Tips for Small Businesses Starting a Facebook Page

The number of small businesses using Facebook grew from 13 to 16 million in the first quarter of 2013. This isn’t surprising considering how many individuals are using Facebook (665 million daily active users), it’s common sense that businesses will follow. So if you have a small business that is not on Facebook, you’re most likely wondering where you will find the time to create and keep up a business page.

The good news is that building a business page is relatively easy technically, particularly if you have a personal account since the process is similar. However, the bad news is that developing a useful business page requires some planning and regular upkeep. Your business page could reach many new audiences and you want to make sure that it’s working with you to help you accomplish your business goals.

As you plan your page, it’s important to take a step back and think about these three basic ideas: defining your objectives, identifying your market, and developing a practical strategy to reach your objectives.  As with so many things in life, a little planning goes a long way in making things run smoothly.

Define your objectives

The first thing to do is define your marketing objectives for your Facebook page. Objectives are more specific than goals and can usually be achieved by a series of steps. You may realize that you have multiple objectives. For example, your objective could be to demonstrate your expertise on a particular topic, but an equally important objective for you is to drive traffic to your page so people will recognize your expertise. Scan the list below for ideas and identify one or two initial objectives you can focus on as you build your page.

Create brand and/or product awareness
Build a community
Show your expertise
Educate others
Broaden your reach
Generate traffic to your blog or website
Increase sales

Identify your market

The second thing you should do is think about who you want to engage on your business page. This is a critical piece in planning your marketing strategy. Look at your top marketing objectives to help you figure out common characteristics of the people you want to reach.

For example, imagine you make organic soaps and lotions for women and babies. Your top marketing objective is to build product awareness so that you can sell more products online. Your market could be women who use organic beauty product and have young children.

So once you’ve identified who you want to reach, how do you find them? One way is by using Facebook ads where you can reach people who have identified themselves by broad categories. Your ads might target women who are interested in health and well-being and who have children from 0-3 years old. Facebook can identify how many of these people are on Facebook and direct your ads at them. Having a clear idea of who you want to reach is very important because it will help you shape your ads and content.

Plan your strategy

The final thing you should do in this process is plan a practical strategy for using Facebook to promote your business. You may need some help with this part if you don’t know all the bells and whistles that Facebook offers. However, there is an abundance of material written on this topic that you can learn it by doing some online research. Keep in mind that you can begin with a simple strategy and as you become more familiar with Facebook, you can enhance your plan.

Facebook ads should be an important part of your strategy. Whether you are trying to increase your reach or sell products, Facebook ads have the ability to drill down and reach targeted audiences. There are also apps that allow you to sell your products on Facebook (see chirpify.com) using a single word in the comment section. This could be part of your strategy if it fits with your objectives.

The single most important part of your strategy should be to offer content that interests your target audience. As you plan your strategy, make sure you allocate time to produce content for your page on a regular basis. Good photography is important since posts with images get more likes and shares than posts without images. Understanding your audience is key so that you can engage them in conversations. You can ask questions, offer quick tips related to your business, show images of your employees having fun at work, offer testimonials from happy customers, invite people to events, and link to your own blog, if you have one and it’s relevant to your business. Whatever content you provide, it’s important to keep it useful, cheerful, and lively.

You want to make your business page a place where interesting things are happening. To see a good example of this, check out Festival Fete on Facebook. They have a mix of images, relevant information, event promotion, and call to action items. Their followers are engaged and you can feel it when you’re on their page because it feels like a community.