6 Steps to Using Facebook for Business

By: Deborah Richmond

Sept 4, 2012

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Yes, it’s true. You can use a Facebook page for business. Facebook is a highly effective business tool, and is great to market your products or services, and connect with customers. The key to using Facebook to market your business is to have a clear strategy. Here is the strategy I use to market my business on Facebook.

1. Set up a “Business” facebook page as opposed to a Profile page.

I have had many people come to me and ask, “I set my business up on a personal profile. Now I’m told I need a business page. Which one should I use for marketing my business?”

The answer is you should use a Facebook Business Page for your business, and keep your personal profile for your friends and family. There are a couple reasons why this is a good idea.

The pages are somewhat similar, but Facebook has created the Business Page so you can “Like”a business.
People can “Like” your page automatically. They don’t have to wait for you to accept them, like you do a friends on a personal profile.
Business pages are the place your customers will expect to find you on Facebook.

For more on this, I’ve written a blog post titled Facebook Business Fan Page Versus Profile Page.

2. Be the curator of good information for your audience.

Using a Facebook Page for business is all about providing good content and value to your audience. This builds trust and leads to sales down the road once they trust you. You can use your Facebook page as a place to pass along good articles that are related to your industry. For instance, if I see a good article on using social media for business, I make sure I share that on my Facebook Business Page. This means that anyone who has “Liked” my page, will see these articles in their news stream. In other words, my messages come directly to them without them having to return to my page. My clients and customers appreciate that I pass along good articles I find on the internet.

3. Don’t use sales pitches.

Again, the reason a Facebook Business Page works for marketing your business is because it’s allowing prospects to get to know you, like you, and trust you. All three of these things need to happen before a prospect will buy from you. A sales pitch does not add value and does not foster trust. Sharing blog posts you’ve written, articles you’ve read, or your thoughts on the industry are all ways of adding value without pitching sales.

4. Build Your Audience

This means build your “Likes“. Anyone who “Likes” your page will now see all of your updates in their news feed. Again, this means they don’t have to come back to your page. You are now coming to them. That’s a huge advantage for you to be able to get in front of people who once “Liked” your page. So you can see why getting people to “Like” your page is one of the most important things you need to be working on at all times. Tell everyone, past customers, potential customers, everyone you meet that you have a Facebook page, and ask them to “Like” your page. While you’re thinking about “Likes”, you may be interested in reading a post I’ve written titled 2 Things to Know About Facebook’s Like Button”.

5. Engage visitors

Once you’ve gotten your audience’s attention, now it’s time to get them to engage with you. This is harder than it sounds. Most of us like to read what others are doing on Facebook without updating or commenting. But it’s to your advantage to entice people to engage with you and leave comments. I’ve written a blog post on ways to get your audience to engage called Facebook For Business: 6 Ways to Get The Conversation Started.

6. Send visitors to your website.

Once you’ve engaged your audience on Facebook, you now want to drive them to your website. Your website is your home base, the place you do business. You want them to come to your site to find out more about your products and services. A blog is a great tool to use in this respect. It gives you the ability to talk about a lot of different aspects of your business and industry, and then suggest to Facebook readers that they come over to read your latest blog posts. To read more on driving traffic from social media to your website, check out a blog post I’ve written titled Traffic and Social Networks: How They Work Together to Drive Traffic to Your Website.

To your Success,

Deborah

Tekkbuzz, 1229 South Geneva, Dewitt, MI 48820, USA

Source: http://tekkbuzz.com/