[one_half]
Whilst setting up your Facebook page and researching competition you may have noticed some Facebook “rules of thumb”. Whilst there aren’t any hard and fast rules in social media, there are some general “best practices” that are you can start with as a base. Ultimately you will have to carve your own way with what works with your audience and what they need from you.
You will notice that successful brands on Facebook don’t preach or sell to their fan
base, they engage with them…Just like in the 3 dimensional world.
Customers know when a salesperson is being a fake bum and it turns them off. They also know when a salesperson is genuinely interested in understanding their needs and finding out how best to meet those needs. Facebook is no different.
Here are several ideas how you can use Facebook effectively : –
Give your Facebook community special deals but also makes it fun and engaging.
Give inspiring quotes related to your industry and things to do through
their updates: i.e. special days like teacher day, free hugs day etc.
Link your Facebook posts to something on your website.
Post every day. That may seem excessive to you but as people make more
friends and Like more pages, your posts may be missed. If you are only
posting once or twice a week then it could be a long time between posts if your
community misses one or two of them. There are studies that show posting
between 3-5 times a day can be good amount for Pages (make sure you are
varying your posts and also watch your statistics to see what works best for
your community). You can decide that you might take the weekend off but
also realize that the weekend is when many people are on Facebook.
[/one_half]
[one_half_last]
• Focus on engagement. You are trying to connect and get response from your
community. Ask questions, post helpful tips, links to articles that your
audience will Like and Share. When you make the posts about your audience
and what they need rather than selling, you will develop a richer and deeper
relationship with your community. You will sell more as a byproduct of that
deeper relationship. Set aside time to follow up on posts and respond to
questions on your Wall.
• Have a call to action. Tell people to click the Like or comment on the post.
Have them watch your video or go to your website.
• Don’t oversell or undersell. No one likes a never-ending sales pitch. By the
same token, make sure you do highlight your wares from time-to-time! Use the
80-20 rule for content/connection posts vs. sales messages. So if you decide
to post five times a week, one of the posts should be a sales message and
four posts will be other helpful or fun content for your community.
• Make it fun. Facebook is a social community. People are there to have fun.
This is a place where you can let your corporate hair down a little. Stay true to
your brand but think of ways to entertain your audience.
These rules are a good place to start but watch what works for you. There is no one
“right” way to do everything on Facebook.[/one_half_last]
I Will be discussing Facebook language in the next post