Part 3 of The Social Media Strategy Series
But in reality, Facebook is the natural evolution of network television—it exists for the privilege of delivering targeted ads to us in between doses of entertainment. Facebook is way better at it, too. That’s because every action we take, from sharing and “liking” to simple scrolling through posts, is recorded as data. That data forms a picture of each user—and each user gets ads tuned to that “purchasing profile.”
Besides better targeting, Facebook has also democratized advertising as well. Smaller businesses can now boost posts and run ads—which would have been prohibitively expensive using TV and radio. With that, Facebook has become a premier business instrument for small and large businesses alike.
I would argue that it’s even more valuable for small businesses, though. Using a cohesive content strategy, you can get closer to your customers and connect with them on a more one-to-one level. While it’s difficult—though not impossible—for bigger brands to interact this way, it’s a natural for smaller businesses.
And there’s evidence that people are OK with this. “More than 80% of Facebook users in the US are connected to a business,” which shows that people find it fairly natural to connect with brands online. The ones that are most successful are the ones who provide value to their customers and create a good brand experience through useful or entertaining content.
So, are you getting the most out of Facebook for your business? Now that’s there’s no doubt you should be on the platform, what’s your strategy?
Let’s look at some of the considerations for what might work for you particular business.
In this episode, I cover:
- Why you need to have a Facebook page, for B2C and B2B businesses.
- Strategies for optimizing not only your page, but your posts too.
- Why picking the right category is so important when you set up your page.
- A clever hack that I learned for the header image to work around a Facebook restriction.
- How interactions differ between profiles and pages in using Facebook for business.
- How Facebook’s algorithm works, and how it affects who actually sees your posts.
- Recent changes that have significantly reduced “organic reach,” and what you can do about it.
- How Facebook’s usage statistics can help you measure and adjust your strategy.
- What kind of automation you can get away with some automation with Facebook pages.
- How Facebook “motivates” you to be responsive to customer interactions, and why you can’t ignore it.
Listen right here or subscribe in iTunes.
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Show Notes
For more detail on optimizing social posts, I have a whole episode devoted to Improving Your Click-Through Rate (CTR). Here are the other sources that I cited throughout this episode:
- New Study Shows Facebook Reach Down 42% on Social Media Today
- On Facebook gunning to go “all video” on Techcrunch
- Recent Stats Show That People Use Facebook Differently Now – Here’s How on Edgar’s blog