In one of our previous blog posts, Social Networking Stats and Facts Worth Sharing, our guest blogger, Tom Pick listed a number of striking statistics on social media usage. One of the stats he cited that we found particularly salient came from the Social Media Examiner:
“92% of small businesses agree that social media is important for their business and the majority use Facebook for their social media marketing. However, most also report that they don’t know whether their Facebook outreach is working.”
There is more than meets the eye with Facebook and creating a presence for your small business goes well beyond simply creating a page. In today’s blog we offer you some tips for increasing your following and achieving social media success:
The Basics:
In 2012 Facebook updated the way listings are accessed via the web by providing users with the opportunity to personalize their Facebook web address – once your page has reached 25 “likes” you can claim your own unique Facebook URL. For example: https://www.facebook.com/TheClassicHitsStation. Facebook user, 106.9 The Eagle used their tagline as the unique Facebook URL.
Make sure you have taken atvantage of this opportunity because without the personalized URL your facebook address is probably long and ungainly for sharing purposes. We recommend following Facebook guidelines for creating this custom URL because once created, it can’t be changed.
We all know the saying regarding first impressions and the impression your Facebook page makes on users cannot be emphasized enough. The internet in general is a medium dominated by images so make sure your images, especially your profile picture, typically a logo for small business users, and your cover photo are sized appropriately – not stretched, squished or blurry. Visit Facebook’s Sizes and Dimensions page for the right specs.
Special Features
Facebook now offers a number of great apps and plug-ins to make your page more dynamic but before you employ a developer to apply these tools, make sure you are taking full advantage of the standard feature Facebook offers, such as the Events Calendar.
A Facebook Event Calendar takes little effort to populate and makes it easy for followers to keep up with everything you have going on. Once you have created your events, simply share the event and your followers will be notified. If you want to reach people outside of your established audience, you can use Facebook ads and add the “event response” call-to-action button to monitor estimated attendance or use the “sign-up” button to collect leads.
Insights
Obviously, you must give Facebook users a reason to engage and a special offer may give Facebook users that reason initially but if you do not persist with interesting or engaging content then you just become a small square sitting at the bottom of the followers “About” page.
Not sure what followers want? Ask them, Facebook is an excellent platform for engaging customers in one-on-one conversations. Post questions that will get your followers talking. Additionally, you should be examining your Insights regularly to get analytics on who your followers are and what content they are engaging with most. Facebook recommends replicating posts that get the most engagement with similar content.
Insights can also help you keep an eye on the competition. Track the progress of other Facebook Pages by simply adding them to your analytics and you will get automatic comparisons.
Engagement
In a recent Washington Post article, Maryanne Wolf, a Tufts University cognitive neuroscientist, sees humans developing new “digital brains with new circuits for skimming through the torrents of information online.” This habit of skimming is taking the place of deep reading and Facebook is notorious for this so called torrent. To put it in perspective, Ziphora Digital Marketing provides the following statistic:
“Every 60 seconds on Facebook 510 comments are posted, 293,000 statuses are updated, and 136,000 photos are uploaded (Source: The Social Skinny).”
The Social Times reported the results of a survey conducted by social analytics and reporting firm, Locowise, which shows video securing the most reach amongst Facebook users connecting with 12.17 percent of total audience, followed closely by photos at 11.53 percent. These numbers support my earlier statement that the internet is a medium dominated by images and with our new digital brains – video is clearly the best way to capture the attention of Facebook users.
If you want to take your Facebook efforts beyond the standard “pages” and “posts”, Manning Media can help you create a social media presence that “works” for you. To contact us in Frederick, Call 301-620-7700 or in Hagerstown, Call 301-733-4500. You can also fill out our online request form by clicking HERE!.
Getting the Most Out of Your Facebook Efforts
