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Social media is now part of every company’s marketing strategy.

Facebook is the most popular social media platform. According to Statista, there are 1.734 billion daily active users on Facebook. This platform provides you with an opportunity to advertise almost all kind of business.

Right from a small store in Germany to a multi-million dollar company in the US, everybody is using the power of Facebook marketing to get noticed and improve their product’s sales and their brand exposure.

It also provides you with the option of creating pages dedicated solely to your business and this can help you engage potential customers.

Facebook ads work according to the PPC model that allows you to target certain ads and specific audiences. You can also share your content and communicate with your audience on a personal level. So it would be a no-brainer for you to have a Facebook account if you wish to reach out to billions.

So you understand that Facebook marketing is a must for your business. In the guide below I’ll show you how to promote your business effectively on Facebook.

Facebook is an easy to use website that is also fun to navigate. All it takes is a few minutes for you to register and you will be lead to your personal account page.

Let us look at that aspect in detail.

#1. How to create a Facebook page

Facebook gives you the option of creating a separate Page for your company. This means that you can create a page and send the links out to people to like and follow. This is unlike a regular profile that you create, as there is no adding of people.

You can create a page to use as a platform to tell your customers about your products and promotions.

Here is a step-by-step guide for you to get started with it.

Below you will find a short guide on how to set-up a Facebook page for your business.

#1.1. Start creating your page

The very first step of the process is to visit this Page. There, you will be able to create a Facebook page for your company, local business, brand or product. Check in the picture below which types of pages you will be able to create.

#2. Choose the right category

Choose the correct category for your business in order to make it easy for the people to look for it. You should look at the categories that are mentioned and choose the right one. That will make it quite easy for anyone to find you. Also, there may be some unique features and fields for each category.

#3. Fill all the details

It is important that you fill all of the fields there and not leave anything out. That is what will make the difference between a good page and a mediocre one.

If you leave something for later then it will never get done. Add in all the important keywords in and ensure that your page is easily found by people looking for it.

#4 – Design your cover photo and page picture

The cover photo and the profile picture of your page are the 1st elements someone sees when visiting your page so make sure those really eye-catchy. You can hire a designer to create them for you. Another option is to do it yourself.

Before saying that you are not into design, I’ve to tell you that using a tool like Canva, creating graphic elements is a piece of cake for anyone. You have a lot of templates, design elements, fonts and layouts that you can easily drag and drop and create your graphic elements in a matter of minutes.

If you’re not sure about the Facebook image sizes you should use check this post. There you will find all the image sizes you can use on Facebook.

#5.  Customize your URL

The next step is for you to customize your URL such that it tells the reader whose page it is. Your company name should be present in the URL so that people immediately know where they are being redirected to.

You have to put in efforts to make it as easy for your readers as possible if you wish to make the most of your Facebook page.

#6. Start adding content

Start posting all that you wish to. If you are a bakery then you should upload the menu, post pictures of your products, inform them about any customization that you will do, tell them about your special menu etc.

#7. Invite people you know on your page

Now, don’t be in a hurry to invite people to like you. Ideally, you must wait a day to fill everything out and see if you have to make any changes.

You must also ask a few friends and family members to look at the page and suggest any changes that you might have to make in it. Once everything is sorted out and you have made the changes, you can start sending out invites to people.

#8. Link your website and Facebook page

The next step is to add a “Like us on Facebook” button on your website. This is important, as you have to tell your audience that you exist on Facebook. Check the Facebook Developers page to get like buttons, social streams and other goodies you can add to your website.

If your website is created using WordPress there are many plugins and themes that already have everything ready for Facebook integration.

Once done, you have to copy and paste your URL in all your other social networking sites if you are already active. You should also place a link as your email signature so that people will know to click on it.

#9. Add a call to action to your page

Designed to bring a business’s most important objective to the forefront of its Facebook presence, call-to-action buttons link to any destination on or off Facebook that aligns with a business’s goals.

Here are the buttons you can use:

• Book services (Book now, Start order)
• Get in touch (Call now, Contact us, Send Message, signup, Send an email)
• Learn more (Watch video, Learn more)
• Make a purchase or donation (Shop now, See offers)
• Download app or game (Use app, Play game)

If you don’t want which one fits your best interest nothing should stop you to test more buttons and see which one converts better.

#10. Add a community to your page

Now it’s possible to create a community (a Facebook group) associated with your Facebook page. Facebook groups are great to engage your audience and keep them updated. Check our detailed guide on how to create a Facebook group.

#10. Explore all options

Explore all the options that Facebook pages have for your business like Events and Live Video. This way you will be able to get better exposure to your fans. Just make sure you don’t abuse these features. Nothing is more annoying on Facebook than a user or a brand that’s begging for attention and likes.

If you need help, we can create your Facebook page and set it up to get the best exposure and conversions.

#2. How to post on your Facebook page

#1. Make it personal

It is important that you personify your company and make it look like your company is operating the page.

Once you get started, you must send the link of the page to all your contacts so that you can add them in your friend’s list. You have to inform that the page belongs to the company and ask them to contribute to its growth.

#2. Keep it interesting

You have to keep it as interesting for your audience as possible. Try to use all the best quality pictures and give a proper description of whatever you are uploading. All of it will go a long way in helping you amass a large audience.

Don’t keep it to just pictures and text; you also have to add in videos and gifs to make it interesting for your audience. They have to feel attracted to your page in order to visit and use it.

You can also use your time to promote specials or other offers exclusive to your Facebook group.  This will guarantee that some of your fans will become clients and customers.

Read more: 13 proofreading tools to make your blog posts sharable

#3. Make it transparent

You have to be as transparent to them as possible and keep them informed about what is ongoing in your company: Tell your fans about promotions, new products you intend to add, interviews or press releases you submitted or if there are any changes in the menu.

#4. Less Is Better on Facebook

Limit the size of the posts to 40-50 characters only as research has shown how that is the best length for Facebook posts. Patiently reply to all your audience’s queries and remain as interactive as possible.

While some might tell you that if you make many posts in a day that you’ll be doing your page a favour but the exact opposite is true. Posting too much makes your page look like spam and you never want your fans to think you’re spamming them.

Instead, you better stick to no more than three quality posts a day at the time when your fans are on the site.  This ensures that they see the posts and have the opportunity to view them, like and comment on them.

Read more:  16 Social Media Tools To Write Better Posts

#5. Create engagement

The best tactic for this is to ask open-ended questions.  Nothing generates a conversation in the same way.  Do not ask yes or no questions as this only takes a one-word response and many people will avoid answering it.

You can also ask people for their opinion on your products or services in order to generate the same type of conversation.

Just make sure that you stay on top of these posts so you can be a part of it rather than an observer while keeping the conversation running smoothly.

#6. Posting schedule

You should post new content at the exact same time. Even if it is posted on alternate days, they should get the timing right. That will create a sense of responsibility in them and your audience will know exactly when to check your Facebook page out.

You may use Scheduled Posts from Publishing tools in order to schedule posts in advance. This way you will not stay with the eyes on the clock that you have to post new content on your Facebook posts. You can easily schedule posts for a week or more, in advance.

#7. EdgeRank Can Affect You

Facebook uses mathematical algorithms called EdgeRank that tells the site where your post should be on the timeline of those who have liked your page.  The only way to get your status updates, photos and other media to rank high, they need to have likes, shares and comments.

This means you need to post things that people will like and want to comment on as stated in the above tip.

Offering more than one type of content in a day can help you to build up a good EdgeRank and guarantees that at least one post a day will be a priority.  Even if you bought likes for your page in order to boost your numbers, you still need to have your statuses do well.

#8. Hire a Facebook Marketing specialist

Employ a Facebook-specific team that will look into keeping your Facebook updated. This team should comprise of people that know exactly what they are doing. Try to employ those that have relevant experience in this field. After all, they have to promote your business and help it reach heights.

So there is no point in compromising on this step and you have to employ the best. Be interactive and tell them things that they don’t already know about your company and products. Satisfy their need for information and your company will do really well.

These form the different steps that you must adopt in order to set up your Facebook page. Remember that updating the page from time to time is vital and you have to give your audience something new to look at every single time.

#3. How to promote your Facebook page

Your main goal should be to use Facebook as a way to get traffic, create a relationship, and then drive them to take action either on or off your Facebook page to your website, a landing page for an email sign up, sales page, video demonstration, or on your blog.

Basically Facebook should be a way to drive traffic to a place where you can obtain benefits (leads, purchases etc). Here are some strategies for you to use to build a highly targeted audience:

#1. Add your page to your personal profile

When you add your page name to the Work and Education section of your personal profile, it lets anyone viewing your profile see the name of your page. When they hover over the page name they will be able to see a mini image of your cover photo and they can ‘like’ or message you. Simply start to type your page name into the Work and Education section and your page name will display in the drop-down for you to click on.

This is incredibly useful if you are networking and ‘liking’ other business pages on Facebook. When the owner of that page sees you have ‘liked’ their page, they may very well check out your profile, see you have a page, and may reciprocate by ‘liking’ your page too.

Reciprocating by ‘liking’ your fans’ pages is a very good practice. Supporting your fans this way goes a long way in building relationships, especially when you start engaging with their content.

#2. Invite your friends

Now your page and your personal profile are ready, and you can invite your Facebook friends. Simply go to your page, make sure you are using your page as yourself, and then click on Build Audience and then Invite Friends. You can select whoever you want to and send them an invitation to ‘like’ your page.

#3. Invite your email contacts

What better way to build relationships with your current contacts than inviting them to your Facebook page. Simply go to your page and, by using your page as yourself, click Build Audience and then Import Contacts and invite your contacts.

#4. Use Facebook groups to grow your audience

Finding your Facebook audience is made really easy with Facebook search and you can find all sorts of interest groups, pages, and people relating to your niche.

You have to join as many diverse groups as possible in order to promote your own page. When you like another group then you can educate them about your page and get many people from there to like you back.

By entering the relevant keywords into the search box at the top of your page Facebook will come up with a list of results relevant to your search and you can then filter the search information into various categories: groups, people, places, pages, events, etc.

Joining groups in your niche and then joining in the community will not only help you make new connections, but you can post links to your blog posts or your Facebook page if the content is relevant.

#5. Be Social

Being active on Facebook, commenting, and sharing other people’s posts will increase visibility of your profile and your business page. Going to other pages and posting helpful comments is a sure way of getting people to come over and see what you are about.

You can select whether you want to comment as yourself or your page by clicking the ‘gear’ icon at the top right of your page. This is particularly good for personal brands which have their own photo for their profile photo rather than a logo, as people much prefer to connect with a face.

#6. Encourage fans to get all your notifications

Because of Facebook’s algorithms – EdgeRank, your Facebook fans probably will not get to see all your posts unless they have switched on Get notifications. To do this you simply hover over the arrow where it says liked and click on Get Notifications.

It’s a good idea to encourage your fans to select this so they don’t miss out on any of your updates. You could do this by announcing that you have something really exciting coming up in the near future and if they want to make sure they hear about it then they need to switch on Get Notifications.

#7. Encourage people to check-in at your business

With the introduction of the nearby tab and check-in, Facebook offers its users even more opportunities to find businesses near to them and also offers business owners more opportunities to be found.

If a user checks-in at your business it will show up in their friends’ News Feeds. By using Facebook offers you can create offers and give your fans an incentive to check-in at your business.

#8. Add your Facebook page to all your promotional and sales materials

Make sure you add your Facebook URL to your blog, other social media profiles, email signatures, business cards, brochures, shop signs, your transportation, or any other promotional material you produce. Make sure you have set up your Facebook username so it’s easy for people to remember.

#9. Create a competition or sweepstakes

To help attract people to their Facebook pages, more and more companies are giving away prizes in Facebook sweepstakes and contests.

This type of promotion can be incredibly effective, and since Facebook has relaxed their rules concerning competitions, you can now run them on your timeline without having to use a third party application. Before running a contest please check Facebook rules about running contests.

#10. Use paid ads

There is the option of having paid ads on your page if you wish to garner traffic. This is only if your page is not doing as well as you want it to.

The paid ads are a great way to generate traffic on your page. It is a powerful strategy that many companies use to have their pages liked by many people o simply generate unique hits.

Facebook released bach in 2015, their Ads Manager app to make it easier for businesses to create ads, and monitor ad performance, via mobile device. This week, they’ve announced a set of updates for Ads Manager, including improvements to account switching and a new comparison tool which enables you to view the performance of up to five ads at a time, side-by-side.

Facebook’s also added a new ‘Recommendations’ tool which will suggest actions you can take to boost the performance of your ad content, including a one-click option to extend the schedule of a high-performing campaign.

If you need help with Facebook advertising you should check our social media marketing services.

Conclusion

Now you’re ready to start using this page to generate more business for your company by getting fans on your page and creating a great promotion.  It can take time to turn Facebook fans into genuine clients if you stay with it and avoid becoming discouraged.

The more fans you have on your page the more potential you have to drive traffic to your website, especially when you crossed the 1000 fans milestone. Also with the introduction of Graph Search, fans are more important than ever.

It is becoming evident that the more fans you have on your page the higher you will rank on a Facebook search.

For more tips on how to write awesome content for Facebook, check our related article:  10 Writing Tips for Awesome Social Media Content

It is always important to understand how social media sites operate in order to take advantage of them to gain more customers for your business.