language, interest etc. Here is a guide to get started with organic targeting.
9. Use tools and apps to assist you.
Facebook marketing is quite a hefty task if done manually. You cannot manually sit round the clock to post updates targeting fans of different time zones. Similarly, you cannot run a contest without a tool to assist you. Showing your social media tabs like Pinterest, Instagram, twitter etc. would be impossible without apps like woobox.
Here are a set of 15 tools every smart marketer on Facebook should use.
10. Provide customer service.
If you want to be loved by your fans, listen to them. Most Facebook pages either don’t respond or take way too much time to respond to the audiences. This is where bigger brands take the ball to their court.
Brands like Post Planner and Shareaholic are too quick to respond to customer queries (usually from a few minutes to a couple of hours) and that’s why they are loved by their fans.
In order to provide true customer service:
- Monitor your Facebook page at regular intervals.
- Be the first to update a flaw or disruption in your product and tell your fans to stay calm.
- Ask for any queries that your fans have. Even better organize a “Ask your doubt session” every couple of days.
Over to you:
Not getting eyeballs on your business page is not because Facebook is limiting your reach, it’s because you are not experimenting your fans. The best way to make your small business appear colossal on Facebook is to interact with your fans, provide them with value and serve them till their satisfaction. This is what will boost your engagement and eventually organic reach on Facebook.
What do you do differently on Facebook? Or what problems you are facing in making your page colossal on Facebook? Comment below and we will figure a way out.
