by Lilani Goonesena
28 July 2017
We all know Facebook is a huge distraction. It lingers temptingly on the sidelines, never quite out of mind. But isn’t that just the kind of reach you’d like for your own business? That’s why you can turn the tables and make Facebook your best friend.
Facebook is the biggest and fast growing social media platform. Ever. With 1.67 BILLION monthly users, it has a potential reach that’s just staggering. And for small businesses, Facebook is awesome. In fact, Facebook has just expanded its options for business pages with a slew of new, customisable templates.
Setting up a Facebook business page is super easy and free. There’s really no reason why your business shouldn’t be on Facebook, but here are five compelling reasons why it should:
Think about it: everyone, and I mean everyone, is on Facebook. Your family, your friends, every workplace you’ve ever been at, your dentist, your grandma, your favourite restaurants, hotels, magazines, products, schools, and the pet shop down the road. Everyone. And all of their friends. That is a potentially never-ending source of clients and marketing reach for your business. You want to tap into that.
Facebook is essentially free but there are also very cheap ways to promote your business via Facebook Ads. For just a few dollars, you can set up a campaign or boost a particular posts and reach thousands of people. It’s best to choose targeted audience based on either your existing fans or your ideal demographics.
You’ll find an inexhaustive amount of information and resources on Facebook. Join any number of Facebook groups to network, make connections, share stories, learn, find clients and grow your expertise. The door swings both ways in these groups too; you can use them to share your business page and website, and demonstrate your trustworthiness and expertise.
Not tech-savvy? No matter. It’s ridiculously easy to set up a Facebook business page. It’s free and takes about five minutes. Facebook has videos, tutorials and heaps of tips on how to make your business page work for you. And their new pages are customisable to different types of business, so that they’re not only more visually appealing but relevant to your audience.
A Facebook page makes it really easy for your audience to share your information, blog posts, events, product launches and so on online and across social media. By linking your Facebook account to your website, or embed a “Like” box, and regularly sharing and engaging online, you’ll significantly improve your social presence and SEO too.
The bottom line is that Facebook loves engagement and sharing. So, the more often you can share content that your readers like (and you can find this out under the Insights tab on your business page), the more Facebook will reward you by showing your content. Other easy ways you can increase your organic reach on Facebook include responding to comments on your posts; including a Call To Action, like a signup button or a conversation starter; posting images; mixing up your post types between text, video and live video; and using targeted ads.
For a bit of inspiration, here’s how four other Australian writers make Facebook pages work for their businesses:
Rebecca Sparrow, Writer
Sarah Whyte, Journalist
Silvia Colloca, Food writer
Kate Gibbs, Food and travel writer
Do you have a Facebook page for your business? We’d love to check it out. Please leave the link in the comments!
