Why You Should Be Using Facebook For Business!

Facebook is becoming a more and more powerful force behind business. In this article I will tell you why you should be using Facebook for business, a few things to avoid when using Facebook, and finally a few little tricks to get you ahead of the game, and give you a powerful start when you make your Facebook page.

10 Reasons To Use Facebook For Your Business!

 

1: Facebook is the largest Social Media Platform in the World.

 

With a huge amount of people using Facebook all over the world, Facebook boasts over 2.7 monthly users as of the last quarter of 2020. With a huge amount of people using the service all over the world, no matter where you are located, it is statistically very likely that loads of potential customers live in your neighbourhood that use Facebook on a regular basis.

 

The average Facebook user spends approximately 55 minutes on Facebook per day through the website and app, which means that local people using Facebook will have a good chance of noticing you if you reach out to them.

 

2: Running a Facebook Page can be very Cost Effective.

 

Not all businesses pay to use Facebook and many businesses have chosen to rely on Facebook for their day to day business rather than using a website. From cleaning companies to local shops, from photographers to musicians, Facebook has become a preferred place to do business for people who don’t necessarily want to invest in a website.

 

With free stock imagery easily accessible on Pexels and Pixabay, it’s easy to set up a page, editing posts for free in Canva. Posts can be shared to personal profiles and local groups to easily build a target audience for free, dispensing with the need to rely on local ads.

 

3: If People Regularly Interact With You, They’ll See You More Often.

 

Facebook has a highly complicated and intelligent algorithm. When users like a page, it doesn’t always mean they are 100% interested in the page. When you post, a small number of your page’s fans will see your post. From my experience as a digital marketer, it seems that if there are people who like a lot of your posts, they will be more likely to see every post that you release compared to people who never interact with your posts.

 

The good news is that means that your real fans will almost always see your posts. The more interactions your posts get, likes, other reacts, shares and comments, the more people Facebook will show your posts to, meaning that if you are releasing a lot of popular posts regularly, you are going to naturally do well on Facebook.

 

4: Get To Know Your Audience

 

Facebook is a Social Media platform, which means social is a big part of what Facebook is all about. When people comment on your posts and interact with you, it is important to message back. There are some businesses that make some astounding posts, but they don’t respond to their audience and eventually lose them over time.

 

If you get to know your audience, communicate with them and form a good relationship with them, you can almost guarantee your customers are going to think of you more regularly when they want products and services you supply. Effective communication with your Facebook audience can be the difference between success and failure. It’s always good to interact.

 

5: Reviews

 

Reviews can be a tricky situation for some business owners. Facebook allows the option to turn off your reviews if you are continually being attacked by people. Reviews are an extremely useful tool though and I recommend you to keep the reviews tab. Positive reviews allow you to thank customers and get them to return to you, building up a fantastic relationship over time.

 

Bad reviews can occasionally point out glaring holes in your business or give you the chance to turn a situation with an unhappy customer around. Some people can’t be dealt with sadly. If you are worried about handling bad reviews, check out my earlier article on the subject.

 

6: You’re Not Just Another Faceless Corporate Venture!

 

On Facebook, it’s natural to be able to gain a great connection with your audience. This should be utilised to its fullest. One of the worst things you can do on Facebook is start to look like another Faceless Corporate Venture. Facebook allows you to talk to people in a personable way and should be used like this.

 

In almost every business meeting I have had, I have asked Managers what is the most important thing to them, and they always say “The Customer”. It is rare to see them actually talking to customers and communicating with them. Facebook allows you to communicate effectively with your customers, and show that you are more than just another company after their money.

 

People like people, not machines, and Facebook allows you to utilise comments and messages to your company to the fullest, giving you a platform you can use to respond to customers and increase your revenue.

 

7: Facebook can Help Your Website

 

Many blogs and articles incorrectly state that Facebook’s backlinks to your company are useful for SEO. This is completely wrong. Facebook links are known as Nofollow backlinks, which means they do not directly help your Website’s rank. Dofollow backlinks are good, because they say: We endorse the content we are sending you to. Nofollow backlinks don’t endorse or support your website in any way.

 

That said, one of the metrics Google uses to help companies rank is when people go onto your site from Social Sites. If you have customers visiting you on your site coming through the social links you share, this is regarded as popular traffic by Google and other search engines. Links help you with increasing your status, if your customers use them to go onto your site. Make sure you have a link to your website in at least 80% of your posts.

 

8: Your Competition Probably Uses Facebook Too!

 

If you are competing with people locally, you will quickly start to learn that any and all advantages you can get over your opponents and rivals are important footholds to gain. As a restaurant marketer and digital marketer, I have been involved in some exceptional fights with other businesses and learned that every tool I can use to get a foothold over my opposition is important.

 

The same goes for the reverse though. If other people are utilising Facebook and other social media sites and tools regularly, and using them when you aren’t, then they might be getting a lot of local traffic, and costing you business at the same time. I hate fighting other businesses, but every string to your bow will benefit you.

 

9: Customers Can Grow Your Business

 

Try running a great business deal for people who like your page already and add a few nice pictures to it, and say anyone who likes and shares the post can get the deal. You may find yourself swarming with new customers sharing your posts, and increasing your potential audience.

 

This technique is a good one for getting new customers because anyone outside your normal follower circle who comes in because of it or participates is an interested hot lead. You can use this technique to amass new followers who have a direct interest in your products and services.

 

10: Find Out What People Really Think About You.

 

If you have happy customers all the time, you’re winning, but then there’s always the chance that there are problems. 

 

I have managed pages for companies that have had little awareness of serious issues within their business. It can be a hard thing to go to a restaurant manager and tell them that the majority of their reviews are going downhill, they are getting abusive messages and people are getting food poisoning, drivers are arriving late or being impolite, or that food is not to their standards.

 

After the initial arguments, investigations into these issues have resulted in realising that hygiene is bad in kitchens, food is out of date and being used and other issues have led to the company ultimately losing customers. Sometimes drivers are a problem and need to be talked to or taught how to communicate with customers. Every driver is a salesperson. After fixing the problems, it’s important to say that food quality and services have been fixed and sorted. Thank people for their feedback and say that improvements have been made.

 

Unhappy customers can be contacted through Facebook and offered a free meal for two and apology, and business can then return to normal. If it costs a few hundred pounds to get a customer back who would eat there regularly, it’s worth it. They’ll also stop complaining about you to other people you, which could be costing you business you don’t even know about.

 

Bonus: Facebook Advertising

 

Not everyone wants to pool money in on Facebook, and a lot of the time it isn’t necessary. Facebook has one of the smartest and easiest to use advertising systems in the world. If you want to reach people, it only takes a few minutes to set up and run a campaign. Facebook’s algorithm is incredibly good at finding people who will like and support your business, and I always recommend investing in it, despite it not being integral.

 

In my experience, advertising on Facebook is the icing on the cake, and it’s a great way to get your brand noticed by people who don’t like your company yet. I usually recommend around £60.00 per month or $80.00 USD for my customers in a 5 mile radius with no targeting settings for the best results.

5 Things To Avoid When Running Your Page on Facebook!

 

Facebook has a darker side when it comes to running business here. Avoiding these things will help you avoid problems and issues that could negatively impact on your business.  

 

1: Avoid Responding Negatively To Negativity on Facebook

 

There will be times when people can be negative to you or negative about your brand. This can hurt anyone who genuinely loves the work they do and believes in their company. Responding negatively looks really, really bad, and it can lead to huge community backlash, infighting and a tonne of bad scenarios that you will want to avoid.

 

If people talk to you negatively, they may be anything from upset and angry customers to trolls and rival businesses looking to lower your ratings. The most important point is to respond to things pleasantly and ask people who are upset to message the page so you can discuss the reasons they are upset. For trolls and Rivals and people who don’t respond, flag the posts for removal as not being genuine. 

 

2: Never Bash a Rival Publicly on Facebook

 

Rivals can do terrible things to your company. Companies I have known have had windows smashed, floodlights damaged, things stolen. One company had arson and another had flooding that was the entire responsibility of a company situated above them. The important thing is to never ever attack your rivals on Facebook.

 

It’s important to note that I’m not saying this will definitely happen or that being pleasant will make your rivals into nice people who won’t do this. You’re dealing with the volatility of the entire spectrum of human nature here, but if you are not provoking anyone, you’re unlikely to deal with any consequences.

 

You may have absolute proof some of your rivals are doing things that are insidious and down right unfair, but attacking them just looks bad. You can turn your audience off and upset people. It’s best to always maintain a calm relaxed posture. If things are bad, go to the police outside of Facebook, just avoid it. It’s social media not a battleground.

 

3: Avoid Being Too Close

 

When on social media it can be really easy to connect well with customers. The important thing to remember is that Facebook is public. You have to remember that in public and the comments section, you should always try to be professional and never bring up anything that could be personal to a customer there. Some people like banter but to other people looking in who don’t know the business or you so well, you might look antagonistic or like you’re fighting…

 

Whilst it is unlikely that issues will occur in most cases, I have dealt with three businesses that have lost customers due to this, so it’s important to always remain professional in your dealings.

 

That said, there’s no harm having fun in the page messaging feature if your customer is having fun. One of my clients has a great relationship with a customer who keeps making fun of when my client’s football team loses, and the banter flows fast and furious. Just make sure to keep it as professional as possible in most cases, and always in public comments.

 

4: Don’t Be Big Headed

 

You may well have the best hotel on TripAdvisor, the best local restaurant, or the highest ranked garage in a popular magazine. You don’t want to post about these things for two reasons: It makes you look big headed and it’ll piss off rivals and potentially customers.

 

Rivals who you upset can get really vicious as I’ve mentioned earlier, and this can lead to false reviews, arguments, prank calls resulting in fake orders, and damage to property. I’ve seen all of these and more. Just be careful if you’re going to say anything that makes you out to be better than anyone else.

 

That said, if you got your top ranked hygiene rating as any food preparation business, you promote the hell out of that at least once a month. Customers do love it. The difference here is that you are not competing with anyone. You’re not saying you’re better. If you achieve anything that is unique and non competitive, go for it. Just be careful not to tread on anyone’s toes.

 

5: Avoid getting Frustrated With Facebook and Relying Completely On It

 

It can be really easy to get frustrated with Facebook. I’m a digital marketer, and in my business, unless I invest a tonne of money, time and energy in it, and if I am not a legendary level guru, I am not going to do amazingly. Digital marketers are boring people and nothing is more tedious than listening to us prattle on about how to dominate in an industry. The reason Facebook doesn’t work well for me is because I only have around 20 customers at any given time and I am absolutely swamped working for them. I don’t need more. I get my customers through word of mouth and SEO.

 

Your business is likely to be a lot different with a huge amount of people coming through it every month. If you are like any of my social media clients, you will absolutely love your customers to bits, and they will love you. 

 

I put a little time every now and then into Facebook, and run everything I do through Content Studio. It’s fast, effective and it gets me the results I expect for my customers. I set up all my campaigns in advance so I don’t have to think about them and I respond personally if anyone ever mentions anything.

3 Ways You Can Save Time and Dominate on Facebook

 

Ok, if you made it this far, I officially love you. I also now want you to succeed. So let’s get to three great ways you can dominate on Facebook.

 

1: Content Studio is King. (But it’s not the only thing!)

 

If you want to save time, you will want to schedule your posts to get the maximum benefit out of the time you have. Time is really important for business owners, and Content Studio allows for saving time, complete social media control over multiple accounts and can really help you run your business. It allows you to easily source trending content in your field and post it, or set it to post later, schedule normal posts to post later, set up post rotation, and do a whole load of crazy stuff. I am an affiliate so if you buy the program, I get a small commission, however, I use Content Studio to run the accounts of every single business I work for and it’s yet to let me down. 

 

If you want to save time and not invest in Content Studio, you can also look up Hootsuite for similar more limited options. This program is far more limited at its base level and I stopped using it a while back because of issues with scheduled posts not going out sometimes. There is always an advantage to using a paid product. Hootsuite also has a paid version we used to use but still had occasional issues. This product is currently on sale until the end of [todaysdate format= “F Y”]!

 

2: Facebook Messenger can be Integrated into WordPress

 

Nothing beats instant gratification, and consumers now want a product to arrive before they order it. Facebook Messenger can be easily integrated into your website with the use of the Facebook Messenger plugin for WordPress, found in the plugins section of your site.

 

Having a live chat function can be really useful if people are on your website for two reasons:

 

1: A user that asks a question on your site will wait on the page, decreasing bounce rate. This will increase the value of your page when it comes to search engines recognising the page as having value. 

 

2: Your customer can easily connect with you at any time, then they get their responses through messenger and you don’t have to worry about email. As many business emails are now ignored, Messenger Marketing is on the Rise. Woohoo!

 

There are also other website creators that allow integration of Facebook messenger, but I don’t use them so I can’t comment as to their effectiveness.

 

3: Run Competitions

 

I go into competitions in my earlier article here. The article mentions how to get free traffic to your Facebook page, and it’s pretty useful information.

 

Competitions have netted me some of the largest customer swarms I have ever seen, and resulted in local reach exploding into the hundreds of thousands. 

 

Competitions will not let you down.

 

It’s important to always throw services and products you normally supply into competitions so that you will always get people interested who will genuinely like your product. Restaurant owners, a meal for two or free will get amazing results with great pictures. Competitions have worked with products ranging from haircuts and gym memberships to house cleaning services and restaurant promotion. Definitely consider running a competition to get you up and going!

 

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope it helps!