Making the most of a Facebook Business Page

Making the most of Facebook

Roughly around 1.15 billion users per month.

Allows you to have conversations with your customers, post photos and videos, promote specials, run competitions and much more.

From a business perspective:“The goal is to have active fans that spread the word about you to their friends”.

What is Facebook?

In 2013, approximately 50% of New Zealanders had a Facebook profile.

Just under 50% of those users were aged 18-34.

54% of Facebook users in New Zealand are female and 46% are male.

Facebook in New Zealand

So, what do you want to know about Facebook?

drive traffic to your website? sell directly from Facebook? build a brand or image and relationships? somewhere where people can ‘Like’ what

you do? another way to directly communicate with

your customers?

What is it that you want your Facebook page to achieve?

What is it that you want your Facebook page to achieve?

Just like anything else in your business, Facebook success isn’t going to happen overnight.

Create a plan and have the commitment to follow through.

Remember, it is OK for that plan to change based on your experiences and results.

Create a plan

Gain 2,000 likes organically. Drive traffic to our website and signups to

our e-mail database. Become a source of information. Build a brand. Build trust from our customers.

Green Meadows Beef’s plan

Log-on to your personal Facebook account (is an option to create a business only page).

Creating a Facebook page

Create the page – select whether you’re a local business, company, brand or product etc.

Creating a Facebook page

Create the page – select whether

Voila…

Once you’ve created the page, you are able to add other ‘Admins’ to the page.

These ‘Admins’ are tied through their own personal page.

Like you, they can add (and delete) other Admins so this is always something to factor in – from an employment law perspective too.

A word about Admins

Admin Editor Moderator Advertiser Analyst

Manage Page roles and settings ✔

Edit the Page and add apps ✔ ✔

Create and delete posts as the

Page✔ ✔

Respond to and delete comments

and posts to the Page✔ ✔ ✔

Send messages as the Page ✔ ✔ ✔

Create ads ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

View insights ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

See who posted as the Page ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

Page Roles

Getting more out of your Facebook page

These are your first impressions. Don’t be afraid to regularly refresh these,

particularly if your profile picture for your business is a picture of you.

Profile & Cover Images

Profile & Cover Images

Complete all of the information in the About and Contact fields.

If someone is going to spend the time to click through to this, you want them to be impressed.

List some of your key highlights and milestones.

About Page

About Page

There are many third party apps that you can integrate into your Facebook profile, often for a minimum cost:◦ Woobox ◦ ShortStack◦ Easy Promos

Apps

Apps

Great, I have a Facebook page. Now what?

You may wish to ‘Suggest’ the page to your own Facebook friends (carefully)

You will want to include it in our offline marketing collateral – ‘Find us on Facebook’

If you’re in touch electronically, mention it in your e-newsletter.

Getting people to Like your page

How else?

Don’t be too bogged down in the number of followers/fans.

The number of Facebook Likes is similar to referrals: it is often better to receive fewer quality referrals than a large number of referrals.

Always think about the quality of your fans and whether they will convert to customers. Engagement not likes leads to conversions.

Proviso…

A good start may be to run a promotion. A number of options:◦ Use a third party application like ShortStack.◦ Run the competition on your own page.

Pros and cons for both:◦ Fans have to ‘allow’ access to the App◦ Can collect e-mail addresses◦ What is going to grow your reach?

Promotions

1. If you use Facebook to communicate or administer a promotion (ex: a contest or sweepstakes), you are responsible for the lawful operation of that promotion, including:a.   The official rules;b.   Offer terms and eligibility requirements (ex: age and residency restrictions); andc.   Compliance with applicable rules and regulations governing the promotion and all prizes offered (ex: registration and obtaining necessary regulatory approvals)2. Promotions on Facebook must include the following:a.   A complete release of Facebook by each entrant or participant.b.   Acknowledgement that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.3. Promotions may be administered on Pages or within apps on Facebook. Personal Timelines must not be used to administer promotions (ex: “share on your Timeline to enter” or “share on your friend's Timeline to get additional entries” is not permitted).4. We will not assist you in the administration of your promotion, and you agree that if you use our service to administer your promotion, you do so at your own risk.

Promotion rules

Complying with the promotion rules

Complying with the promotion rules

Promotion ideas to increase reach

Promotion ideas to increase reach

Facebook is a big business – this didn’t happen by accident.

Facebook advertising is something that should be considered as part of your overall marketing strategy:◦ Direct advertising◦ Giveaways

Set a budget. $6 here, $23 there = it quickly adds up.

Advertising

Ad Centre

Ad Centre

Ad Centre

Ad Centre

At the bottom of each post, you will see the option to ‘Boost’ it.

Boosting vs Promoting posts

You get two options:◦ People who like your page and their friends◦ People you choose through targeting

Be careful with selecting the first option. If you’re a Taranaki business, how do you know that the friends of people who like your page are also in Taranaki?

Boosting posts

I choose to ‘promote’ a post via the Ad Manager.

This way, you get more options to target that post to the right people.

Boosting posts vs Promoting posts

Have a trial and see what results you get. Stick to your budget. Check your return on investment…

Advertising

Facebook Insights

Tells you what you need to know about the people who Like your page and also those that engage with you.

Powerful data – if you know who is coming into your ‘sales’ frame, you’re better equipped to sell to them.

Facebook Insights

To access, click Insights at the top of the page.

Facebook Insights

You can find out exactly who Likes your page and where they are from.

Facebook Insights

You can find out exactly which posts worked and which ones fell flat.

Facebook Insights

Facebook Insights

Key stats to look out for:◦ Fans reached (Column T of sheet one)◦ Engaged fans (Column W of sheet one)◦ Link clicks (Column I of sheet four)

For example, 1,087 people saw a post but only 137 people clicked ‘somewhere’ in that post. Is that something to be happy with?

Facebook Insights

Tips for marketing your business on Facebook

Be careful of the hard sell

• Most people regard Facebook as a social space to share information with their friends and family. It is a privileged space.

• Thinking about this, what will people do if they keep seeing advertising, slogans about your product and prices in isolation from conversations?

• You need to join in the conversation rather than being the outsider always pushing information. Facebook is about relationships.

Be careful of the hard sell

• Mix up your posts. For example:– Media clippings and videos (to build the

brand)– Specials/new products (to sell)– Recipes (to drive traffic to the website)– Competitions (to increase Facebook Likes)

• You want to think about your own thoughts, breaking news and tips, tools and other resources from your industry.

Be careful of the hard sell

• What sort of information and resources could you share about your business?

As we’ve mentioned, you want to create engaging content – ask questions and encourage your fans to ask questions (for example, tips from our butcher).

If someone comments, reply to them personally.

Talk to your fans in a warm and engaging manner.

Engage

Have a human voice and think like a customer

• Even some of the bigger corporates make it feel like there is someone behind each post. Use a tone and voice suitable for your industry.

• People will come back to your page if there is a sense of community. Be open, warm, inviting, friendly and personable.

Have a human voice and think like a customer

• Think your industry is impossible to get engagement on Facebook? Think like a customer.

• If you didn’t work in or own the business, would you interact with the page? Why? Why not?

Have a human voice and think like a customer

• Example: Victory Auto Service & Glass in the USA. They were sharing information relevant to the motoring industry.

• Now: they post about:– Birthdays– Team meetings– Video tours of their office– Trivia questions– Questions from the road code– Anything to do with traffic

Find a balance between posting regularly and bombarding

• Social media is about frequent updates. Plus, approximately 50% of Facebook users check their pages at least once a day.

• How often should you post? In July 2014, the average number of posts from New Zealand’s Top 20 brands was 27 for the month.

• A balance needs to be found between posting regularly and posting for the sake of it.

Find a balance between posting regularly and bombarding

• You may find a social media calendar is helpful to plan out (I use this a week/10 days in advance).

Find a balance between posting regularly and bombarding

• You can also schedule posts in advance.

Use pictures and video

• Facebook/social media is visual. Ensure you include lots of pretty pictures!

• Pictures encourage engagement. You could post:– Pictures of your team (at events/in the office)– Pictures of what you’re selling– Ideas of what to do with your product

• Video is also an excellent way of getting engagement.

• As you’re building a community, encourage your fans to upload to your page.

Use pictures and video

• You can make great images yourself by using free/minimal cost tools like Paint.net and Canva (search Google for others).

• Otherwise, invest a little bit of money with a graphic designer or check out Fiverr.

Use pictures and video

Take Facebook offline too

• Encourage those you interact with offline to ‘join the conversation’ on Facebook.

• This goes both ways: if you have an active Facebook fan base, you should be getting information from them so you can sell to them (for example, getting e-mail addresses so you can send them your e-newsletter).

Look at what others are doing

• You don’t have to come up with all of the answers on your own. Check out what your competitors are doing.

• Find the Facebook page of one of your competitors. – Tell me one thing they are doing well– Tell me one thing they could improve on

Look at what others are doing

Look at what others are doing

Look at what others are doing

• You can also ‘watch’ pages to see what is working well in your industry.

• Click into ‘Insights’ and scroll down to find suggested pages (or select your own).

Network online

Most of you head to networking events. Why don’t you network online too?

An easy example is through a promotion◦ A real estate agent decides to do a promotion to

give away the services of an electrician, gardener, builder and painter = all about readying a house for sale. Each one of those tradespeople can share the competition on their page and it gives everyone something to talk about.

Who could you work with?

Network online

Despite all of these tips and tricks, don’t be afraid to have a little fun.

Test out what works and doesn’t work by using Facebook Insights.

Remember: think about engagement. This is what leads to conversions and sales.

Have a little fun…