Facebook is a titan in the social media industry. It’s draw isn’t limited to keeping up with friends and family members either. As a business owner, Facebook can also be used as a marketing tool for your business.

 

Transition in Marketing Styles

The way that businesses advertise has changed over the years. Once upon a time, newspaper ads were the way to go. Then, television commercials were the way to go. Now, most people spend a significant amount of time online.

Any aspiring business student can tell that it’s the responsibility of businesses to adapt to the world around them to succeed. This is similar to the way students have to study to achieve a degree. Much like a student might use the best college admission essay writing service EssayPro, businesses need to use platforms like Facebook to elevate their marketing.

 

Create a Business Page On Facebook

When creating a presence on Facebook, businesses will want to create a business page. This differs from a personal page, but it isn’t difficult to do. If a company has ever handled a website of their own, this just might be even easier.

Facebook has tried to make this process as simple as possible. To create any page on Facebook, just click the “Create Page” option in the top, right corner of the screen. Once this is selected, users will be prompted to enter information, including;

• Basic information about the business (i.e. business name),
• Additional information (i.e. contact information, location, descriptions),
• Profile and cover photo,
• Choose the sections the business wants on their page, and;
• Add any collaborators that the creator works with (i.e. other team members who will work on the profile).

Once these steps are followed, a business is ready to start posting. We’ll take a deeper look at that later.

 

Knowing How Facebook Works

Facebook used to work rather simply. A business could post something and it would go directly to the people following that business in their feed, appearing in reverse chronological order. Today, though, this isn’t the case.

There are a number of factors that go into when, where, and who receives posts from a business.

Personal pages get preference. This means that if someone is following a business page, the posts from their friends will come up before the business’. The algorithm also uses preferences of users to adjust their feed. So, if they are following a business but don’t get drawn in by their posts, they will probably start to see less of them.

One of the most important things for businesses is that Facebook wants to promote real communication. If a post is made to spam or mislead users, the algorithm will treat it unfavorable.

 

What Audience Do You Want to Reach?

Before deciding post content, it’s important to determine the audience you are trying to reach. For instance, if a business wants to reach their current followers, it’s important to know who they are.

Tools like Facebook’s Audience Insights can give you a demographic breakdown of the audience. This information can be used to determine the type of content the audience would want.

 

What to Post

The easiest type of post to make is a simple text post. However, these aren’t usually the most effective options for businesses because they don’t catch the eye.

For better results, it’s a good idea to add some sort of multimedia to the message. Pictures and videos are often useful tools. In addition, it’s a good idea to use links to the business’ website or products. The most effective links use a headline and a preview of the content that the link leads to.

It’s also a good idea to be conversational on Facebook. Businesses don’t want to be so stiff that they are boring and easily ignored. It can also be useful to start a conversation and encourage responses from the audience. This is because for more people to see what’s been posted, it helps to have an audience that is sharing, liking, and commenting on the content.

Stories are a newer feature on Facebook that exist at the top of a user’s feed. Many businesses don’t take advantage of this feature but it’s a great way to catch an audience’s attention. It should be noted that long stories will annoy more than engage.

 

More on Videos

Videos are by far the most effective choice that can be made on social media. It’s estimated that videos see 59% more engagement in their posts at minimum compared to other post options. When the top 500 posts on Facebook throughout 2018 were released, the preference was obvious with over 81% of these top posts were videos.

 

When Should Businesses Post

It’s not only what and how you post on Facebook, it’s also important to know when to post.

Businesses don’t want to overload or spam followers with content. A post or two a day is usually enough. Engagement is also 32% higher when posts are put out on the weekend. To start a little earlier, Thursday and Friday bring about 18% more engagement than Monday through Wednesday posting. When it comes to time, posting at 9 AM, 1 PM, and 3 PM are best.

 

Tracking Results

As with any other type of marketing and advertising, it’s important to keep track of how your Facebook campaign is going. With that information, businesses should use this information to adjust to grow their strategy.

Luckily, Facebook has handy features to help businesses out. Facebook Insights allows users to monitor aspects, such as;

• Page views,
• Actions on pages,
• Page previews,
• Likes,
• Reach,
• Promotions (or, your ads),
• Recommendations, and;
• Engagement

 

Conclusion

Facebook can be a valuable tool to businesses in marketing their products and services. Just like any other tool, it’s important to wield it correctly. With these tips in mind, you can elevate your business’ marketing strategy through Facebook in no time.