Facebook is a great marketing tool for any business if it’s used properly, just like anything in life that is meant to make our lives easier or better. But that doesn’t mean that everyone understands how to turn those benefits into a reality for themselves.
When it comes to adding social media to your business marketing plan, it’s important to understand three things – why you are doing it, what you can expect to gain from it, and how it is best utilized. Let’s first talk about the why. Creating a Facebook account for your business because it seems like the trend right now is not a good enough reason why. However, here are several that are:
- Showcasing before and after pictures of your work.
- Posting pictures of happy customers.
- Announcing new products or services.
- Sharing helpful tips and relevant news.
- Introducing your team.
- Promoting upcoming events.
- Celebrating the successes of your referral partners and clients.
Your expectations should not be grandiose either. Rather, you should think about Facebook as a means to enhance your presence in the market and keep your brand top of mind. Increasing your number of likes to a critical mass is the ultimate goal whether it’s done organically or with paid online advertising. One will just take longer than the other, but either way, the more that “like” your page the more your posts will spread.
Utilizing Facebook on a daily basis is how it was designed, but that might not be realistic for you at the start, and that’s okay. Decide what you can do and stick with it, but understand that the relationship between number of posts per week to the number of likes are directly correlated. Still, it’s better to be honest with yourself and create a plan that you can manage, until you get to the point where you can do more or hire someone to do it for you.
The bottom line to leveraging the benefits of Facebook (or any social media platform for that matter) is to keep your content consistent with your brand, personalized enough to reflect who you are as a business professional, and keeping the selling component minimized. People will like you when they get to know you through your posts. Plus being mindful of what is truly interesting and what is not will go a long way to enhancing your business through social media.
Keep it relevant.