Making the Most of Facebook for Your Business

Facebook for Fun or Business?

Most of us have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. We tend to love it for reconnecting with old friends, sharing our news and looking at endless pictures of acquaintances when we are supposed to be sleeping.  But since Facebook has gone public, it has changed for the user and for businesses.  Combine this with countless algorithm changes and you get confused business owners wanting to make the most of their Facebook Business Pages but not knowing how without spending a lot of money on advertising.  While this may be the greedy intention of a publicly listed Facebook, we do not want that to happen to our clients.

Let’s start with defining algorithms.

The term “algorithms” made most of us sweat in high school and college math.  After graduating, we hoped that we would never hear the term again. However, thanks to Google and Facebook, we hear about it all the time.  An algorithm in relation to computer science is a procedure or formula to solve a recurrent problem based on a sequence of specified actions.  A Facebook example:

1. I have nearly 700 friends on Facebook.  If I were to open Facebook and see every single post that the 700 friends have posted, I would be overwhelmed and frankly, bored.
2. Facebook wants to avoid boredom and similar to the 5 o’clock news, shows the most popular headlines first.
3. Let’s pretend that my friend Sue has just gotten engaged and posts a picture of her and her Mister featuring the new sparkly ring.
4. It’s a popular post.  Within 8 hours of posting, Sue has 325 likes and her Mister has 212 likes.  They have over a hundred comments. Her family is sharing the post, it’s big news.
5. I’m Sue’s friend and I open Facebook and see her post first on my newsfeed.  I see it first because it’s big news and I care about it. Subconsciously, I may like Facebook more for sharing this news with me and keeping me in touch with an old friend.

To recap: the algorithm ranks popular posts to the top of our newsfeeds.  If this algorithm was not setup, the “recurrent problem” would be disengaged or bored Facebook users.  Instead, we see the popular news that we will likely value and like, comment or share.

What does this have to do with my Business Page?

Long ago, before Facebook IPO-d and many clever algorithms later, Facebook Business Pages enjoyed organic reach.  Meaning that if I posted an interesting post on my business page, all of the people that liked or followed my page would see it for free.  I didn’t need to pay to play. The new algorithm and the future of Facebook is to promote meaningful conversations. Therefore, they will favor person to person conversations over person to page (i.e. Facebook Business Page) conversations.  Meaning that Sue’s engagement news with over a hundred comments is more likely to be seen than if I have over a hundred comments on my business page post.

This does not mean that you need to double your Facebook ad budget.  It just means that you need to be savvier.

Top 3 Business Savvy Facebook Tips

1. Create content that your clients are interested in.
   1. Let’s pretend that your business is a vintage bridal shop (since Sue will need to be shopping for a dress soon).  They post wedding pictures of beaming brides on big day with a testimonial from the bride, tagging her on the post.  “Congratulations to Sue on her wedding day, looking beautiful in a Very Vintage Bridal Shop gown! Have an engaged friend? Add their name in the comments so they can be a Very Vintage bride too!” The bridesmaids comment and rave about the experience at the bridal shop, the bride’s friend and family comment and share.
2. Start conversations.
   1. Your posts should be designed to invite comments like Very Vintage Bridal Shop’s example above.  And when they comment, respond. Start a conversation. It shows that you care. It shows Facebook that there are meaningful conversations happening.  Let’s pretend that I add my newly engaged friend Carol’s name into the comments on Very Vintage Bridal Shop’s post about Sue, “Sue – you look stunning!  Carol – this is the amazing wedding dress I was telling you about. Let’s check out Very Vintage’s dresses!” The Bridal Shop could easily respond with, “Carol, we would love to show you our beautiful vintage dresses!  Let’s schedule a private appointment for you and your bridal party.”
3. Tell your fans how to follow you.
   1. This may seem daunting, but done correctly, it is a game changer for your Facebook Business Page.  Simply liking your page does not mean that they will see your posts as noted above. Ask them to follow these three simple steps and feel free to use our picture below to help them navigate this:
      1. Like your page
      2. Follow your page
      3. See First in their newsfeed

Still Confused?

PSM Marketing has a team of marketing experts including Social Media gurus. If you would like to learn more or have any questions, please contact PSM today.