Despite recent social media entrants such as Snapchat and Pinterest, Facebook continues to be the platform of choice for engaging with users. Its ability to captivate users' attention is what makes it so effective for businesses to reach new customers. Statistics reveal that people use Facebook (and its related properties) every single day.
With this broad a reach, any entrepreneur or small business owner looking to grow their online presence should not overlook Facebook.
Creating a business page is a great first step, but this action alone is not enough to stand out. You should be up to date on all the latest strategies to captivate your audience, turn them into leads and convert them into customers.
Here are 25 effective, easy-to-follow Facebook marketing tips and tricks that will help you generate sales for your business. Best of all, these are tips you can implement for free today. All you need is to put in some time and dedication.
Getting started
1. Create a business page, not a personal profile.
This is something a lot of entrepreneurs starting out on Facebook often get confused about. If you create a regular (personal) Facebook page with your business name and details, it is not a "business page" per Facebook's rules and regulations. Facebook recognizes personal and business pages as different. You should have a dedicated business page.
To create your business page, you can simply click on Facebook's Pages section, followed by the Create Page button. The advantages of business page differ from those of a personal page. These are some benefits of a business page:
- You can enjoy unique tools and features that Facebook designed to help manage your business needs.
- Your fans can subscribe to automatically receive your updates to your page.
- A business page will add to the brand profile of your business, thus establishing trust with your customers.
2. Create a username or custom short URL.
When you create a Facebook business page, Facebook assigns a random URL to your page. Instead of using this URL, you can obtain a username or vanity URL, as it is often called. This makes it easier for users to search for and recognize your business page. A vanity URL also helps with the following:
- Increasing brand awareness and trust among customers
- Enhancing search engine results for your business
- Integrating with link retargeting and UTM tools
As a bonus tip, you can optimize your vanity URL to include targeted keywords in order to further boost your SEO.
Perfecting your profile
3. Capture attention with a cover photo.
A picture speaks a thousand words. Convey the essence of your business with a well-thought-out cover photo. In general, it is recommended to use an 851 x 315-pixel photo as the cover of your Facebook business page.
Keep the following points in mind while uploading a cover photo for your Facebook business page:
- Focus on the mobile-first appearance of your cover image.
- Preferably, use right alignment for your cover photo.
- Pin a related post below your cover photo.
4. Optimize your profile picture.
Use your company logo or title to create a well-designed profile picture. If you are a proud solopreneur, consider putting your own photo as the profile picture. Here are some tips to keep in mind when selecting your profile picture:
- Preferably, select a profile picture that is 180 x 180 pixels or larger.
- Ensure that your profile picture shows your passion for your business or product.
- Check that your picture resonates with your core customer audience.
- Make sure that your profile picture helps you stand out from your competitors.
5. Craft the About section so it speaks for your business.
The About section is a great way to let your customers know about your business and what you offer. The About tab is located on the left-hand side of your business page.
Here, visitors can learn more about your product offering, website URLs, Instagram pages and how they can reach you. Be smart; make good use of these sections.
Maintaining your brand
6. Respond quickly to messages.
The intention behind a Facebook business page is to better connect with customers, so why not prove it? The more responsive you are to customers' requests and private messages, the more "responsive" stamp you are likely to get on your page.
You might have seen badges for businesses indicating how quickly they respond to messages, such as "very responsive" or "typically replies within a day." Though responding is not mandatory as per Facebook rules, it serves as social proof that you care about your customers by answering their questions or concerns.
7. Share your achievements.
Your business has come a long way to reach where you are today. You have had many achievements along the way. Share such milestones with your followers and let them join in. For example, share a post when you reach your first 1,000 likes, first 100 customers or second anniversary. When creating a page post, simply select a Milestone to add and share your achievement.
8. Create call-to-action buttons with a purpose.
Business pages on Facebook have a unique advantage. As a business owner, you can add a call-to-action button to your business page.
For example, you can add a Sign Up, Contact Us or Book Now button, along with the corresponding details. These buttons can link to your Registration page, Contact Us page or Order page accordingly. Thus, when a user clicks on a button, the corresponding actions happen instantly, making it easier for customers to complete their objective.
9. Customize your tabs.
If you have many sections – such as Contact Us, Careers, Products and About Us – on your website, you can showcase them as tabs on your business page. Visitors will find it convenient to select what they want and be redirected to the corresponding pages of your website.
You can do this by signing in to your Facebook business page and selecting the More tab and then Manage Tabs from the dropdown list.
10. Focus on creating quality posts.
Gone are the days when bloggers posted mediocre content on their websites and social media accounts just so they continued showing up in the news feed. Social media algorithms have changed. Quality matters now.
Produce high-quality posts rather than quickly publishing posts that have less valuable content. Learn how to write better posts by following and learning from top accounts in your niche. Add compelling videos, images, infographics and other facts to make your content lively and informational.
11. Learn when to post.
Though there are no hard-and-fast rules for posting on your page, statistics reveal some interesting facts about the best day and time to post on Facebook to garner the most engagement.
Every Wednesday at 3 p.m. (in your local or primary target audience's time zone) is a good starting point. You can also try posting on weekends and between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays. Fridays are generally the highest-engagement days. If you want to share good news or a milestone, do it on a Friday.
Avoid posting on weekends before 8 a.m. and after 8 p.m. People are busy on the weekend and tend to be less attentive during these times.
12. Be innovative and interesting.
Resist the temptation to share basic updates. Readers should enjoy viewing your posts and content. Whenever you post, try to make it interesting, important and informative. You can improve engagement by adding captivating images, videos, polls and other interactive content.
13. Offer value and freebies.
Promoting only your products will quickly turn off your followers. Consider sharing some interesting facts or news that is in line with your product. For example, if you sell handmade beauty products through your Facebook page, talk about the benefits of organic ingredients, or share DIY recipes. Readers are more likely to be interested in your posts and may consider buying your products along the way.
14. Make sure your meta descriptions are complete.
Understand that when you share a link from your website to your business page, Facebook pulls the description text based on metadata, so it's important to make sure that your website page has a detailed meta description. The same applies to images on your pages.
15. Do not include long URLs.
When you share a post, the corresponding URL innately attaches to the post. When your page followers click on the post, they are automatically redirected to that URL. You do not need to add a link again. If you wanted to add a separate link, try Bitly to improve the appearance of your URL.
16. Include eye-catching images with your posts.
Studies have found that posts with compelling images are more attractive to readers and will draw more followers than posts that do not have images. Boost your user engagement by adding images to your content, and get more readership and views to your website.
17. Touch up your images.
Before posting on your Facebook page, make sure that your images are visible and appealing. If not, you can edit your images using formatting tools. However, don't overedit so that your image looks too artificial or inauthentic. It's best to adhere to Facebook's recommended image guidelines and dimensions.
18. Boost engagement by including videos.
Posting videos on Facebook pages garners increased engagement. Post videos and, preferably, live videos to boost audience views for your page.
Measuring your performance
19. Improve your posts with Facebook Page Insights.
Using Page Insights, the analytics tool from Facebook, you can understand how your posts are doing. This tool provides reports like the number of visitors, views, likes and other details for your page. Facebook Page Insights is helpful in analyzing the effectiveness of your posts and measuring how your website is benefiting from a Facebook business page. You can find Insights in the top navigation bar of your business page.
20. Plan ahead.
Plan out all important calendar events that may be relevant to your audience and potentially on a global scale too. Holidays such as Mother's Day or Thanksgiving are great opportunities to share related content. For this, you may want to plan ahead and schedule your posts accordingly.
21. Keep learning.
To stay in touch with new trends, as well as new tips and tricks to attract customers, it is important that you always keep learning. For this, where better to get new information than Facebook itself? You can subscribe to Facebook's official blog and read its posts periodically. This valuable resource helps you do more with your business page.
22. Install Facebook's button on your website.
Once your page is set up, do not forget to add Facebook's widget and social share buttons to your website. This way, visitors can like and follow your business page directly from your website. Another advantage is the social proof this provides, as your visitors can see how many followers you have and that you are active on social media.
23. Test your posts.
Suppose you share a video or image post and analyze the metrics of that post. For your next post, try changing the content a bit, shortening the video length or using a different meta description to see if there are any notable differences in views, likes and shares. This optimization method serves well in improving your posts and showing you what resonates with your followers.
24. Gain from advertising tools of Facebook.
You have done your part in promoting your website through your Facebook page. Congrats! Why not reap more benefits by making use of Facebook's advertising tools? You can try boosting your posts or running purchase conversion ads using Facebook Ads Manager. With some experimentation, you can improve your results and expand your audience.
25. Better understand your audience.
Facebook Audience Insights is a tool that lets you better understand insights about your audience. This can help you build better personas and determine what messaging resonates the best. This is one of Facebook's most underutilized free tools, and it will definitely make a difference for your business.
With these 25 tips, you are ready to master social media on Facebook and reap the rewards for your business. As a bonus, consider applying these Facebook marketing strategies. All the best!