Using Facebook for Business

Facebook can provide your organization with a massive marketing opportunity. It has an estimated 1.4 billion active monthly users. Social media is now the conventional way to advertise and if you don't take the time to understand it now, your competition will pass you by. Using Facebook for business is great investment in ensuring your success.

After you spend some time looking at how the big brands use Facebook, you may notice that they follow some the same general rules of thumb. While you'll have to experiment to see what works for you, there are some Facebook best practices you can start with.

1. Do Not Pitch Your Product

You may notice that successful brands don't use Facebook to sell to their followers. Rather, they use it to engage with them. Give people something of value or advise them on making their lives easier/better. You can give your Facebook community special deals, but make it fun.

2. Post Every Day

That may seem excessive, but it's not. The average Facebook profile is a very busy place. As people make more friends and like more pages, your posts run a real risk of being overlooked. Some studies indicate that posting between 3 to 5 times a day can be the ideal amount.

3. Make an Effort to Engage with Your Audience

Try to connect with and get responses from your community. Pose questions, post helpful tips, and link to your blog posts or other articles that your audience will like and share with their own communities. When creating posts about your audience and what they need, rather than selling to them, you will develop trust.

4. Include a Call-to-Action Button

Tell people exactly what to do and use action words. For example, click, like, comment now, download an ebook, or watch a video.

5. Don’t Oversell, or Undersell

We know that we said "Do not pitch" in #1, but we really should have said rarely pitch. If you have regularly posted and given away really good information, you can pitch once in a while. Remember, no one likes a never-ending sales pitch, but highlight your services from time-to-time! Maybe allow yourself a pitch post for every 5 helpful and informative posts.

6. Strive for Fun

Facebook is a form of social media and therefore it is a social community. People are there to have fun. You can be unliked as quickly as you can be liked. Stay true to your brand, but always think of ways to entertain your followers.

7. Read, Reread and Reread

Make sure that your posts use correct grammar and spelling. If unsure, switch it up to something that you are sure about. Remember Google and spellcheck can help in that regard.

These Facebook best practices are a good place to start, but watch what works for you.