USING FACEBOOK FOR YOUR SMALL BUSINESS

Running a small business comes with many challenges. You might feel like running the front end takes up the time you’d rather spend working on product development and fulfilling services. If your small business is looking for a simple strategy, Facebook is the answer. It’s a one-stop-shop for marketing, brand promotion, customer service, sales, and more. You’ll reach a wide variety of potential customers (2.45 billion users who are active monthly, to be exact). Next Step Social Communications can help you in using Facebook for your small business and get you set up with a winning strategy. 

STARTING A FACEBOOK FOR YOUR SMALL BUSINESS

Setting up a Facebook for your small business can be an intimidating experience with so many templates to choose from. Still, this is a good thing because it means there is a place for everyone running almost any kind of business. The most reassuring news is that you can make changes any time you feel a different look could be more successful or if you have a change in your business format and need to transition the style of your Facebook page. 

Start by selecting a category that is most relevant to what you are selling. Pick a template that has features for your clients to shop and communicate with you in an easy way. Tabs can be further customized to make your page more relevant to what your small business offers. You can link your business website, catalogs, and scheduling functions right in the tabs or in a single section. You can even customize your business’s messenger to feature common questions for customers to get a conversation going and/or automated responses for when you are away.

WHAT CONTENT SHOULD YOU SHARE WHEN USING FACEBOOK FOR YOUR SMALL BUSINESS?

Facebook gives you the option to share all kinds of content. You can create posts that contain pictures and/or videos that put your products and services in the spotlight. Share links to your products, webpages, and blogs to grow your organic traffic on your own website. Announce new sales and discounts or give weekly updates on new merchandise to keep your customers in the know and engaged. 

While the kind of content you share needs to be carefully planned out, staying consistent in how often you share posts is just as important. You can schedule your posts on Facebook to streamline your consistency. The amount of posts is not the imperative factor, but rather posting the same amount on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. You can use the scheduling feature to get all your posts for the month created at once, freeing up more time for your other tasks.

PROMOTIONS AND ANALYTICS

When using Facebook for your small business, you can run paid ads to attract new clientele or promote a new product to existing customers. You can even set the parameters of your ads to reach certain demographics or those who have previously visited your page. 

Analytics can be a vital tool in growing your following. This data will show you how many people your posts have reached. This is beneficial in developing new strategies with the kind of content that is already performing well on your Facebook page.

USING FACEBOOK FOR YOUR SMALL BUSINESS IS WORTH IT

While using Facebook for your small business requires several steps to set up and maintain, the payoff is well worth the time you’ll invest. If you need guidance on the best practices and strategies, let me know. I offer full social media setup, management, and social media consulting on a wide range of platforms.