ALONG COMES MARY

It is astonishing to think how far a little social networking page called Facebook has come. When college student, Mark Zuckenburg launched the platform exclusively for college students to know more about their classmates, where the party was at and keep in-touch, many in the world of the wide web did not think much of it, that it was simply a rival for the then-incredibly popular MySpace.

Fast forward, and Facebook not only has dominated the internet, but remained somewhat of a mystery to those of us who eat, sleep and drink social media. While many are tending to shy away from Facebook, don’t! Facebook is a vital tool for us ALL that we should be just as active on as we are on Twitter, Pinterest and all the rest.

Here are a few tidbits that I find beneficial to keep in mind when using a Facebook page for your business (translation: a “page” is what your business would have, or if you are a public figure. Your fans “like” your page. If you have a “profile”, you must approve your friend requests and it is traditionally for personal use).

Not only have a Facebook page, but be active!

Don’t have your visitors simply see a page with a short About Me and no recent activity. Nothing turns me off more than to be excited about a page, but to notice they never post. Even twice a week is better than nothing. I do recommend at-least a post a day that is relevant to you and your page. If you’re a Travel blogger, take advantage of popular hash tags like #TravelTuesday if you have a great post or article about a destination to share, or #FlashbackFriday if you want to get your fans to revisit a certain, older piece (#FlashbackFriday is especially good for bloggers/writers)

Hashtags? Facebook??

Yep. Facebook now allows hash tagging on both profiles and pages. The rule of thumb is a maximum of 3 per post, so do some research to ensure that you’re using recently used tags.

Consider Facebook Ads

Starting at just three to five dollars, you can select a certain post from your Facebook to have advertised across a targeted audience. Most have better results paying at-least twenty dollars as that will get your ad to a larger reach. Just make sure to go through the audience settings so you can decide what geographic, age range and kind of consumers your ad reaches. This would be a great idea if you have something to share you are extra proud of, or if you are just starting your Facebook page.

Make Friends! Share! Interact!

Facebook is just like the other social media platforms in that following the “Rules of the Third” is ideal. This means one-third of your content is promoting yourself and what your page represents, another third is all about relationship building and networking and the last third is posting from other businesses and such with similar views and interest to your page.

Yes, How Many “Like” You is Important

Sadly, Facebook has made it more difficult for the page with five hundred “Likes” to get the attention on news feeds as, say, that page with ten thousand “Likes” has. The more comments and likes a post gets, the better the chance that more of your friends and their friends and those who “like” you will see what you’re posting. It can feel time-consuming, but, in the end, will be quite worth it if you build up your “likes”. Join Facebook groups with subjects that matter to you and let them know what you are up to on your page. (Just don’t get spammy or pushy!)

I truly hope these few tips are helpful. If you would ever like to chat further about Facebook & social media, shoot me an email at [email protected].