Because we choose to work with smaller businesses, we often have clients with new Facebook pages or pages with small audiences. Here are a few tips to help with smaller pages grow and protect themselves.
Set Up
When you set up your business take some time to provide all the information you can. Obviously, the basics of location, hours, contact info, and such but also be sure to list your services and complete the My Story section. These areas provide the opportunity to share more specifics and help visitors get to know you and your business. Once you’re satisfied with the page publish it.
Keep it Social
This is social media we’re talking about, so invite your friends and family to like your page. Many will likely support you and others will ignore the invite – don’t take it personally. We see many clients who’ve not invited their hundreds of Facebook friends to like their page. This is a wasted opportunity and can be a great way to start building an audience.
If you know you’ve got some cheerleaders (your mom, your best friend, a loyal customer) explain to them how they can help your business by interacting with your Facebook page.
- Let them know that commenting helps more than simply liking a post.
- Let them know that sharing a post is really helpful.
- Lastly, ask them to leave a review if they’ve used your service!
Protect Your Page
You’ve likely heard about all the scrutiny that Facebook has been under and with the election season looming they are really cracking down. While your small business probably isn’t doing anything sketchy you can still get put in what we not-so-lovingly refer to as Facebook Jail.
If your page does certain things it can get flagged by Facebook as appearing suspicious. Here are some tips:
- Don’t always share your business posts to your personal page, once in a while is fine
- Don’t respond to comments with the same generic response, mix it up
Perhaps the most important tip is this, make sure you have more than one admin to your business page. That person should be a spouse or trusted friend, someone very close to you. If you’re the only admin of the page and your personal account gets hacked you will lose access to your business page (this happens pretty frequently). By having another trusted admin to help in this unpleasant circumstance you will be able to continue running your page.
No Rules
Facebook is always changing and there are no hard and fast rules for navigating those changes. It is a good idea to post multiple times per day if you’re trying to grow your page. Pay attention to the Insights to see what is working well and what isn’t. Experiment to see what your followers respond to.
In some ways it would be nice if there were a formula. But there is also freedom that comes with this media. While scheduling posts makes your activity consistent and is time effective for you, it is also important to share on the fly sometimes. It makes you look to be an engaged user and Facebook likes that. Facebook also typically likes to keep users on Facebook, so don’t get discouraged when not many people see links to your YouTube video or website. I’d still suggest doing it as part of your post mix, but only as a part.
We’re Here to Help
As always, we are here to help. If you just don’t have time for regular posting or navigating the algorithms contact us. We have affordable plans to suit sm