As social media takes over the globe with its massive influence on a wide variety of topics, businesses have tried to jump on board with it too. Some have failed, others have thrived. If used correctly, it can be an incredibly powerful tool. Facebook, with a reach to over 2 billion users, is by far the top choice for promoting businesses.
Facebook has come in for a lot of criticism recently, and many companies have joined the Stop Hate For Profit that targets the company’s failures to moderate content on its site. However, the company still makes a massive $70 billion annually from advertising. To put that figure into perspective for you – it’s about three times the annual GDP of a country like Iceland.
Still, despite the protests, the Facebook marketing and advertising juggernaut will continue apace – it’s too big to fail. There are numerous examples on there, but the likes of Starbucks, Nutella, Stella & Dot and Adidas – companies from a variety of sectors – have all registered big success on Mark Zuckerberg’s creation. Then you have smaller businesses making an impact, alongside celebrities and the like. The world of Facebook is a vast one; that’s for sure.
But while we deal with massive revenues and corporations above, Facebook is the lifeblood for small businesses across the globe. With Facebook constantly evolving and new business practises cropping up on a regular basis, we thought we’d go through some of the basic ways you can promote your business on Facebook in 2020.
Make Sure you Select the Right Category for Your Company Page
Facebook has six category options when creating a business page. Most businesses fall under Local Business or Brand categories. It’s important you get this choice right as different category types have different features on Facebook. For example, a local business tends to have a physical location listing, whereas a casino brand promoting its joker poker features might not. If you’re looking to raise brand awareness and create a community on your page, it’s important people know exactly who you are and what type of things you’ll be offering. At the most fundamental level, the more information you provide, the more trust there will be in your brand. Get us much detail into the “About” category as possible. If the business does not have physical premises, then make sure there are transparent contact details like email addresses and links to the website.
Be Sure to Create a Vanity URL
Certainly just as easy as downloading videos from Facebook, getting a vanity URL is crucial when it comes to sharing an easier to read page link. Having a vanity URL is also crucial in terms of SEO and optimising your business, making it more searchable on Facebook and Google. On top of all of this, a vanity URL also gives the impression of professionalism which is never a bad thing. In the simplest terms, a vanity URL is a longer one that has been customized to help with branding. A vanity URL on Facebook might look like this: Soccer365.com/SportsPredictions.
Select a CTA Button
Every business page on Facebook has one, but they don’t all utilise it properly. A CTA button can essentially be used how you like, with some businesses using it as a ‘sign up’ tool, although there are plenty of other options including Book Now, Contact Us, Use App, Play Game, Shop Now and Watch Video. Select the one you feel best appropriate and then have it so that the CTA will link back to your website on, for example, the home page or contact page.
Implement the “70-20-10” Rule
Content is key. It doesn’t matter how shiny and professional your page is if you’re sharing dull, recycled content. See it as your chance to gauge what your audience wants and share some link-based, visual or competition type of content. A helpful tip is to use the 70-20-10 rule, which is essentially summed up by sharing original content 70% of the time, sharing content that will specifically interest your followers and is relevant to them 20% of the time, and then keeping promotional content down to 10%. Mix it up, keep it fresh and have a plan.
Run Promotions and Competitions
Tread carefully here as Facebook has some tight rules on competitions on its site. Indeed, Facebook is littered with scams. However, it’s become apparent that many of the millions of users around the globe really engage with promotions, especially if they can get something for free. If you make some offers exclusive to Facebook followers – it can be a token amount like 5% off – the engagement level can go through the roof. Moreover, users will come back for more.
Keep all Posts Tidy
We mentioned earlier that providing transparent details of your business was paramount to securing the trust of users. However, you would be surprised as to how much trust can be gained when posts on your Facebook page look professional. If there are lots of mistakes, users will feel like it’s unprofessional. Worse – bad spelling and grammar are often associated with scams like phishing emails. Make sure all posts are grammatically correct, concise and read well. Also, be sure to include a high-quality image to your posts wherever possible as it’s proven to get up to ten times the engagement a post without a picture would. Clean, shareable content is key here.