Why a Facebook Strategy for Your Small Business Matters

Does your small business have a Facebook strategy? Does your small business even have a Facebook page?

Why is this important, Samantha, you ask? It’s just social media, you say. Parents and seniors and your friends use Facebook.

True. But also about one quarter of the world’s population uses Facebook (Statista). Nearly 79% of American adults can be found commenting, liking, sharing and engaging with Facebook content (Pew Research Center).

What does this mean for your small business?

You can find — and more importantly connect with — your customers on Facebook.

• 60% of users have liked a Facebook business page (Kentico).
• 39% of Facebook users like or follow a business page to receive a special offer (Kentico).
• 93% of social marketers use Facebook advertising regularly (Social Media Examiner).

Those are just the cold hard facts that fail to touch on the major hot reasons why you should spend some time with Facebook and devise a strategy.

Facebook is easy to use.

If you want help creating a Facebook business page, Facebook can lead you step-by-step in just minutes.

1. You click “Create a Page”
2. You choose “Local Business or Place” or “Brand or Product” or “Cause or Community”
3. Insert any information necessary
4. Click “Get Started”

And you’re started! Upload photos. Start posting. Like other business pages and topics of interest. Write a little bit about yourself and include your contact information. It’s really easy. Heck, you’re probably already using Facebook regularly. That means you’ll find the time to keep this brand platform updated and your customers connected.

Facebook lets your brand personality shine.

You’re not limited to a headline and 80 words. You can post once, twice, however many times you want (but don’t go crazy and annoy your audience) with product or service updates, big news, personal insights, behind the scenes, things you care about — anything and everything near and dear to your brand.

You’re ready to start posting right? You don’t need a plan, do you?

Hold tight and read on.

Facebook is mostly free — but a Facebook strategy ensures you won’t waste your time.

You create a page for free. You post for free. Why make it difficult?

The trouble with relying completely on “the free zone” for Facebook is that the Facebook head honchos have been tweaking their platform and organic reach has declined rapidly since about 2012.

What’s organic reach? It’s the number of people you can reach for free on Facebook by posting to your page.

Why is organic reach dwindling? This has happened for two main reasons:

1. Facebook wants to ensure each individual gets the most relevant content delivered to their news feed, and thus have a better Facebook experience.
2. There is a ton of content posted to Facebook by the minute that’s competing for attention on people’s newsfeeds. (There are over 60 million other brands on Facebook. Eep!)  

Currently when you post to your Facebook small business page, about 10% of your Facebook fans will see your post. Whoa, right?

There are a number of ways Facebook will rank your page’s content.

1. When you post the content and how often you post — The time of day to post should coincide with when your audience is online. And the more often you post in a day, the lower all your posts are ranked on news feeds.
2. What kind of post it is — Video and Facebook Live videos are prioritized above other posts. If you don’t post at least a photo, you might as well not post at all. Text only posts get very little engagement.
3. How people engage with it — If you post valuable content for your audience, those who see the content hopefully will engage. If they do, your post will be ranked higher and show up on more of your fans’ news feeds.

How can a Facebook strategy help?

A Facebook strategy ensures that you’re not posting for the virtual crickets. A Facebook strategy for your small business can help you make efficient use of your time and work with Facebook’s post ranking criteria instead of against it. A Facebook strategy can get your brand’s posts seen — and engaged with. Most importantly, a Facebook strategy ensures that you’re building a connection with your audience and making them a true fan of your brand.

What do I include in my strategy then?

• Who your target audience is and what they care about.
• Content that will give your audience value.
• Types of content you’ll create (blog posts, videos, imagery, infographics, memes, gifs, etc.).
• The tone of voice of your brand and your posts.
• The look of your Facebook images.
• When you’ll share and how often you’ll share content.
• Your budget for Facebook ads and Facebook post boosts.
• Goals, benchmarks and a process for assessing your efforts.

Stay tuned for later this month, when I’ll tell you how you can use the “pay to play” Facebook strategy and make a bigger impact on your reach, your audience engagement and your brand.

Can’t wait that long? Let’s do the talky thing.