Do you have a business presence on Facebook? With the tremendous number of people using Facebook, this social media site has become a great place to showcase many different types of businesses.

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Some businesses, such as that of my acupuncturist, have tremendous success in drawing in clients via their Facebook business page. Others have not had great results, even when they spend money to advertise the page and specific posts on it.

Since there is no charge for creating or maintaining a business page on Facebook, I suggest that if you don’t already have one, you create a page for your business as soon as possible.

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Once you have a page, it is imperative that you spend some time and energy posting regularly, encouraging your Facebook friends and business connections to like it. Make sure that it is an interesting and engaging reflection of your business with a link to your website for more information.

A consideration when posting to Facebook is that most likely only about 10 percent or even fewer of the “fans” of your business page will actually see your post unless you pay to promote it.

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This process does require an investment of some money and more time and energy. Should you decide to use paid advertising, you can determine who sees it by fine-tuning the demographics before it goes out.

In the end, you may find that Facebook isn’t a good medium for you to market your business, but you won’t know that unless you give it a go. Fortunately, Facebook offers some great tips for using it to market your business.

Here are some links that I have found helpful:

 

Some Guidelines for Marketing Your Business on Facebook

  • Make sure the look of the page and the information on it remain consistent with your company’s website and other marketing tools, and that they are appropriate for the market you are targeting through Facebook.
  • Determine your goal for using for this marketing outlet. Do you want to build awareness of your company, increase in-store and/or online sales, launch a new product, etc.?
  • Develop and implement social media policies and practices for whoever you have administering the page. This is especially important for companies or nonprofit entities who need to maintain continuity  in any situation in which more than one person will be working on the page.
  • Take the time to carefully review the Facebook Pages Terms, Data Use Policy, Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, and Community Standards. Find all of these or links to them at https://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php.
  • Review the Facebook business pages of other companies in your industry to see which ones you like and why, and which ones you don’t care for and why. This will stimulate ideas for how to approach your own business page.
  • When creating your page, be sure to select the most appropriate option among the types of business pages available. For example, many businesses like the Local Business or Place choice because this format allows their customers to rate them (much like they can do on Google or Yelp). Others don’t need that type of feedback and may choose another option.

How About You?

Are you marketing your company on Facebook? How is that working for you in terms of attracting more clients? Do you use it to stay in touch with your current clients?

 

About Joyce

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Joyce Feustel helps people, especially those age 50 and up, to become more effective using social media, especially Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter.

She works with business owners, nonprofit organizations, retired people, consultants, and many others. Find her at www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com