So, you created a Facebook page for your business, and you shared it with all of your friends. Now what?
Posting what your business is doing once in awhile may not be sufficient. Stating the obvious—”I’m a great person to buy insurance from,” or “Visit my store”—creates no excitement or interest in your audience. They’re scrolling through thousands of items in their Facebook feed, so you need to stand out!
You need to:
- Make your post visually appealing.
- Make them want to DO SOMETHING.
Make Your Post Visually Appealing
As a business owner, you want to create a post or ad that’s visually appealing and that makes a potential customer want to either click on your link or visit your location. That mean’s there MUST be a graphic. It could be a photo, a short video, or a meme, as long as it looks good.
Make Them Want to Do Something
To urge your audience to do something, include a Call To Action (or CTA, as most social media managers say). For example, if you’re hosting a flash sale, you can make it visually appealing by including a graphic like the following:
Then your description could be a CTA explaining that the sale is for a limited time, and asking the viewer to visit your store or click on a link. I recently ran this ad for a customer, and it generated almost $500 in sales within two days!
Those two things will help your posts stand out, but here are a couple of more tricks to help you navigate Facebook.
Increase Exposure
When you are first starting on Facebook, a great way to increase exposure it to boost posts or pay for ads. When you do that, Facebook lets you set your audience to a specific demographic.
For example, you can make sure that your ad is only seen by women, aged 25-55, with a median income of $45-$75,000 that live in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. You can broaden or narrow your demographic as much as you would like. If you have an e-commerce site, you can even embed a Facebook Pixel code into your site, so you can target your ads to people who have visited your site before. That will let products that they have viewed on your website show up on their Facebook feed! Pretty slick, huh?
Another way to increase exposure is to start a private Facebook group. Groups work great for artists, writers, or businesses that have a following, and for retailers, like sports outfitters, mountain bike shops, and ski shops, who already have a specific audience. Any business with a following or fan base can benefit from creating a private group.
Facebook groups allow your fans to form a community where they can gather and communicate with each other as well as with your business. It provides a streamlined form a communication between everyone without having to worry about paying for ads. The downside to a private group is that it’s, well — private, so not everyone will see what’s going one (but that’s more incentive to join your group!).
Social media is ever-changing, and Facebook seems to be in the midst of many changes as we this post is being written. Regardless of what’s happening with algorithms and news feeds, just remember:
Keep it visual, include a call to action, and keep posting!
Good luck!
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Leslie Krukowski is the principal, CEO, and main consultant of Black Dog Business Group. She graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in English and sub-concentrations in both marketing and business management. After spending several years in management, marketing, and social media marketing positions, she received a Master’s Degree in Administration. She has proven success in managing large groups of people and loves leadership development. Leslie has two black dogs at home, Bertuzzi and Scout. Feel free to reach out to her at leslie@blackdogbusinessgroup.com for a free initial consultation.
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