Nowadays, just about every business has a Facebook page. Be it giant corporations like Apple and Amazon or small businesses such as your local coffee shop. Each business will have a slightly different social media strategy depending on its size. In this article will focus on the common mistakes that the typical small businesses makes on their Facebook pages. We are not going to talk about the most basic of mistakes in the setup of your page but rather the management of a properly configured page. We will note however that a tragic mistake is setting up a personal page instead of a business page. Thus people will need to friend you to get updates and not “just” like your page. So lets get into it:
1. Dry boring updates instead of engagement
You may have great product information to share but the way you do it is critical. Posting a long boring press release style update is a waste of time. No one is going to read it and it’s a waste of space on your customer’s newsfeed. Your post needs to be short and to the point. You must always consider user engagement before you post. The goal is to give incentive to the customers to engage in conversation, like and share your post. Be sure to design your posts in a manner that is likely to achieve this goal.
2. Keeping up with it
Billion dollar companies have entire departments working on social media. Constantly monitoring, posting and engaging with customers. It’s likely that you don’t have a social media department, but that’s okay! The problem though is that we often see many small businesses that just post and forget. It is important to monitor your social media posts. Reply to a few customers and read the feedback. People aren’t just going to come and like your page and engage in conversation. Be sure to adequately maintain your page. Half an hour every morning should be enough for most small businesses. Customers expect a timely response so keep up with it!
3. Consistency
It is important to post constantly on your Facebook page. A random post every few months doesn’t look good. You will need to post consistently and regularly. Naturally product updates won’t be made very often. Therefore you should post about special offers, giveaways or perhaps information about future updates.
4. Mix it up
A Facebook post with a photo is more likely to show up in your customer’s news feeds. So try to make posts from time to time that include videos or photos. Don’t just post regular text in your updates. You can use memes, photos sharing what’s going on at your business or even short videos.
5. Proper graphics
It is essential that your profile picture and your cover photo look good. Noting makes you look like an amateur more than poorly designed cover photos and profile pictures. You don’t want text getting cut off or a low res image that is pixelated. It would be wise to pay a pro to make the graphics for you. While your at it, it would be a good idea to ask them to make a holiday theme version also. For instance, make a christmas version of your cover photo with snow flakes that you can use during the holidays. It’s a minor expense that makes your page look very professional.
Feature image: Jason Howie
