You know your customers or guests expect you to be on Facebook and so you post three times a week every week whatever comes to mind as you sit at your computer. However, you don’t get many (if any!) likes or comments and you may have even noticed that little number under the posts telling you how many people your post reached never lists a number higher than 25! No worries – you can turn your page around. Here’s the fix:
1. Curate and create great content. Social media content strategies that work center around providing useful or entertaining content to people at the right time. Choose topics that are relevant to your customers and then spend time finding or creating great posts. Are you promoting a yoga class? Find quotes to inspire or teach your fans to meditate. Use Facebook Insights to learn when your fans are online and post then. There are approximately 1,500 business posts vying for one spot in a person’s News Feed each second which means only the good ones get through. How does Facebook know which ones are good? They use a mind-bogglingly complex algorithm to decide. Companies like mine who provide social media services for a living are constantly reverse-engineering this algorithm each time it changes, but for your purposes, just know that every bit of your post matters, from its length (keep it shortish) to its photo.
2. Tag and hashtag. Tagging other companies in a relevant way harnesses the power of their social media clout and puts it to work for you. For example, if you own a hotel across the street from a major concert venue, create posts that remind people of the upcoming events and tag the performer and the venue. Tagging is done by typing @nameofrockstar (this is an example) and choosing the correct person from the list that pops up. Take it a step further and use your personal Facebook page to send a private message to that page asking if they’ll tag you too or share your posts. Cross-promotion is free publicity! Included up to three hashtags (don’t go crazy). Use an online tool to research relevant hashtags that are used often.
3. Use Facebook ad campaigns. First, grown your fan base by setting aside a little bit of money each month to gain more followers. If your business has a high coolness factor like a skateboard manufacturer, you can gain a fan for about $1. If you are a medical center, plan on at least $2 per fan, possibly $3. Decide how quickly you’d like your fan base to grow, add in a little common sense and you’ll come up with a workable budget. After your fan base is above 1,000 fans, you’ll be able to move money over to boost posts which increases engagement. To boost a post, click BOOST below the post, decide on your targeting and budget and submit. If it’s your first boost, you’ll be prompted through the set-up process. It’s relatively painless.
Follow this advice and you will see success. You’ll have more fans and better engagement (likes, shares and comments) which almost always translates into more sales, foot traffic and reservations for you. How? Well, that’s another article, but I will say that nearly 80% of people in the US use social media to make a purchase decision at some point in the sales cycle. This means that your Facebook page has a lot of potential to be influential.
