What Customers Really Want from Your Facebook Page

When you researched your target audience, you learned what they need and what their pain points are. Then you tailored your marketing strategy to satisfy these needs.

Facebook is an important tool you can use to focus on your customers and their needs.

What are the top things your customers really want from your Facebook Page?

Why you need a Facebook Page

Having a Facebook Page is important to your marketing success. There are more than 60 million active business Facebook Pages and more than 1.02 billion active Facebook users that log into Facebook daily. Your customers are there!

You can check your analytics using Page Insights to see how your content is performing and how well (or not) you are interacting with your fans. Use this data to plan marketing campaigns and future social media content.

What do your customers expect to find on your business page?

Contact and business information

Sometimes your customers just want to find out some basic information about your business, such as where you’re located, what your hours are, or what your phone number is.

Be sure to complete the ‘About’ section of your Page with all this information. This section should have all your contact information as well as information about your company. Also include links to any other social media channels that you use.

Customer support

Have you ever had a problem with a product or service and want to talk to someone at the company for help or customer support? One of the primary reasons people look at a company’s Facebook Page is for customer support.

You can use Facebook Messenger for a private, one-to-one conversation with a customer to resolve any issues they may have. This can also help keep any negative conversations off your page.

Deals and contests

Everyone loves a good deal, and your Facebook Page fans are no different.

Many Facebook Page fans expect, and enjoy, participating in contests and receiving special discounts because they love your product. Use your Page to post coupons or discount codes exclusively for your fans. It makes them feel special and who doesn’t like to feel special. Run contests to promote a new product.

Post relevant content

Like all social media platforms, your Facebook Page is a great way to reach a large group of people an efficient way. Share content and information with your fans that is relevant to your business and industry.

And don’t make all your posts about your products or services. Post stories about happy customers. Post about things happening in your industry. Educate your fans. Don’t just sell. The purpose is to be social and engage your fans. 

Include photos with your content. Posts with images receive more interaction than post that are just text. Videos receive even more interaction so consider using Facebook Live.

Give your customers what they want from your Facebook page and you’ll have them coming back to visit more frequently.

How to Start a Conversation with Customers on Facebook

Most every business has a Facebook page. Do you? It’s a great way to let your customers know about your business, who you are and what you do.

But remember it’s social media and you have to be social. So, how do you start a conversation with customers on social media like Facebook?

Here are some foolproof ways to get that conversation started.

Ask questions

One of the best ways to start a conversation with your fans is to post a question.

Questions are a great way to promote your business and find out what your customers are thinking.

Asking a question can also give your social media a great boost. Every fan that engages with your post (likes, shares or comments on your post) boosts the number of people who also see your content because the engagement is shared in their newsfeed to all their friends.

What type of question should you post? Your question can be anything from asking for feedback on your latest product to a short survey.

Share tips and tricks

You’re the expert in your field, right? So share some of your knowledge with your fans. Post a short video or blog with some information that you think your readers would find helpful.

Are you a chef? Share a great recipe that you’ve found or a great kitchen shortcut that would save your readers time in the kitchen. Are you a hair stylist? Post a video of a great color that you just did for a customer. 

Be yourself

Your fans want to get to know you and your company. If they know you and trust you, they will do business with you.

Use your Facebook page to show the behind the scenes parts of your company. 

Highlight new (and old) employees. Post about charities that your business participates in.

Post testimonials from happy customers. Testimonials aren’t just for your website!

Inspire

Do you have some great quotes that inspire you? Share them with your fans. Sometimes a great quote will resonate with your fans and increase your engagement.

Remember the social part of social media. If your fans are commenting, you need to follow up and continue the conversation.

Are you ready to start having conversations with your customers?

8 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Facebook Live

Facebook recently launched Facebook Live, Facebook Live is a video streaming service that lets anyone broadcast live videos from their mobile device straight to their Facebook Newsfeed.

This is an awesome way for small businesses to use the power of live video to communicate your stories and build genuine, personal relationships with your fans.

How can you make the most of this new service to promote your business? In this 

blog, we’ll walk you through 8 tips for getting the most out of Facebook Live.

Test it on ‘Only Me’ first

Before you hit the ‘Go Live’ button, practice making a video that only you can see. In your privacy settings, choose ‘Only Me’ so you will be the only person able to view your video. Make your mistakes here!

Keep reintroducing yourself

When you first start your video, you should introduce yourself and tell what your video is about. But keep in mind, you may not have anyone watching when you start. Your viewers will be joining your live video in progress, so you should reintroduce yourself a couple of times so your audience knows who you are.

Make your video visually engaging

Even though videos on Facebook autoplay in the Newsfeeds, viewers need to turn the sound on manually. This means your video needs to be visually engaging right from the start (for people who will watch it later) so that people will want to join in when they come across you live on their Newsfeeds.

What does visually engaging mean? Keep the camera moving. Don’t just sit in one place and talk to the camera.

Encourage viewer to like and share

The more people that like and share your video, the more it will show up in Newsfeeds. This is a Calls-to-Action – what action you want the viewer to take. So ask them to like and share your video.

Interact with your viewers

Use your viewers’ names, when possible. Call them out by name and interact with them over the video or answer their questions. They will certainly share a video that they are mentioned in!

Broadcast for at least 10 minutes

Because people will stop and watch your live video as they are scrolling through their Newsfeeds, it is recommended that you broadcast for at least 10 minutes so you more likely to be seen. You can broadcast for 90 minutes on Facebook Live.

Ask viewers to subscribe to live notifications

If your viewers are enjoying your video, you can ask them to subscribe to live notifications so they can be notified when you next go live.

Having them sign up for live notification is easy. All your viewers have to do is click on the small downward-facing arrow in the top right-hand corner of the live video post and choose ‘Turn On Notifications.’

Say goodbye

When you are finished broadcasting, be sure to wrap up the broadcast by thanking people for watching and saying goodbye. This is where you can ask people to share your video with their friends. 

How to Use Facebook Live

Facebook recently launched Facebook Live in an effort to promote video content in Newsfeeds. Facebook Live is a video streaming service that lets anyone broadcast live videos from their mobile device straight to their Facebook Newsfeed.

This is an awesome way for small businesses to use the power of live video to communicate your stories and build genuine, personal relationships with your fans.

How can you make the most of this new service to promote your business? In this blog, we’ll walk you through how to broadcast on Facebook Live.

How to Broadcast on Facebook Live

To start your live broadcast, open Facebook on your mobile device. Open the status bar just like you’re going to write a post and tap on the “Live” icon. The Live icon looks like a human silhouette. When prompted, allow Facebook access to your camera and microphone.

Next, click on the ‘Continue’ button. This does not start the recording. Choose your privacy setting. If you’re sharing videos for your business, you want to make it public. 

If you want to test this out before going live, then choose the ‘Only Me’ setting.

Give your broadcast a description and make it compelling. You want people to watch! The description is what will show up in the Newfeeds.

Set up your camera so it is pointing in the right direction. Note that your video will be a square so it doesn’t matter if you hold your phone horizontally or vertically.

Click on the ‘Go Live’ button and start broadcasting. Facebook will give you a countdown…”3, 2, 1…” and then you’ll be live.

Your broadcast can be up to 90 minutes long. Keep in mind that the longer you broadcast, the more people who are scrolling through their Newsfeeds will see you live. When you’re done, click “Finish” to end the broadcast. This video will stay on your Page or Timeline just like any other video so others can watch it if they missed it live.

Interact with your viewers

Remember this is social media, so be social with your viewers. Interact with them. You can speak directly to people in your video or you can have someone else respond from a computer for you.

Have you tried Facebook Live yet? If so, share your experiences with us!

Why We Like, Share or Comment on Facebook

We enjoy looking at our Facebook feeds. We can catch up on what family and friends are doing. We can post information about our small business’ products or services. Research has shown people have physiological reactions, such as pupil dilation, as an indication of happiness when they are browsing their Facebook page. Facebook taps the brain’s pleasure center.

According to Facebook, “Like” is a way to give positive feedback or to connect with things you care about. Research shows that 44% of Facebook users “like” content posted by their friends at least once a day, with 29% doing so several times per day.

Why we “Like”

It’s a quick and easy way to connect. It is also a way to affirm something about ourselves. Studies of more than 58,000 people show that based on someone’s likes, you can figure out whether that person is:

·        

      White or African American with 95% accuracy

·         Gay or straight with 88% accuracy

·         Democrat or Republican with 85% accuracy

·         Male or Female with 93% accuracy

·         Age with 75% accuracy

A “like” is a way to express virtual empathy. We also “like” posts because it’s practical or because we will get something in return. A Syncapse study found that most people “like” a brand based on practical reasons, such as getting coupons or updates from the brand.

Why We “Comment”

We comment on posts because we have something to say. It is more satisfying to comment or receive comments compared to likes. Studies have shown that personal messages are more satisfying to receivers than the one-click communication of likes.

Why We “Post” Status Updates

This is how often people update their status on Facebook:

·        

      10% change or update their status on a daily basis

·         4% update their status several times per day

·         25% say they never change or update their own Facebook status

Why do we post status updates? One reason is that posting relieves loneliness. A study found that when students updated their Facebook statuses more often they reported lower levels of loneliness.

What Stops Us From Posting?

We stop posting because of self-censorship. Researchers at Facebook conducted a study on self-censorship (posts you write and never actually publish). Over 17 days, they tracked the activity of 3.9 million users. 71% of users typed out at least one status or comment and decided not to submit it. On average, users changed their mind about 4.52 statuses and 3.2 comments.

Why We Share

A poll by Ipsos offers finding from around the globe about why people share. Here are their findings:

·        

      61% share interesting things

·         43% share important things

·         43% share funny things

·         37% let others know what they believe in and who they really are

·         22% let others know what they’re doing

·         20% add to a thread or conversations

·         10% show they’re in the know

How often do you post on Facebook and why do you share?

5 Facebook Mistakes to Avoid

Today’s small businesses know they need to have a presence on Facebook. Facebook (and other social media avenues) allow you to communicate with current customers, promote your business to prospective customers and even to vendors. Facebook has so many uses for your business, but are you using it correctly? Here are five Facebook mistakes some small businesses make that you should avoid.

1) You set up a profile instead of a business page for your business.

This may seem pretty straightforward, but you'd be surprised by how many small businesses make this error. Facebook profiles are meant for individual people and Facebook Pages are meant for businesses.

2) You don’t monitor the posts or comments on your page.

The point of Facebook is to interact with your current customers and prospective customers that are already on Facebook. And, since Facebook has nearly two billion active users, it’s quite probably that your target audience is on Facebook. 

Remember the ‘social’ part of social media. When you set up your Facebook Page, make sure that you choose the publishing options for your Timeline that are appropriate for your business. Turing this option on allows your fans to post and leave comments on your site. That’s the social part. You can manage this by allowing your fans to post and leave comments on your but you must manually approve them before they show up. Some companies don't give their fans any publishing permissions at all. 

Once you have your publishing permissions set and are posting, don’t forget to monitor your page daily and respond to your fans’ comments when appropriate.

3) You don’t respond complaints.

What do you do it your fans leave a negative comment or complaint on your page? This will happen because you can’t stop people from saying things about your products or services, good or bad.

What you can do is respond respectfully and provide helpful information. Responding not only shows people you're concerned about their happiness, but also that you're engaged.

4) You don’t post videos.

In the past, photos dominated Facebook. Recently, Facebook made some changes and now images have the worst organic reach. Video is now the best post type for organic reach since Facebook’s most recent strategy shift toward video. You can still use pictures in your posts, but add videos to the mix.

5) Your posts are too long.

Surveys have found that shorter posts generate higher engagement. Concise posts of 1-40 characters generate the highest engagement.

Experiment and see what works best for your particular business and audience. The optimal length of Facebook posts will vary from company to company. 

5 Tips on Using Facebook to Effectively Promote Your Business

Facebook put new rules in place on January 1^st that penalizes overly promotional posts. What this means is that “overly promotional posts” will not be as visible in the news feed as they were in the past.

According to Facebook, here are what you should avoid posting to keep from being penalized:

1.       Posts that solely push people to buy a product or install an app.

2.       Posts that push people to enter promotions and sweepstakes with no real context.

3.       Posts that reuse the exact same content from ads.

So how do you promote your business on Facebook effectively in 2015? 

Post customer testimonials

Let your happy customers do the selling for you. You’re not being “overly promotional” when someone else is talking about how amazing you are!

Show off your products

Post pictures of your products in use. Talk about how your customers are using your products or services. You can include testimonials from satisfied customers with the pictures too.

Provide value

How will your product or service help potential customers? Talk about how your product or service will save them time or money.

Behind the scenes pictures

Having fun at the office? Working on a new product? Take pictures of what’s going on in your business and post them.  This humanizes your company. It’s all about the “social” in social media.

Posts teasers

Have a new product launching soon? Moving your business? Post teasers about upcoming events and launches. Anticipation makes people want to know more!

5 Facebook Status Ideas

Are you posting the same status updates on your business Facebook page over and over? If you are….please STOP! 

The best posts are the ones that standout from the crowd. Here are five ideas that you probably haven’t used on your Facebook page, but they will humanize your business, build credibility and get engagement from your fans.

Everyday Posts

Posting pictures from your daily life will make you and your business seem more human to fans and customers. Share pictures of people you meet with, what you eat and where you are around town. If possible, show your product being used. 

Throwback Thursday (#TBT)

Thursdays have become the day when people on social media share photos from the past. Do you have pictures of your business in its infancy? Share them on Throwback Thursdays. If not, how about sharing pictures you and your staff from back in high school? You know those crazy clothes and hairdos are always good for a smile!

Share Your Thoughts

What are you thinking about? Share it with your followers. It’s a great way to get engagement. It lets people get to know you while you build a relationship with them.

Sneak Peek

Will you be launching a new product or service? What’s happening behind the scenes? Generate excitement by sharing the inside scoop with your followers.

Use Videos

Videos are easy to post and share. And more people are spending a lot of time watching videos on Facebook. 

But keep it short. 10 to 30 seconds long is best; longer than that and you’ll lose your audience’s interest.

Marketing on Facebook doesn’t have to be complicated. Be yourself. 

Have you ever used any of these types of posts on your business Facebook page?

Top 5 Facebook Covers Website

You’ve created a Facebook business page for your small business and now you’re looking for a unique picture to insert in the cover section.

What is the cover section? It’s that large picture above your news feed page. There is a smaller picture to the lower left of it. The cover picture could be a picture of your business, a product or of you and your team. Of course, you may not have pictures available yet or you sell a service, so what do you post in this section? You can’t leave it blank…that won’t look too professional. Here are my top five websites that offer free Facebook covers.

11. MyFBCovers.com           

This site has more than 20,000+ Facebook covers in HD quality. You can choose one of their pre-created covers or, with this site, you have the option to create your own cover or a collage using your own pictures.

22. FBCovers.AlegriPhotos.com

This website is run by a professional photographer, Alex. He offers 10,000+ covers for your Facebook page that are professional quality photographs. He has many categories to choose from:

·         Abstract

·         Architecture

·         Business

·         Food

·         Industrial

·         Interiors

·         Nature

·         Science

·         Sports and Recreation

·         Transportation

·         Travel

·         Textures

33. ProfilePhotoCovers.com

This site has really great quality covers and you can easily make your own cover.

4. TimelineCoverBanner.com

This site allows you to create a cover using this clipart and backgrounds. You can get a more creative and customized cover without any watermarks.

55. FBookCover.com

With over 5,000 covers and 28 categories to choose from, this site make is easy to upload the cover to your profile page.

There are many more Facebook cover sites, but these are my favorites. Use them for your business page, and you can certainly find some fun ones for your personal page too!