Business with Facebook a match made in social media Heaven

Social media has changed how we work, socialize, and interact with business. There are a range of different platforms to make your online presence known, we will focus on Facebook in this blog article.

With two billion user sign-ins to Facebook per month, it is the largest used platform.

Facebook is a great way to interact with people if you have a business or are thinking about starting one.

So where to begin? Let’s take a few steps to get set up first, and then down to the basics of Facebook.

If you haven’t done so already, create your own Facebook account. This includes some personal information, including your name and DOB.
If you haven’t done so already, it’s time to create your page. A page is a way to engage with other users of Facebook and offers tools to help you manage and track engagement.
Brainstorming – Think of a name of a brand (if you haven’t done so) This is part of your brand identity. What words come to mind? Base your page on the type of work that interests you, your values, what you want to be represented online.
Keep in mind that Facebook has strict guidelines about naming your page.
Brainstorm a username for your page. This helps potential customers to find you via Facebook or to message you via Instagram or other social media platforms. While you can take the same words from your business page, sometimes you may need to get creative if that username is taken.
If you haven’t already done so, add a logo or profile photo to your page that will help potential customers recognise it. You may need to hire a logo creator, or you can create your own using a graphic designer software.

Now, you are ready to post!

Here are a few tips of social media posting:

Your audience:

Once you have created a page, consider taking some time to figure out what demographics of your audience are. Is your audience young or old, a particular age group, or a country? When posting social media content, you can create content that is suitable for your chosen audience.

If you don’t know what your audience is, that’s okay. You can come back to this later. Facebook offers you the opportunity to run ads, but this can get expensive until you are making an income. An alternative is to join like-minded groups on Facebook.

With groups, there is a vast selection to choose from that has a range of hobbies, skills, and interests for your needs. Just remember that there are both Private and Public groups available. For Private groups, if you wish to join, sometimes there are questions to be asked and then sent to an administrator of that group. Each group has their own unique set of rules, and it is important to agree to these rules that can justify your pending membership. Public groups are usually straightforward in their acceptance of members.

Create original content

This seems pretty straightforward, but in order for your followers to recognise you, it’s best to use your own content. Not just because of copyright infringements that can occur on Facebook; but it allows your audience to see your own unique creativity, whether that is writing, blogging or something else.

Remember your username? Don’t forget to add your @username to your content to not only make your work pop, but it will easily help your audience recognise your content online.

If you need to repost, or add another content creator’s work, to your page, please acknowledge it. You can add their @username to your post. You can write something like ‘Credit to @username’ or ‘Courtesy of @username’.

Posting 101

It’s time to think about how often you should post on your page. Depending on how often you would like your online presence known, either daily, weekly or monthly, brainstorm a schedule for your page.

For newbies, and those who may not have a lot of time on their hands with other commitments, is to post once per day. You can post inspirational quotes, your services, your product list, etc. Depending on your business, you can post about your operating hours and any other information that is important to your audience.

But, if you would like to attract more customers, I recommend posting at least 2-3 times a day.

Facebook has merged with Meta; therefore, you can schedule posts, stories, or videos on your page in advance. You can also link your page with your Instagram account.

In this planner, via Meta Business Suite, you can plan either by a week, or fortnightly or more, depending on how often you would like to update your audience about your page.

Connect with your audience

Just spend at least 15 minutes a day, reply to your customers if they have left a comment or an emoji about your content via your page. This could be just as simple as saying “Thank you” or sending back a smile emoji. Customers want to be acknowledged, and this small way will improve your relationships with your customers, but with your online presence.

During your day, if you have a business page, purely for your business, check back frequently during the day to respond to your customers’ messages. Facebook has a great innovative way to interact with customers through instant-replies.

With your page, you may also add automated messaging to your most frequently asked questions. Think of your most FAQs for your page. This saves your customer and yourself time in answering repeated questions, for example: operating hours, location, what services or products you sell, how best to contact you – email, text or through message.

You can also add a status that shows when you are ‘actively’ using Facebook.

Other resources

Setting up a store or a link to another website for your store

You can set up your own online store with Facebook, depending on your business and what you can plan to see. However, Facebook has guidelines on what you can sell online.

Going LIVE

Going on Facebook LIVE may seem a little daunting, but you will attract customers both new and returning to this platform. For example, it enables you to answer questions about you, your business or to sell your services or products. LIVE also is interactive, so you can respond to your audience in real-time.

Keep Learning

The only thing that I have learnt since being on Facebook for 10 years is to keep learning. Technology is always changing, and nothing really says the same. Facebook and other similar platforms like it, want to allow users to make the most of the user-online experience. With this, it is to allow their users to reach the potential to reach an audience both nationally and internationally.

In conclusion, just have fun!