It can be difficult as a small business owner trying to navigate through the social media maze. Does social media really impact sales? The average Facebook user has 176 friends in their network. This is a powerful insight when taking into consideration that Facebook exists today as the modern word of mouth advertising. We’ve provided you with some practical tips you can take when managing your Facebook business page.

Take advantage of Facebook recommendations.
In October Facebook rolled out a new posting feature that enables a “call out” on your post when it detects you are seeking recommendations or advice. If you turn on this feature, when you call out for recommendations, Facebook displays a prominent feature. With each recommendation posted, Facebook allows the poster to directly link to that specific business. Facebook also is adding a new message prompt, making it easier for prospects to message that businesses Facebook page. Facebook is the modern day version of word-of-mouth advertising. Getting a fan to make a trusted recommendation to their network of friends is golden in terms of gaining visibility with their network of people on Facebook.

Take advantage of longer posting options.
In contrast to Twitter’s 140 character limit, Facebook allows users to post up to 63,206 characters. This is a book. Not that anyone would read your post if it was that long, and I haven’t tested this myself, but what it does do is lend itself the opportunity to engage more with your followers. A longer post will take up more screen real estate which is vital to be seen in todays busy social landscape. Post lists, bullet points, stats and resources. Whatever you do, just make sure it’s relevant, valuable content and not annoying.

Dig into the data.
Who your Facebook followers are will determine what kind of content you should be posting. It can me a huge mistake to assume your audience on Facebook is within the 40+ age range only to find out the average age of your follower is between 25-30. Your articles about sending your kids off to college are not relevant.

Watch your competition’s pages.
Facebook business page allows you to watch up to 5 of your competitions Facebook pages. It’s smart for you to watch these pages that you want to emulate and see what they are doing. How many times do they post per day? Which posts get the most interactions? You can even view the top posts that got the most engagement from their following. Listen, no one is trying to re-invent the wheel here. Unless your product is a ground breaking invention, they are probably doing something similar to you. Don’t rip them off completely, but post similar posts to get the engagement and shares you’re looking for.

Post multiple times per day.
Facebook has an algorithm that puts posts from friends and family first. For businesses, this means that your organic posts will be seen less. This is good for the user experience, but not so good for businesses that seek to engage with followers on Facebook. Posting multiple times per day (4x) will definitely help you out. One page I follow posts 4 times per day at the same time every day. Once in the early morning, once mid afternoon, once in the early evening and once at 9pm at night. They seem to get lots of traction from this type of posting schedule.

In negative sense, if someone has a bad experience with your business they will typically take to social media and warn all their friends. In a positive sense, if someone has a great experience with your product or service they will take to social media and blast it all over telling their whole network of friends!

So you have a website, but it’s not doing exactly what you want it to do. You’ve spent all this money to get up and running, but does it perform?

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