Marketing Strategy You will Like and
Share
Facebook is the most visited social network in the world, with well over one
billion users on desktop and mobile. As the king of social networks, your target
audience is almost guaranteed to be there. Use these tips to build, brand and
market your business on Facebook, as well as amass a following of highly
engaged customers.
Facebook Business Page Setup Strategy
Before you dive in and start posting on Facebook, it pays to take some time to
lay solid foundations to help get your brand presence set up properly, and in a
position to impress fans when they find you. Let get started on the road to
making your little corner of Facebook a destination that people will visit
regularly.
Create a Facebook Page, not a personal profile
When you sign up to Facebook, you are assigned a Personal Timeline by default.
Personal Timelines, sometimes referred to as profiles, are designed for
individual, non-commercial use. For your business to take advantage of
everything Facebook marketing has to offer, you must create a separate
Facebook Page. Facebook Pages look similar to personal Timelines, but provide
unique tools for brands like analytics, custom tabs to host business-related
information, and advertising tools. Pages do not require separate Facebook
accounts and do not have separate login information from Timelines. You can
create a Facebook Page in one of three ways: by searching create A Page' in the
search bar at the top of the site, by clicking the create A Page' button at the top
of any existing Facebook Page, or by visiting https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.
Note: If you are currently using a personal Timeline for business purposes, there
is a possibility that Facebook will find and shut your account down.
notice. To give you a chance to correct this error, Facebook provides a tool that
will convert your personal Timeline to a business Page, available at
https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php?migrate. When you convert your personal
account to a Facebook Page, your current profile picture will be transferred and
all the profiles friends will be switched to fans who like your Page. In
addition, your account username will become the username for your Page, and
the name associated with your personal account will become your Page name
(you may be able to change this if you wish - I explain how in the next tip). No
other content, including your wall posts, photos, videos, etc. will be carried over
to your new Page, so be sure to download an archive of this data (via your
profile settings) if you want to preserve it.
If you are currently utilizing your personal profile for a mix of things - for its
originally intended purpose (i.e. to interact with friends and family) but also (and
wrongly) for commercial use - the best thing to do to avoid getting into trouble is
to halt all business activity on your personal Timeline, create a separate business
Page, then encourage your audience to de-friend your personal account and head
over to like your new Page where they can stay up to date. While building a
Facebook Page is essential for businesses on Facebook, there are also several
ways to utilize an individual Timeline - in a non-commercial way - to engage
with customers and clients on a more personal level. For now, we are going to
concentrate on Pages, but look out for Timeline-based tips in the Using Your
Personal Facebook Profile to Boost Business section at the end of this chapter.
Keep your Facebook Page name short; get it right the first time!
If at all possible, try to keep your Facebook Page name short, as this will help if
you go on to create Facebook ads, where the headline space in the advert (often
the name of your Page) is limited to just 25 characters. You can only change the
name of a Facebook Page manually if it has fewer than 200 likes, so make sure
you are happy with yours early on. If you are not happy with your Page name
and it qualifies to be changed, go to the about tab located underneath your
Page cover photo. Click edit next to the Name section and save. Changing
your Page name does not affect its username or Page web address (explained
below).
Get a custom Facebook web address for your Facebook Page
Set up a vanity URL for your Facebook Page (available when you gain 25 likes)
ideally named after your brand, e.g. www.facebook.com/yourcompanyname.
This will make it much easier for you to tell people how to find your Facebook
Page. Think about it carefully, as you will only be able to change this URL once
in future (via the about tab), otherwise you will have to delete your Page and
start over - not good if you've built a big fan base! To reach the 25-fan threshold
quickly, invite your e-mail contacts and current Facebook friends - a community
of people who already care about you and your brand - to visit and like your
Page, via the promote drop-down menu at the top of your Facebook Page.
Fill in business info accurately and in detail
Fill in as much of your business' details as possible in the About section of your
Facebook Page, including address, contact details, product information, website
(add multiple URLs by separating them with commas in the website box), and
links to other social profiles. Putting the effort into populating these sections
makes your Page helpful to customers who can see all of your essential
information in one place, and the keyword-rich blurb is also good for search
engine optimization (SEO), as the text in your About section is indexed by
Google. Restaurant owner and selected Restaurant/Cafe as your Page's category?
Make sure you include the types of foods you serve, and also upload your menu
as a PDF for customers to browse, or if you're in the U.S. or Canada, you can
also add a menu through SinglePlatform.
Note: Depending on how your Page is categorized, sometimes the first-viewed
bit of the About section displays differently on the Facebook mobile app than it
does to desktop viewers. For some mobile users, it will show your Short
Description, others your Mission, and others still, a portion of your full
Company Description. With this in mind, it may be wise to amend all of these
sections to begin with your website URL so that you can guarantee that is always
the first thing that mobile users see.
Verify your Page and get an official check mark on your cover photo
If your business has a real world address, Facebook allows you to verify your
Page to adorn its cover photo with an official grey check mark - similar to the
blue one given to celebrities and other public figures. To verify your Page, visit
your Page Settings and choose Verify Page under the General menu. You’ll need
to confirm your business-representative status via a telephone call to a publicly
listed number for your business, or otherwise upload an official document.
business phone or utility bill, business license, business tax file, etc. Verified
Pages appear higher in search results and show people at a glance that you are
the official brand Page for your company on Facebook, so it’s well worth doing.
Create an awesome cover photo and add a call-to-action button
Facebook Page cover photos are viewable by anyone on Facebook, so use the
space to effectively communicate your brand or message in one simple, high
quality, image. The ideal size is 851 × 315 pixels - any smaller and Facebook
will automatically stretch the image, making it appear blurry. Ideas for cover
photos include one powerful image that communicates who you are and what
you do, a collage of your products, highlighting an ongoing offer, or featuring a
photo or testimonial submitted by one of your own fans - the latter will really
Wow your customer and hopefully they'll spread the word to their friends.
Keep users engaged by periodically updating your cover photo and profile pic -
once per month is a good target to aim for, but a seasonal change is popular
amongst brands, too.
Add a call to action, offers and links in the cover design and description
In December 2014, Facebook announced the roll out of solid, clickable call-to-
action buttons that can be added to cover photos, including,
Contact Us, Use App. Designed as a way to bring your business’ most
important objective to the forefront of your Facebook presence, call-to-action
buttons can be linked to any destination on or off Facebook. Dollar Shave Club
used a Sign Up call-to-action cover photo button and saw a 2.5x higher
conversion rate over three weeks compared to other comparable efforts.
When you upload a cover photo, click on it and you will be able to edit it to add
a text description. Here, type a short, relevant blurb, then add in a call to action
and related links to your website, a product, an offer, a Page tab, or feature a
discount code as a reward for clicking. Many Facebook Page visitors click on
cover photos for a closer look, so use the description as a way to anchor the
photo and encourage them to take action. The description will also appear when
someone hovers their mouse cursor over the cover image - just another reason to
make the most of it. To encourage more clicks on your cover photo, you can try
experimenting with a button as part of your cover design with its own call to
action, e.g. Get 10% off your next purchase with us - Click Here! Alternatively.
Important to Notice
Facebook most recently amended its rules about cover photos in July
2013. They read: “Covers can't be deceptive, misleading or infringe on anyone
else's copyright. You may not encourage people to upload your cover to their
personal timelines.” Facebook has been known to remove the cover photos of
Pages who don't follow along, so stick to them in order to avoid any nasty
surprises. Once upon a time, Facebook also told Page owners that their cover
photo could not feature text that covered more than 20% of its entire area. This
restriction no longer applies, which means that you can include contact details
and pricing and purchasing information about a product in your cover image to
whatever extent you like. While this is mostly good news for marketers, I would
still advise caution. Too much text can make a cover photo look spammy and
unprofessional, so I would recommend at least some restraint, as the instant
visual impact of a great cover photo cannot be understated.
Upload a Facebook profile photo recognizable at a small size
While the cover photo dominates your Facebook Page, arguably, it's the profile
photo you choose that can have the most influence overall, as it is seen all over
the site: in the News Feed of followers, in posts on your Page's timeline, in all
comment replies, and of course, overlaying your cover photo. The recommended
upload size for a profile photo is 180 x 180 pixels, but it is displayed at 160 x
160 on your main profile, and as small as 43 x 43 pixels next to comments.
Ideally, the image you choose should be recognizable (or at least distinct) at this
smallest size. The best thing to do is to create a large square image - something
like 640 × 640 pixels (or as big as you want, really). When uploaded, it will
automatically be scaled down to 160 × 160, look nice and crisp, and anyone who
clicks on your profile photo for a closer look will see the large image in all its
glory.
No comments:
Post a Comment