Am I the only one who has a feeling of 'meh' about Facebook at the moment? It's undergone such huge changes since I started marketing on there with a business page and seems to be so full of ads that I've felt a little disconnected from it.
The rise of Instagram has been epic and of course, for many a micro, is still a great place to market (alongside LinkedIn & X, if that's your place). But can we have a fresh look at Facebook to see how we can still make the most of the platform for our businesses with some of the latest thinking and ideas around?
Here are some ideas and thoughts on what you can do to leverage Facebook in a better way in 2024.
First things first. There are two main Facebook places to use as a business - a business page and a Facebook group. The reason I mention this is that I still meet with small business owners who have built an audience using their personal profile. Although this is nice and engaging, you won't get any of the free tools to make the most of that audience as a business. Here's how:
Start with a personal profile.
Set up a business page for your business (I think it's better to use a desktop/laptop for this as the apps version is still so FULL & not easy to navigate).
Follow Facebook's prompts to complete your page (images, text etc).
If you have a good following in a personal profile who you want to keep as business fans, then share this new page with them and encourage them to follow & use that as their place to hang out with you and your business.
Check out if your FB page is full set up - that is has good, up to date information in your 'About Us', has up to date images and featured posts. Also check in how it all displays on mobile - are you showing your business off in it's best light. FB usefully give you tips and hints about how to update your page effectively too.
How does Facebook function? It's still a place of community and friendships. That is, Facebook is a place to learn stuff about where you are, get recommendations about products and services you need. Find out what people are up to and who hangs out with who and get inspiration around the topic/challenge/issue you have. Bear all this in mind when you think about how you can leverage your business in that environment.
Facebook group question. A group (you probably belong to one for your town or hobbies) is a place where mostly Facebook profiles (personal accounts) hang out with various degrees of privacy and rules. TIP - set up your group from your business page and make sure they're linked. Be mindful that you will need to monitor and post quite a bit in a group and that your target customers may or may not love hanging out on Facebook. For example, do they want something away from FB? A group may be useful for your business if:
Your target audience are Facebook users and fans
You want to connect your fans up with each other
You have much to discuss around your business e.g. tips and ideas
You want to create a sense of something VIP or special access around your brand
Choosing post types. As the world of Meta (owners of FB and Insta) has turned to video, it's not always clear what kind of post works best for a business & its audience. Here are some stats:
Photo posts have the biggest engagement on Facebook in terms of post type. Surprising eh? We can explore more about content wins later, but don't lose faith in the power of a great photo for your FB page.
A plain text post is the next winning post type on FB. Is this because we're bombarded with videos and it's nice to see something different? Maybe it's a little like getting a letter instead of an email. In reality, text is likely to go with a photo so traditional FB posting still has value.
Video is still huge across all platforms even though only 17.4% of FB posts are video. Continue to develop your video content and mix up post types to gain traction.
Linking out of platform is still a thing on Facebook and still useful for nudging fans along your customer journey. Using a link in post on FB will auto generate an image and title (say from your website) & provides a good one click option for fans.
FB live is a great posting option if you're wanting to build engagement or perhaps amplify your message around a particular topic, launch or contest. It's scary yes, but might unlock some good connection.
Messenger prompt posts might be key for you if you're trying to funnel fans to communicating with you through the platform. Don't use this if you're not planning to make this a primary chat point.
Event posts are great if events are part of your offer. Even if you have a great event page on your website, you can still create a wider reach by using this type of post in FB too - make sure you send them to your website to book.
FB Stories are a thing - although I suspect most of you are simply posting your Insta stories across to FB. This is fine but be amazed by the fact that Hootsuite data says that 58% of respondents browsed a brand's website after seeing a story.
Reels on FB? Well yes! Rather like stories, you may be simply posting across your reels from Instagram. However, if you're not an Insta user or you have specific content for FB only, then use reels in FB in 2024.
Consider creating a Facebook Ads account. Even if you decide never to advertise on FB, the platform itself gives you some useful insights and ideas about popular content or metrics that FB are using to deliver content.
Use Meta Business Suite tools to make life a little simpler and learn great insights. The Meta Suite is available on your desktop through your business page or you can download the app for your mobile. I find I use Meta Suite on my laptop to analyse, plan and schedule but have the app for quick check ins. Here are some reasons to use FB this way:
It's all in one place from insights to scheduling. Link your Facebook and Instagram accounts here but you can still treat them differently.
It's full of insights and tools. Try the new Weekly Planner tool that gives you personalised tips to enhance your accounts.
Schedule from one place using the Planner tool which is a calendar format to help you stay on top of your posting.
Create posts, videos and reels in one place.
You can bespoke for FB and Instagram too. E.g. you create a post about a new launch but for FB you create a link direct to your e-commerce space and for your Instagram, you encourage users to visit your bio for more. Same content, different approach.
Manage your messages in one place including setting up auto responders and FAQs.
Although we've looked at posts types, what about the actual content that works on Facebook these days? How can we make more impact with our content specifically for Facebook audiences? Here are some ideas and prompts:
Remember the 80:20 rule. People hang out on Facebook to learn something new, get gossip and news, be entertained and inspired. Ensure that 80% of your content is simply engaging, informative, entertaining or storytelling etc and only 20% is a direct sell or promotion.
Tell great stories - this is a place for people to get to know your brand. Think behind the scenes, a series of images from an event or maybe an opinion piece about your sector.
Be real. This might be behind the scenes style or at least real time. What's happening now, today or this week? This helps people get involved and take action.
Build UGC (user generated content) by including customer stories, reviews or inviting people to share their experiences and tag in your account.
Stay authentic by sharing lots of people in your posts e.g. you, your team, your customers or other businesses you're connecting with (oh and the dog/cat can make the odd appearance too!).
Avoid always posting from Instagram. Although this is useful and easy, we might give the impression of taking FB fans for granted. Make sure their content experience from you is for them e.g. using linked posts, specific hashtags or maybe a contest just for FB users.
Signpost fans to your next customer journey step e.g. a blog post, website page or special offer.
Take your customers from algorithm to you direct by sharing ways to sign up to your email marketing or joining a VIP group.
Host a live to connect with your audience. Perhaps it's a Q&A session or a giveaway or a show round of your studio.
Do good hashtag research for FB so that you're using the most relevant ones for your brand in FB.
Tag in your colleagues, fellow businesses and those you're hanging out with in posts. Facebook is, after all, a community so making your page feel like that is key.
Pin your key posts to the top or featured position on your page. This means that the most important messaging staying in place and is one of the 1st thing a users sees.
Stay engaged. This seems obvious but so many of us post from Instagram to FB and forget to actually hang out there. Respond to engagement, curate or share great content from others that's related to your business.
Finally, harness the power of Facebook reviews. FB users are used to reviewing lots on FB and are only too pleased to share an opinion. FB reviews will also pull through to your Google My Business profile. Having a few good 5 star reviews will help users who come across your account make a decision much more quickly.
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