Setting up a Facebook Page is only the initial step to marketing your business through Facebook. In order to use Facebook to its fullest potential, you must create and implement a strategy for marketing your business through this incredibly popular and ubiquitous social media network.
Creating A Page Is Only The First Step
In our previous blog post, we reviewed the process for creating a Facebook Page for businesses. Creating a Page can be an exciting experience – you’re now part of the largest social media network in the United States, so take a moment to admire your new Facebook Page! However, once that moment has passed it is important to begin planning a strategy for utilizing your new Facebook Page. Simply establishing a Facebook presence is simply not enough, and neglecting your Facebook Page and Facebook itself can adversely affect your overall marketing efforts and even your online reputation.
To Pay Or Not To Pay
The first step to creating a Facebook marketing strategy is to determine whether or not your business will allocate marketing funds to advertise your business on Facebook. Creating a Facebook Page and posting content to Facebook is free, and as long as you follow the Facebook Page Terms you are allowed to promote and market your business through free postings. However, you can further leverage your Facebook marketing by purchasing an ad or promoting your posts. As with any marketing or advertising expenditure, it is important to determine if purchasing these services aligns with your larger marketing and advertising objectives.
What Should I Post To Facebook?
Deciding what to post to your Facebook Page may be the most difficult part of your overall Facebook strategy. Creating original, engaging content on a regular basis can be an intimidating and stressful process. If you’re not sure what to post, the best thing to do is to study your competitors and other businesses within your industry. It is important not to copy exactly what others or doing, or to lift content from others; instead, seek inspiration from other Pages, figure out what works for others and improve on these concepts and add your own original “spin” on your content. Remember, your overall goal is to attract new visitors and potential customers to your website, so try to create content that is engaging, educational and inspiring!
How Often Should I Post?
Social media marketing experts disagree slightly on how often a small business should post to Facebook. Some believe that you should only post once a day or even every other day, while others believe that posting twice a day is optimal. However, most agree that posting more than twice a day doesn’t provide any additional benefits or advantages and can even annoy your Page followers. At Blue Zenith, we believe that posting once a day is optimal for the majority of our clients.
When Should I Submit My Post?
As with the frequency of posting, experts also disagree slightly on the best time of day to post to your Facebook page. Posting at your own leisure is not advisable and although disagreement exists over the exact times to post, most experts agree that posting during off hours can be detrimental to your overall engagement. We believe that the optimal time to post to Facebook is late morning or early afternoon. Be sure to not post to Facebook from after dinner through early morning, as it is during this time that people just want to relax and be with their families, so do not be imposing on their leisure time.
Don’t Get Caught Up In “Likes”
Likes are a measurement of how many Facebook users have endorsed your Page. Facebook encourages businesses and organizations to acquire Likes, and even some advanced Page features are restricted based on Like count. However, some Facebook marketing campaigns have focused too heavily on “Likes”, and Facebook has begun to penalize Pages that either obtain Likes through illicit or “spammy” means.
Focus on Quality
As with Search Engine Optimization (SEO), it is vital to remember that by creating original, engaging content, you will naturally attract users to your Page and those users will subsequently Like your page and content. By focusing on the quality of your content, as opposed to simply focusing on obtaining Likes, you will be able to develop a high-quality and sustainable strategy for successfully marketing through Facebook.
In our next blog post, we will discuss how to market yourself on Twitter.