The first platform that we're going to cover in our social media marketing series is Facebook. This content portion is broken into two parts - one for service businesses and one for products companies. However, some things are universal between both service and product providers. No matter what kind of business you run, you'll probably want to create a page for your business and use it to share helpful information with your potential customers. You'll also need to identify who your audience is and determine how they use FB. Do they participate in groups? Do they follow brands? Or do they just check their feed for the latest posts from their friends and family? Once you understand how your ideal customer uses Facebook, you can create your platform strategy.
Finally, determine how often you want to post. Because of the way that the FB algorithm works, only about 10% of your audience sees your posts. That means that if you have 10000 fans, only 1000 people see each post. The people who interact with your brand most often see the majority of your posts. Posting 3 times per day DOES NOT reach 3000 people. In reality, the same 1000 people see all 3 posts. Many brands post multiple times each day, but the posts are all seen by the same 10% of their audience. Kind of annoying, right? Be considerate of your audience. Don't make them unfollow you.
Content for Service Providers:
If you provide a service, your content should probably be informational and helpful for your audience. Consider posting helpful advice and articles that are related to your core business or customers. You can also share inspirational graphics and sayings. Choose things that are relevant to your business, though. If you are a realtor, you probably shouldn't be posting your workout routine. However, if you do a series about entertaining in your new home, recipes might be a great fit. This is especially important when you're curating content from others. Read other articles on the websites you pull from. Do not grab a random pin on Pinterest and share it on Facebook. Share only articles from sources that you trust and that your customers can trust. Above all, think about the kind of information that your audience expects from you and use that to guide your posts.
Content for Products Businesses:
If you provide products, your content should probably be both visual and informational. Share great images of your products, especially shots of your products in use. If you can get customers to send you images, that's even better. Tag them when you share these images if possible. Show off the possibilities that exist when someone is using your product. Tease out a new lineup with beauty shots of your products and closeup shots of the craftsmanship that goes into each item. Create short video demos of your products that look great, even without sound. A lot of people will watch the videos on FB, but not bother to turn on the sound. Simple, step-by-step demos will grab the attention of your audience, even in a crowded FB feed. Here, too, you can share informational articles with your potential customers as well. Choose articles that offer reviews of your products or helpful advice about situations that your customers have. If you offer baby products that are related to travel, you might want to post articles about traveling with an infant, even if your products are not featured.
No matter what content you choose to share, plan ahead to make the most of your Facebook strategy. When you plan out your posts in advance (or even schedule them in advance) you can minimize the time you lose getting 'sucked in' to social media.
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