The Small Business Guide to Getting Started on Facebook for Free
Building your brand on Facebook is split into 4 core areas. You need to build your page, your brand and your presence. You then have to connect with people to make them aware of your brand and presence. After, you need to engage with your audience and potential (or current) customers and finally you need to influence your fans, expand and reach the friends of your fans.
Building your Page.
When you first create your business page there are some key things you will need to do before you start connecting, engaging and expanding. Setting up your page from the start will mean that you will be recognised straight away.
1. Set up the name of your page, your brand name, what people will use to find you on Facebook and be instantly recognisable when people see it in their feeds.
2. Your “about” section. Make sure it is short and descriptive and informs people exactly what your page and brand is about with a link to your website/blog if you have them. Don’t be afraid to put links in to your twitter and Google+ accounts if you have those set up too.
3. Your recognisable profile picture. Make sure this is relevant and matches your brand, it is one of the first impressions seen in news feeds.
4. Talking about first impressions don’t forget a cover photo. When landing on the page this is the first thing seen due to the size and placement so make sure this is relevant to your brand.
5. Any apps/tabs you want to help the user experience on your Facebook page. This could be a like gate for getting a discount code or maybe a competition tab with an entry form for the competition you are running (if you are running one).
Everything within this section is setting up the page and brand, making you recognisable when users first find and land on your page. You want it so that when, as a user, you land on the page you instantly know who it belongs to and I it is the right place you want to be. Click consult offer some amazing services for designing page tab apps.
Connecting With people.
Once you have finished setting up your brand on Facebook your presence is ready to be sent out to the masses. So let’s get connecting. Obviously to get your current website visitors and customers onto your Facebook page you are going to want to put a link or button on your webpage. One that fits nicely and invites people to come on over and have a look. Also attach it to emails, or a “find us on Facebook” on thank you pages/contact forms or maybe send out a mass email to your email subscribers informing them of your new venture onto Facebook. Instantly you should start seeing your like count going up as users get intrigued and start checking it out.
Engaging your audience.
Now you have your customers and visitors on your Facebook page, now what? Well now you have to actually engage with them, show tem you are people too. Maybe have some banter share some thoughts of what’s going on in the news; maybe it’s relevant to your brand. Respond to the comments left by your fans. One thing to take note on is even if it is a complaint you should still respond (DO NOT delete negative comments). Show that your brand is human and can make mistakes but you are trying to rectify it, make the see you provide good customer service and make them see you can take the bad with the good and resolve any problems. Keep the users coming back for more, keep them engaged and offer them a reason to stay on your page and to keep you in their news feed.
Influence.
You’ve now built your page, you’ve brought your existing customers and you’ve engaged with them, now what? Now you have to keep your fan’s and influence their friends to also become a fan. How you scream? Easy! By doing exactly what you were doing in step three, by engaging with your audience. By engaging with your audience you are already getting in the eyes of your fan’s friends. Whenever your fan’s comment, like share on your page it all goes into their friends tickers and timelines saying [user] comment on [brand’s] page. There are a few other bits you can do to help encourage this type of behaviour with some call to actions.
- Encourage people to check in at your business with a sign in your shop, or by offering a special discount to people who check in.
- Create events on your Page and invite people to join them.
- Ask questions and create posts that encourage engagement.
- Share exclusive information and offers that people are likely to want to pass along to their friends.