There are over 3 billion users and 70 million active business pages on Facebook. Having an active Facebook page for your business increases exposure to potential customers. It also can help lower your marketing expenses since creating a page is free. Advertising with Facebook ads are also relatively inexpensive compared to traditional print, radio, and TV ads, while being much more targeted to your audience.
Your business page is your business’ identity on Facebook. It’s free and mobile friendly, which is important with the dramatic shift to mobile over the past couple years. Utilizing Facebook for your business is a perfect way to reach your target audience, create brand loyalty, increase web traffic, boost SEO, increase leads, and potentially increase your bottom line.
What makes a good Facebook page?
A good page should:
- Provide visitors with useful details about your business.
- Provide a list of products, services, or jobs.
- Have well-defined Call to Actions.
Useful Information About Your Business
Providing useful information on your page makes it easier for visitors to understand what your business is about and to help build brand recognition. Your brand identity should be consistent across all of your marketing efforts. On Facebook, you would do this by setting your logo and using a cover photo or video about your business.
Make sure your contact information is entered and kept up-to-date, such as:
- Hours of Operation
- Address
- Phone Number
This will help visitors find and contact you, especially on mobile devices. For example, visitors can click on your phone number to call you directly or get directions to your location.
Turn on Reviews.
Another important piece of useful information you should pay attention to is your page “About Section”. Here you can let visitors know what your business is about. A good “About Section” will help customers find you on Facebook and enhances your presence on search engines such as Google or Bing.
Products, Services, or Jobs
Letting visitors know what you offer is also very important to maintaining a successful page. Facebook lets you promote your products with a shop, display your services in a services section, or even list jobs to find employees.
Shops
You can showcase and sell your products through Facebook. You can decide whether you want to sell directly on Facebook or you can send your customers to your website.
Services
Services lets you list your services you offer through your business. It is important to keep your customer in mind when setting up this section. Make it easy for your customer to understand what the services you offer are. The easier it is for them to understand, the more likely they are to get in contact with you.
Jobs
The jobs section is a good way to help you fill empty positions in your company. Your can let prospects know of openings and provide details such as job title, type, and pay.
Call to Actions or CTA
Call to Actions are buttons that lead a customer to take a specific action. Facebook has several categories of CTA buttons for you to choose from.
Some examples are:
- Book Services: Book Now or Start an Order
- Get in Touch: Call Now, Sign Up, Contact Us, Get Quote, etc.
- Learn More: Watch Video or Learn More
- Make a Purchase: Shop Now or See Offers
Communication is Key to Your Success
Your goal on Facebook is to get more people to see your content. Posting to your page is just like posting to your personal profile and can appear in multiple places, including:
- Facebook News Feed
- Facebook Search
- Marketplace
- Local App
Engage Your Local Community
Get your local community engaged with your page.
Create Facebook Events
Facebook events help you reach your community, bring customers together, and build an engaged audience. For example, you could have a customer appreciation day and list it on Facebook.
Create a Group
You can create a group that is specific for your business and link it to your page. Groups give your customers a place to share and discuss or come together. This is a powerful tool to help businesses expand their audience or create deeper engagement and more effectively connect with customers.
Organize Contests and Promotions
You can create contests and promotions to get more people to like your page or share your posts. This is a good way to grow your audience.
Offer Incentives for Activity on Your Page
You can offer discounts for customers that check-in at your location on Facebook.
Communicate One-On-One
Customers want an easy way to reach out to businesses for real-time responses. Sometimes responding immediately to customers is hard. Facebook has created several communication controls to help businesses succeed.
- Away Status – Let customers know that you are not immediately available for response.
- Away Messages – Automatically respond to customers to let them know when you will be available or where they can find other information.
- Instant Replies – Customers that message your page for the first time will get an instant reply, automatically. This is a great way to let potential customers know that their message was received and thank them for reaching out.
- Saved Replies – Sometimes you are asked the same questions multiple times. You can save your replies to be used again in the future. You can even edit these replies before sending to make them more personalized.
Manage and Measure Your Results
Keeping track of your audience and engagement is crucial to your success. As you build your audience, you may want to know what content your users are most interested in as well as the demographics of people who are interested in your business. These insights will help you understand who your audience is and how to more effectively connect with that audience.
Facebook has a few free tools to help you:
- Facebook Pages Manager App
- Inbox
- Page Insights
Facebook Pages Manager App
This app allows you to view notifications, post updates, upload photos and videos, respond to comments and messages, and view Page Insights.
Inbox
Inbox allows you to view and respond to comments and messages across your Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram accounts. This can make it easier to keep track of customer communications in a single place.
Page Insights
Page Insights provides that information about Page performance — such as demographic data about your audience — as well as how customers are responding to your posts. You can also see when your audience is on Facebook and how boosted posts or promotions are doing.
You can use this information to better target your audience, by creating the types of posts they’re interested in seeing and then publishing them at the best times.
Conclusion
Most people on Facebook visit the site every single day, so regular status updates, shared links and videos, and other information gives you a chance to connect with customers daily.
An increasing number of consumers use Facebook to find products, services, and brands to solve their everyday problems. Social media outlets such as Facebook make it easy for potential customers to find you. When potential customers find you, they are more likely to remember your brand and share it with their own connections.
In the end, a branded Facebook page for your business can be a powerful way to expand and increase awareness of your business online.