This is the first post in our series of ‘top tips’ posts, which will give you the best ways to use each social media platform to your advantage. This one will look at Facebook, and through the coming weeks, we will be discussing Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube and Google+. So here are our top 5 tips for Facebook…
Fill in your ‘about’ section
Make sure your ‘about’ section is complete and up to date. Not only is this useful for potential fans to have a look at and see what you do and where you are, but by using keywords in this description, it aids your SEO. If you have a local business with a physical location, make sure you put your opening hours, along with useful information such as parking or public transport information.
Images
Images tend to work better on Facebook than a post which just has text. This grabs the user’s attention initially and encourages them to continue to read what you have said about the image. Images also get weighted more heavily by Facebook, which means that more of your fans will see that update than if you had posted a link or a plain text update.
Ask questions
Try and get your followers interacting with your page by asking questions when posting your status updates. By encouraging a response to your post, not only do you get fans engaging with your status, but it will also be viewed by more people as Facebook ranks a post with comments, likes and shares more highly than those without. You can ask a question and wait for comments as answers, or you can create a poll with pre-defined answers. This allows your users to vote for the answer option most relevant to them.
Invite people to like your page
This is especially important if you are just starting out with your page as you need to start building your following. Your friends and family will most likely be happy to support you and when they like your page, their friends will see that action and may choose to follow you as well. Tell people what they will get in return for liking your page – will they see product updates, industry news, top tips for using your product, receive exclusive offers etc? If people think they are going to get value from your page, they will be more likely to become a fan. Promote your Facebook page link on all your promotional materials and anywhere you have contact with clients/potential clients e.g. your email signature, business cards, flyers etc.
Check your analytics
Once you have set up your profile, have been posting status updates and have invited people to like your page, you should look at your analytics to see which of your posts are performing best. Analyse the engagement with your posts and use the information this provides to constantly improve your page. You won’t be able to see your analytics until you have at least 30 Facebook page likes.