You probably already know that using Facebook to reach your target audiences is essential during the process of growing a small business.
But promoting your business on Facebook isn’t quite as clear cut as it may seem. In fact, there are so many ways to go wrong and hurt your chances of engaging customers on this platform that we decided to create not only a blog but also an entire webinar on how to avoid the five biggest Facebook mistakes for small businesses.
#1 Neglecting to use a business Facebook page
The absolute biggest mistake is not to use Facebook at all. You’d be missing out on free marketing, easy communication with clients, and networking opportunities with other businesses.
If you do have a Facebook page, another mistake would be to not use the Facebook business page. This allows you to gain insights on your viewers’ actions and patterns within your industry. To set up a Facebook business page, make sure you have the following things:
- Page name and description about your business
- A profile and cover picture
- The desired action people should take on your page
After you’ve created the business page, Facebook suggests “posting right away, turning on messaging, and understanding the insights.” The insights page is basically mounds of data to gather from your fans that allows you to see how many people viewed, clicked, opened, and engaged with every single one of your posts. This is helpful for determining which types of posts are doing well with your audience.
In addition to the insights provided, there are other benefits of a Facebook business page including being able to have an unlimited number of followers/friends and scheduling posts in advance. However, make sure your page looks professional and that the design is responsive, because these aspects can get overlooked.
#2 Posting inconsistently
Another huge mistake when utilizing Facebook to market your business is having an inconsistent timeline. For example, you don’t want to post every day for a week and then disappear for two months.
Failing to post often enough or sharing everything at once can affect how you show up in Facebook’s algorithm, and also keep in mind that poor quality posts won’t gain you traction either. Although a spur of the moment post is okay every now and then, sharing sporadically will cause you to lose authority with your followers.
In other words, don’t just post to post.
Post consistently with strong content, which means taking time to craft creative and meaningful material.
#3 Failing to engage with your audience
Since Facebook will always be a “friend” based community, that’s what users want from it. Engaging in the comments with people will make you and your business seem more authentic.
So yes, respond to every single comment regardless of whether it’s positive or negative.
Another great idea to increase engagement with your followers is to ask them for reviews on Facebook since they’re free, public, and promote your credibility. Not only do they build stronger relationships with your current clients, a positive and public Facebook review can draw in more clients.
In short, people on Facebook are there to engage and be engaged with, so don’t ignore comments, reviews, check-ins, or tags. Also, shoot to respond in a timely manner since your average response time will show up on your homepage.
#4 Promoting only your products and services on Facebook
When using Facebook as a resource for your business, it’s important not to try to “sell” something in every post because most people aren’t going to Facebook to buy or sign up for something.
It’s essential to use Facebook as a way to show off your company’s culture and remind your followers that your company is human too. Some great things to share include:
- Behind-the-scenes posts
- Employee birthdays
- Client shoutouts
Solely trying to sell your products or services on Facebook will not only make you seem desperate, but it can also cause people to disengage with your content.
#5 Choosing not to boost any posts
The last big mistake we want to touch on is neglecting to boost any posts. Since Facebook has changed its news feed, small businesses aren’t able to get us much organic reach and engagement anymore.
That’s why it’s necessary now to spend a little cash to get your content seen by the right audiences. Here is an example…
When choosing which posts to boost, make sure they’re specific, eye-catching, helpful, inspirational and will lure in potential clients or at least get some clicks. Don’t forget to pinpoint exactly who you want to target (age, gender, interests, etc.).
You can spend as much or as little as you want with boosted posts, which can be another great benefit to boosting. Plus, you pay per impression or click, meaning it’s guaranteed to be seen by potential clients before you pay unlike putting an ad in the newspaper.
To wrap all this information up, just remember that creating a business Facebook page, sharing consistently, engaging with your audiences, and boosting posts is essential for establishing your emerging business.
Check out the full webinar to learn more or reach out to us today! We’d love to share more insights and tips about succeeding as a small business on Facebook.
