5 Steps to a Facebook Strategy for Small Business

facebook strategyIt’s hard to ignore a website with 1 billion users (over half of which are active everyday) when you have a small business.

While I wouldn’t advise everyone to be socially active unless they have met the prerequisites, if you have some time to work on it every day, this is a great place to start.

But I wouldn’t recommend starting without a facebook strategy for small business.

Small Business Facebook Strategy – Time & Money Friendly

1. Be dedicated, consistent and regular!

As I’ve covered before, being consistent is one of the most important aspects of social media, I suggest doing this by coming up with a routine, in this case for your fanpage. Here’s an example:

  • Arrive at work, check email, grab coffee, get on facebook (for business)
  • Eat lunch, check email, make phone calls, get on facebook
  • Have dinner, put away left overs, get on facebook

Stopping in just once a day isn’t going to give you the leverage you need when you want to make a real push on Facebook. You need to be on regularly, provide amazing engagement and answer your fans. So, let’s cover how you can do that.

I’d love to meet you, come introduce yourself on Facebook

 

2. Understand how to effectively use any Social media

Outbound marketing is OUT, and inbound marketing is IN! This means that your followers want and need something from you, not just messages to buy, buy, buy, you have to provide Value, and if you don’t you’ll see a large turnover in active fans, and less ROI for your efforts. Follow these rules:

  • Promote on a scale of 90:10- meaning for every 9 things you post that are valuable and engaging for your followers, you provide 1 form of promotion
  • Provide real value, links that they will truly enjoy, pictures they will like, conversation that gets them thinking
  • Analyze goals- Your primary goal is to build relationships with followers- nothing else is acceptable, only after this can you have the goal of bettering your business
  • Meet every fan whenever possible
  • Answer every like (on a post), comment, share, new fan possible- think of something to say, invite “likers” into the conversation
  • Be a person, not just a business front- CONNECT!!

3. What and When to Post Updates for your Facebook Strategy

In a recent post I discussed how using plain text updates are reaching more than 100% more of your fans when used in updates, so naturally I advise to use text updates whenever possible. Here is what I try to follow for my fanpages:

  • 1-3 updates per day
  • 1 – 2 shares per day from your newsfeed to your fanpage (this are probably pictures or links)
  • a video, photo and link each week (as part of the 1-3 updates per day)
  • links to any new content you have, for now, post the link itself in the comments section to gain more reach (I don’t expect this trick to last long)
  • On the weekends it is OK to miss posting for a day, but it is also a great opportunity to connect with more fans as the weekend is more active, but your choice

4. Give, Give and Give some more!

As discussed with the previous steps you want to provide value. It is common for companies to offer a free giveaway to get a like, but does that person who likes for the giveaway actually like your company, or do they just want something? It may be idealistic, but what if the user likes you because he likes you? And how can you get them to like you, GIVE!!

I try to offer fans something of value just for being fans, a special discount offered out of the blue, a special action (like a free blog post written for them), a tool they can use on my behalf, free promotions of their fanpages, etc. What can you give away, while staying within the terms of service of Facebook for contestsand giveaways, but while giving to your fans as well?

Here are some samples that I think will help you realize the value you can provide your fans:

  • Dog training fanpage- For the next two hours whoever sees this post can email me and I will share the download link to my most recent book I am selling on Amazon
  • Baby Store fanpage- We would like to help a cause that means something to you, post your cause below, the one with the most likes will get a special donation from us because we have awesome fans we are thankful for
  • Fitness fanpage- Are you struggling to stay fit, tell us how we can help below, if your request is within our ability to help we will do everything we can to make it possible
  • Marketing fanpage- Thanks to awesome clients, like all of you, we are known for our creative ability to put together amazing videos. We would like to invite any of you to use our special video marketing account that blasts video content across the web, just send your video link to our email and it will be taken care of.

5. How to Make it all Happen

The best thing you can do is to spend time empathizing with your fans, try to think of what they would like, what they need, what is helpful to them, and when you come across something you can do, make it happen, not only will it benefit your Facebook strategy, but it will benefit your fans, and they will be grateful.

Are you stumped?

If you aren’t sure where to start, what to post, how to say it, or what to do for your fans we can help, start with our free analysis (big blue button below) and we will help you get started down the right path, no obligation.

© 2013, Social Media Consultant. All rights reserved.

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3 Comments

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  2. Pingback: Facebook for Business- Important Posts Every Fanpage Owner Should Read

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