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New Blog Series – Social Media (Today’s Feature: Facebook)

Hope you enjoyed our Google blog series. Now we are moving on to a new series – all about best practices for using social media! We will feature tips for using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest.

First, a disclaimer: When deciding which social media platforms to use you first have to ask yourself how your target audience prefers to interact with you. We at Focus Marketing and PR do not believe that just using social media is going to solve all your problems or get you the customer base that you need to succeed. If your market isn’t active on social media don’t waste your time. If you know that your current customers and potential prospects are active on social media sites by all means take advantage!

If you have decided that you want to use Facebook for your business or you already use it and want some tips, we have some great best practices for you. Enjoy!

If you view Facebook as a contest where the winner gets the most “likes” for their business, you are looking at Facebook the wrong way. It isn’t all about getting “likes”. You want to get people to follow your business because they are interested in what you are doing and are listening to what you are saying. You know the old saying: Quantity does not equal quality. (But remember, people can’t like you on Facebook unless you help them. Make sure that you have links on all communications including emails, your email signature, business cards and your website.)

According to recent research, posts with photos tend to get the most interaction – beating out both text and video.  So, get out those cameras!

Keep your posts simple and short – aim for 50 words or less.

There is no magic day/time combo that is going to get you the most responses. Some companies are finding that weekend posts work best for them. Test it out or even ask your followers when they prefer to hear from you and build out your Facebook communications based on that. Don’t just guess.

It is tempting to use status updates on Facebook for promotions but don’t over-do it. You should look to build out a nice combination of promotion, education and interaction with your posts.

If you are going to use Facebook you have to really USE IT! You need to be proactive about responding to posts and you need to post updates regularly. Otherwise it would be better to not use it all.

Look at rewarding your fans. Give them exclusive access to information that other people will not be able to view. Reward them with deals and perks for being a loyal fan.

Facebook does give you the option to geo-target your posts which may be a good idea for you, especially if you have local promotions or updates to share.

At the end of the day when people follow you on Facebook they want to know more about you. Be consistent, engaging and reliable. And have some fun! Social media can be an enjoyable way to interact with your customers.

Up next we will be discussing best practices for Twitter.

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