Marketing on Facebook – What You Should Know as an SME Owner

Marketing on Facebook – What You Should Know as an SME Owner Mars664

Marketing on Facebook – What You Should Know as an SME Owner

facebook marketing

 

You must do something so that your company does not seem dead on social networks. These tips will help you survive, or go further.

Should I be on Facebook? Should I invest in social media marketing? What about Pinterest, Snapchat and Instagram? The landscaping professionals I work with at LawnStarter get asked this all the time, and it's a common question among all small business owners.

This article will give you information on what you need to do as a business on Facebook and the opportunities available if you want to go the extra mile.

 

You're on Facebook, whether you like it or not.

Before, it was optional for a company to be on Facebook, just as it was optional to be on Google several years ago. For better or worse, your business will probably make it to Facebook whether you like it or not.

How is this possible? Well, Facebook pulls data from all over the internet and creates a page for any business it finds. See the example below.

If you hover over the “Unofficial Page” icon, you will see the following:

 

So your business will be on Facebook whether you like it or not. What are you gonna do about it?

Don't appear dead to the world

How do most of your clients find you? Most likely it will be word of mouth.

But think about how it could actually work. Someone asks a neighbor: “Who mows the lawn?” The neighbor responds: “Eisenbath Lawn Care.” Often, the person searching for lawn care will Google that name and click on one of the top search results.

Hopefully your website appears as one of the best results. But next to your website on the search results page will be your business's listing on other directories, including Manta, Yelp, Yellowpages and, yes, Facebook.

If you were searching for lawn care and saw the Facebook page above, what would you think? You might wonder if that company exists or is still in business. There is definitely no social proof or reason to trust the company.

It turns out that this company in question is actually one of LawnStarter Lawn Care's top-rated lawn services in St. Louis, but you'd never know it by looking at their Facebook page.

So, as a business owner, at a minimum you should do the following:

  1. Claim your Facebook profile
  2. Update all information so it is accurate. This will also help your ranking in local search results.
  3. Upload high quality photos
  4. Reply to any comments on Facebook and stay aware of online comments in the future

If you've done all this, at least you won't appear dead to the world. To take this a step further, you may want to post content to Facebook once or twice a month. This ensures that potential clients know that you are still alive and well.

 

Using Facebook to grow your business

Now that you've done something to claim and update your Facebook business profile, you can think about going on the offensive. But before you begin, you need to understand the difference between Facebook advertising and organic Facebook marketing.

Advertising on Facebook involves purchasing ads to show to potential customers. There are many detailed guides written, so I won't go into it too much. Basically, most small business owners shouldn't worry about Facebook advertising unless they're willing to learn.

El organic facebook marketing, Also called social networking, it doesn't cost money directly. It's about owning your Facebook page and interacting with your audience. For the rest of this article, we will talk about this variety of Facebook marketing.

 

What Facebook can and can't do

At the time of writing this article, You shouldn't expect to get more customers by being on Facebook. There was a time when that wasn't the case, but in 2018, small business owners shouldn't expect to start posting on Facebook and suddenly get more customers.

That doesn't mean Facebook can't be valuable. For local small businesses, being active on Facebook means building relationships with your current and former customers. It is a way to establish personal relationships with this audience, taking into account and improving their perception of the company.

Over time, being active on Facebook can result in higher referrals, better customer satisfaction, better retention and repeat purchases. But it takes a long time, and it won't be directly measurable.

But, many small business owners get on Facebook, try it for two months, and then give up because they think nothing happened.

 

It's okay to not be very active on Facebook

As we established above, it is important that something dead does not appear on Facebook. But that doesn't mean you have to put a lot of effort into Facebook marketing.

Small business owners are pressed for time and should only take on projects that have a high return on investment. Frankly, being on Facebook has a very low ROI for many small business owners.

For most businesses, getting online reviews, creating a professional website, touching up your store signage, running basic email campaigns, and even writing handwritten notes will have a higher direct ROI than spending a lot of time on Facebook.

So if you're not willing to put in the time, it's okay to get away with the bare minimum. There are better uses of your time.

 

How to succeed on Facebook, if you have time

Let's say you're really ready to commit to the Facebook marketing, that you have already exhausted other opportunities and that you are ready to do it.

To get started, you need to build your initial audience. Here are some simple ways to do that:

  • Send an email asking your customers to like your page
  • Like Facebook with a link to your page in your transactional emails
  • Put the Facebook badge on your website.
  • If you have a blog, end each article with “Like us on Facebook for more information like this” with a link to your page

That is. Simple truth?

While we're on the topic of getting followers, never buy fake likes Don't even go out of your way just to increase your numbers. The raw number doesn't matter. Remember, you are building relationships with current and former clients here.

Then you must develop a content calendar to share with your audience. Facebook allows all types of content, including:

  • Raw text posts
  • Videos
  • Images
  • Outlinks

It's a good idea to mix up the types of content you share, but there should be a consistent theme related to your business. For example, in the lawn care industry, you could share:

  • Photos of freshly cut and well-kept grass.
  • Short videos with seasonal lawn care tips
  • Photos and biography of one of your employees.
  • Links to seasonal lawn care guides.

What you share should be interesting to your audience. And it can measure how interesting the engagement is: how many people click on your links, like your posts, write comments, or share with others.

If your posts aren't engaging much, Facebook's algorithms basically decide that your business isn't sharing interesting things, and will stop showing it to people. However, if your posts get a lot of likes, comments, and shares, Facebook will show your content to more people. Maybe even people outside of your fan base.

 

You must not sell or promote yourself in these publications. Nobody wants to see that. Not yet at least.

 

The next part of social media is interact with your audience. Has anyone commented on your post? Respond in a fun and genuine way. Did anyone leave a positive review? Thank them! Make them feel special. You can also style your posts to get engagement, perhaps by asking a question.

The final part of social networks is what Gary Vaynerchuk flame “the right hook.” You've entertained, educated, or otherwise engaged your audience through a series of posts. Your audience likes you, they can't wait for your next post. You have built value. Those are all the little bumps.

Now it's time for the right hook. This is asking your audience for something. It could be to subscribe to your email list. You can promote a special you're doing or ask your audience to attend an event you're hosting.

Of course, everything you are offering must be of value to the customer.

  • Join our email list to get helpful tips and exclusive offers.
  • Buy this discount lawn fertilization promotion because it will make your lawn look better.
  • Come to our event because your children will have a great time and you can relax.

Just don't go crazy with your right hooks; you want to land only one for every 10 or so hits. But if you stay consistent and follow these tips, your small business can be successful on Facebook.