Facebook For Business Marketing | 3 Actionable Tips For Growth

Have you ever thought about integrating Facebook for business marketing?

No, I guess!

One of the primary objectives of our digital marketing training is to make sure our students graduate with top-notch social media marketing skill.

You can click here to read more about our course guide.

I am a digital marketer, I am a social media expert, I am an online marketer and much more are just what I see when I check people’s profile across different social media platforms.

Young adults today leverage the power of social media to promote their businesses online.

The denting truth is;

“How many of these people are truly worthy to be called a true business promoter, online guru or digital marketer?”, “Do they really know how Facebook for business marketing works?“.

Most people that claim to be what they are not, as young entrepreneurs have attracted to this trend. Unfortunately, many have abandoned their Facebook pages and groups after failing to succeed in their businesses digitally.

Facebook leads other social media websites as the largest and most visited social media platform in the world, and I am sure you’ve heard how important it is to grow your businesses online through Facebook.

Problems associated with failures in promoting your business on Facebook is as a result of lack of knowledge, you can’t expect to get results when your marketing approach to grow your business is wrong.

However,

A few have succeeded out of chance or mere luck, without understanding the real concept and strategies required to excel in the aspect of using Facebook for business marketing.

It’s not only about creating pages and pushing out contents daily, there are tips required to make your business succeed on Facebook, and I am going to show you how to effectively use Facebook for business marketing.

Tips For Using Facebook For Business Marketing

Let’s go…

1. Set up a unique page for business

Creating your business page is the first step you take if you want to promote your business online. There are wide ranges of business online and Facebook has made available options of choosing page category to align your business objectives with your page. Here is everything you need to know;

# Choose a category

When creating a Facebook page, you will need to choose one of six major categories (that have a subcategory). These categories all have special and specific features.

Six major categories are;

• Local business or places.
• Company, organisation, and institution.
• Brand or product.
• Artist, bands and public figures.
• Entertainment.
• Cause or community.

Make sure you select right, the most relevant category and subcategory for your business. Note; you can alter the category & subcategory of a business page an unlimited number of times.

Based on different features available to all categories, you will lose certain features when you change your page category later. For instance; when you change from “local business category” to another category, you will lose ratings, reviews and maps features.

Here are some of the categories (and subcategories) and things you should know before choosing a category for your business.

Local Business or Place

Choose the Local Business or Place category if you have a physical address where your customers do business with you or that represents the physical area in which you offer your services. This is also a good option if you want to allow people to check in at your location or review your business on Facebook.

Company, Organization or Institution

Choose the Company, Organization or Institution category if your page represents an entity that is not location-dependent. This category is also a good option for local businesses or places that want to list an address and allow check-ins, but don’t want customers to leave reviews.

Brand or Product

Choose Brand or Product if your page represents something that is sold through a variety of retailer’s shop. It’s a perfect option if you don’t need to designate a physical address.

Artist, Band or Public Figure

Choose Artist, Band or Public Figure if your page represents an individual such as a politician or a celebrity (real or fictional). To those that aren’t either of the two, this is also a good option if you want to market yourself separately from your Facebook personal profile.

Entertainment

Choose Entertainment if your page is related to books, magazines, movies, music or sports, but not individuals such as the public figure/artiste category. It’s also a good option if you don’t need to designate a physical address with your page.

Cause or Community

If your page doesn’t fit under any of the above main categories and subcategories, then choose Cause or Community as your page’s main category. However, look through the above options first to make sure that your page doesn’t fit better under a different category before choosing this.

If you’re still not sure how to choose a category for your business, then see how the popular brand Samsung UK selected the company, organisation and institution category and still created other pages for products categories for Samsung TV (Electronics category) and Samsung Mobile Nigeria (Product/services).

# Add Company’s details

If you’re setting up a page for business, there is a need to add company’s details to your page. The best company pages do a great job of increasing brand awareness and give new followers a quick understanding of what your business page is all about. Not just for brand visibility, but also for building and sustaining a useful community around your products and services.

Since you only get 155 characters to describe your page. This description appears prominently near the top of your Facebook page on both desktop and mobile. Be as descriptive and helpful as possible. Be precise and make sure it contains what your company is all about.

Also, include other relevant details about your company; let them know what you sell, your website, what times you’re open, etc.

# Page profile picture, cover photo, and CTA

Branding isn’t complete with the exception of profile picture and a cover photo for your business. You should use a recognisable profile picture, this is because using a recognisable picture allow your followers relate to your brand.

The most preferred picture to use is your company’s logo because it’s a thumbnail picture that appears at the top of your page. That’s the first thing they see when they land on your page, update status and when you make comments/replies.

Profile picture: Upload a main profile picture/icon for your page. This photo will appear as your icon every time you comment on a post or publish in a news feed. Square dimensions are best. Facebook will force rectangular photos to be cropped to squares.

Your profile pictures should be at least 180 pixels wide by 180 pixels tall. Here is a full list of the sizes that Facebook uses for your profile picture in various places around the site:

• The main profile image on your page – 160 x 160
• In a news feed – 100 x 100
• In your timeline – 86 x 86
• Next to comments – 43 x 43

Cover photo: This is the part where your creatives come in play, the most visible part of your page is your cover photo and this is where every page’s creativity is seen.

The cover photo is an 851-pixel wide by 315-pixel tall image that appears at the top of your Facebook page. It should visually represent the company’s product, information or serve as an avenue for a quick advert. To get some know-how design inspiration, take a few minutes to visit your competitors’ Facebook pages to see what images they use for their cover photos, or if you can’t afford to pay graphic designers for a cover photo design, you can check out pages like canvas or pagemodo for a host of cover photo samples/templates to choose from.

Add a Call-to-Action Button (CTA): Next to your page’s Like button is a Call-to-Action button. You can customize this button with Book Now, Contact Us, Use App, Play Game, Shop Now, Sign Up or Watch Video. Each of these actions can be linked to a specific URL where the action can be completed.

Tip: If you’re creating a page for your products or selling an eBook, you can feature a cover page displaying the product or eBook, coupled with a CTA button that takes users to your landing page.

# Hire a graphic designer: Don’t try to do things yourself when it comes to branding. Prospective followers want to ‘Like’ a professional looking page and not some bunch of MS Paint designed page. So, therefore, there’s need to hire a creative designer, there are many graphic designers that will charge $25 – $50 to design your professional business page for you.

[bctt tweet=”More than 1.7 billion people use Facebook daily, grab this opportunity and promote your business page fast!” username=”DMSInstitute”]

2. The power of content

Have you heard this saying that “content is king”? After you have set up your page appropriately, your followers will expect page contents to be published constantly. Facebook users interact with pages that post always. Although, there are tips you implement on your page to get more interactions when posting on Facebook. See them below;

# Less or more post?

According to a study by Hubspot, companies with fewer than 10,000 Facebook followers receive 60% fewer interactions per post when they post 60+ times per month. So don’t overwhelm your customers by posting more than a few times per day. Instead, spend more time crafting higher-quality Facebook posts.

# Multimedia post should not be taken for granted.

Research has shown the use of visual content in Facebook campaigns can generate 65% more engagement after only one month. So, this is the more reason you should take my word for it, visual representation has a way of capturing your reader’s attention.

# Study when and when not to post

When using a Facebook page, it’s important you study when and when not to share articles. While the posting time varies across different pages on Facebook, you have to know a strategic time when to push out articles for your readers, and not clutter up your pages with too many posts within a short time.

Some data released by shows that posts published between 1 pm to 4 p.m have the best clickthrough and share rates. Use this as a start-off to discover which time of day works best for you.

# Don’t be slow to respond

Did you know that 42% of people who comment on social media expect a feedback in 60 minutes? Ignoring them only ignites disappointment and anger, so take a few minutes of your time, don’t only post contents, also go through comments and respond to them.

# Analyze your page performance via Facebook Insights

Facebook Insights is a place where you’d understand how your post is performing, not just action on the page, you will be able to analyze your post reach, video and post engagements.

You will know the number of times people have engaged with your posts through comments, likes, and shares. Once you understand how this works, you can tailor your post strategy to publish more of what works best for your followers, and less of what doesn’t.

# Promote content via Ads

According to Facebook, more than 1.7 billion people use Facebook daily. They use Facebook to connect with friend and families and other things that matter to them. Marketing your business products or services through Facebook will help you locate new customers and build a lasting and productive relationship with them.

Using Facebook ads; Facebook Ads formats are very flexible, eye-catchy and work on every device and connection speed. You can target adverts to people based on how they engaged with your page content, location, age group and lots more. Facebook’s self-serve advert interface is better than any other advertising platform on the market – you don’t have to be a tech wiz to get in there to get things started!

Use paid budget to amplify Organic post; when you notice a specific post performing well, put the budget behind you and try to amplify such post using Facebook ads. These kinds of posts perform really well as paid post, they will attract more people to your blog and you will get better ROI for your ads. It’s a risk worth taking.

[bctt tweet=”Capitalize on the power of media content to reach out to more followers, know when and when not to post.” username=”Digital Marketing Skill Institute”]

3. Promote your page with contest and freebies

Do you know you can do little to get more? With an amazing 1.7 billion daily users on Facebook, there is a huge pool from which you can attract new customers and reward existing ones. These promotions are also a great way to gather information from participants (which you can turn into leads), and build brand awareness and loyalty.

If you have an amazing contest idea, just know that chances are high that Facebook users will jump on it. It’s just a matter of finding the best fit for your brand and target audience. To make sure your contest stays lawful and doesn’t get shut down, kindly follow the official contest rules provided on the Facebook page terms.

Facebook Contest Rules

• These rules clearly state who is eligible to enter a contest.
• Comply with any regional, state, national or international contest laws.
• Acknowledge that the promotion is in no way associated with Facebook.

In addition, personal timelines and friend connection cannot be used to run a contest campaign. E.g, “Share on your timeline to enter” or “share on your friend’s timeline to get additional entries” and “tag your friend in this post to enter” are not allowed.

Make sure you fully read and understand the Facebook contest rules before launching your page contest campaign.

Here are some Facebook page contest ideas

By now, I believe you must have digested the Facebook contest rules. If you lack contest ideas to kick-start your campaign, here is a list of contest ideas for you to select from. You should try some as they have been used by very popular brands/companies.

# Like or comment to win

This is the most popular kind of contest you should find. It comes in form of a “Like to Win” or “Comment to win” or “Comment and Like to win”. This kind of campaign is very easy to pull off. Pictures, Videos, Links or a simple status can be used to run this type campaign. All you need to do is, set rules and let them know the ultimate prize.

# Photo caption contest

This is popular among fashion, mobile phones, and other related brands. This type of campaign, you upload a picture and ask your audience to caption it. Once the entries are in, you can pick winners yourself or select the entry with the “most like” as the winner.

# Skill-testing question

These kinds of contests are proven to work when your audience is highly intellectual. You ask your audience to answer relevant skill-testing questions. This will be of great effect if you run an educational business page; it is also used to build awareness of your brand and cause.

# Crowdsourcing contest

This contest requires your audience to do the work for you, this type of contest campaigns ask your audience to submit name ideas for a new product or service or help create a new logo, cover photo or other design assets. This contest is perfect if you want to create brand awareness and create a piece of content.

Besides the one explained above, there are;

• Trivia contest specific to your brand
• Fill in the gap contest
• Photo and video contest.

Facebook Contest Examples

To prove that Facebook contest can get you results, check out Facebook contest examples and here are a few contest examples that have been used by known brands in the world.

Tecno, a popular smartphone brand in Nigeria ran a campaign asking people to capture and share pictures of the Tecno Phantom 6 ads displayed on any BRT bus in Lagos (must be shot on their smartphones with a caption attached with the picture and location where it was shot), this campaign was successful, it created massive brand awareness for the new product. The contest comment section was flooded with pictures of this new device they were promoting. It’s a promotional contest and the winner got a brand new Tecno Phantom 6 smartphone.

Qwertee, a limited edition t-shirt maker ran a contest where entrants had to like their Facebook page and submitted their email addresses for a chance to win a t-shirt. Their goal was to hit 100,000 Facebook likes by doing this contest, however, they achieved it and now they have a fan base of over 297,000.

After running a contest, remember to measure you Facebook contest performance, here are a few questions you should ask yourself;

• Did I choose the right type of contest?
• Did I give my contest enough time?
• Did I target the right audience?
• Did the giveaway provide enough incentive?
• Did I define a clear set of rules? Were they easy to follow?
• What was the biggest obstacle I faced in running the contest?

If you can provide positive answers to these questions, then you must have carried out a successful contest campaign but if on a contrary, there is the need to do it right next time you run a Facebook contest.

Writing great content is good, but rewarding your best audience with contests and freebies will make your page more popular. There are certain followers that need to be rewarded, these followers are persistent in commenting on your page post, if you have many followers that consistently comment, it is good you reward them, as they will, in turn, spread the goodness of your page with other friends by asking them to follow your page, liking and sharing every post you publish. This kind of stuff goes a long way, and it will strengthen your word-of-mouth marketing.

[bctt tweet=”Writing great content is good, but rewarding your best audience with contests and freebies will make your page more popular.” username=”DMSInstitute”]

In conclusion

Your business page is a great way to enhance your online presence and promote your business, with the tips on Facebook for business marketing, you should be able to build brand awareness, increase Facebook likes and generate leads, promote relationship with your readers, boost engagement and drive traffic to your website.

Remember to always engage them with a compelling post — you should capitalize on the power of media content to reach out to more followers, know when and when not to post.

Finally,

Using Facebook ads and running contest campaigns are proven ways to promote your business, why then should you limit yourself when you can reach more with only a few bulk?