Promote your business using facebook

There was a time when Facebook was used as a personal social communication platform. Now, it is being used by businesses everywhere to build communities of brand advocates who do a lot of their marketing for them...and for free! When you build a community online and keep your followers happy and engaged, they will shout from the rooftops about their positive experiences with your business, share your posts, like your pages and posts and really help to boost your online reputation.

Click here to register with Facebook and create an account.

The number one rule of promoting your business on Facebook - post regularly

Have you ever visited a Facebook business page only to find the owner hasn’t updated the page in months, or even years? Is the business still in operation? Is anybody visiting the page? Do they care about their business or their customers? This is a common problem on Facebook and one that could be losing those businesses valuable customers. By posting engaging, relevant and preferably, sharable content, you can keep your business in front of your Facebook audience and have a good chance of reaching out to new followers too. Think about the posts your followers might like to see. Advice on how to do something, competitions, interesting news, discount codes and special offers are just some of the posts you might like to include on your Facebook page. Always think about sharability and whether your audience would be likely to share your posts with other people.

Optimise your Facebook profile and include as much information as possible

When setting up or updating your Facebook page, try to view it as an extension of your website, if you have one. Many people forget to complete their Facebook profile properly and leave out important information like the services or products they offer, where they are based or their website address. You can include many of these details in the ‘About’ section, and Facebook also allows you to create your own additional pages. There is even the facility to create a storefront where you can showcase your products and services. Take a look at some of the big brand Facebook pages for inspiration and to see how they attract more business to their pages.

Use images and videos to attract more attention

Written content is great, but images and video will really bring that content to life. Whether you are linking to a post on your blog, asking for customer feedback, announcing a special offer or promoting a product, images and video will really grab the viewer’s attention. Research has shown that including images in a Facebook post can generate as many as 52% more likes than a post that consists of text. This is great news for your brand exposure as those likes will appear on every liker’s timeline. You might even want to consider hiring a video production or design team to create some branded images and video for you. This is an investment that could go on generating revenue for you for many years.

Get valuable feedback by using a poll

Want to know what your followers really think about your business? Want to know what they had for breakfast this morning, or what car they drive? Polls are a great way to obtain feedback from your followers - feedback that could help you tailor your services to suit their needs or release offers they would be interested in receiving. Polls get people thinking and talking, and the best thing is that they only need to click a button in order to give their opinion - that’s convenient for them and a quick win for you. Facebook makes polls very easy to set up and they could be just the thing your business needs to meet your customers’ expectations.

"Caption this” and other competitions

Everybody loves a competition, especially if there is a prize to be won or the promise of their name up in lights if they win. Caption competitions on Facebook are very popular and for good reason. These really get people talking and interacting and they could work wonders for your brand.
Here are some other ways you can interact with your followers:

• Ask for solutions to a common problem. This might be a household problem or a technical problem. People love to share their knowledge and a question of this nature can really generate some lively debate - all good exposure for your brand!
• Run a photo competition. Ask followers to post a photo relating to a particular theme. This could be a photo of their pimped up car, an image of their favourite recipe or their latest DIY project. Anything goes! Well, within the boundaries of Facebook rules, that is!
• A simple prize draw - This is easy. Simply ask people to like or share your post for the chance to be in with winning a prize.

You can also read our article on how to promote your business through Twitter.

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