One of the best and worst things about Facebook, is that anyone can create a page. Too harsh?
The good news is that with so many people doing it wrong, there’s opportunity for you to up your game with a few simple steps. Not quite to the optimizing stage yet? Check out this intro post on How to Set Up a Business Facebook Page first.
1. You haven’t customized your tab icons
As we covered in this short tutorial, adding custom tab icon images to your branded Facebook page can make a nice impact on people actually seeing and using your tabs.
2. Don’t just set your content to auto-publish. Ask a question. Engage.
One of the great things about setting your content up to auto-publish is that it’s on auto-pilot so you don’t have to worry about it. However, with the ability to queue up posts for the future on Facebook, you’re missing out on extra opportunities to engage with your community by asking a question, posting a blog post as an image etc vs only auto-posting a title through various apps. To schedule posts in advance, click the little clock icon in the text box and select the date/time you want. This a great way to streamline your marketing to save time. Schedule your week in advance, and then just check in to reply to people later!
3. You always do the same post type
There have been quite a few reports lately stating that images shared on Facebook Pages are seen and shared more than any other post type. That doesn’t mean you should only EVER post images though. Mix it up. Videos, images, links, questions with no links, and some combination of the above should all be in your posting arsenal.
4. Your profile image looks like crap when it’s small
People see your Facebook Page “profile photo” when you leave comments and when your posts come up in their newsfeed. If they don’t recognize you or your brand, they’re more likely to ignore or hide your content. Make sure that your profile image is branded and looks nice when it’s smaller.
5. Your cover photo is boring
Facebook’s cover photos are a great place to show your fans what you’re all about. Don’t forget to switch things up every once in a while too. Here’s an idea, set up a recurring calendar appointment to check in on these items monthly or quarterly.
6. You aren’t putting your url in the About snippet area
Did you know that you can add in your website url in the About snippet area and it will display on the top left under your profile image? Yep! And you don’t need to put in the waste of time http:// to make this link clickable either. Just put www.YOURURL!!!.com in the About content area.
7. You aren’t using any apps spaces
Although Facebook tab apps aren’t used like crazy, they’re still a good best practice to use for things that are important to your overall marketing. For most, having a newsletter signup box makes sense. Depending on your business, you might want to add Instagram, Pinterest, an ecommerce app etc. But definitely your email signup box, if you use Mailchimp or Aweber email software.
8. You’re not using Facebook insights to learn more about your community
Did you know that Facebook revamped their Insights in 2013, again!? Indeed! While some advanced users might still be crying a few little tears, the new update did bring a bit more transparency than we’ve seen previously. Facebook has their own guide on Insights that’s worth checking out. There are a lot of great demographic information that you can learn about your users, including when they’re online and more likely to see your posts! More actionable items in the next step…
9. You don’t learn from your mistakes
Did you know that in Facebook Insights you can see stats on what specific posts are getting the best and worst feedback? You can go post by post and see what type of posts (image, text, video etc) are performing best. Be mindful of what kind of things you wrote or asked when posting. Are there any posts that got unlikes or hides? What common themes can you learn from this of possibly things your community isn’t interested in our doesn’t want to hear from you about?
10. You’re not using the reply feature that exists on Facebook pages.
On Facebook pages you can reply to specific people in threaded comments vs just replying to everyone in the thread. This makes it easier to acknowledge individuals without over-posting with replies to all. If your page was created before this feature was rolled out, you will need to enable it in the Page Info Settings area.
11. You don’t schedule out posts in advance, so you waste time every day thinking about what to say and when
You can queue up posts on your Facebook page. This is a great marketing time-saver to do it when you’re in the same mindset and crank it out on Monday morning etc. You may want to check in on replies, but this helps with the time suck of popping in every morning and thinking “how should I word this!?”
12. You never target posts
Similar to queueing up posts for the future, you can also target your fans by gender, relationship status, educational status, interested in, age, location, and language? Why would you not want to hit everyone? Well Facebook isn’t going to show your post to everyone anyway with their new algorithms, and it helps to be able to really customize things. For example, if you want to use language that is best suited for single people. Or if you wanted only female opinions “Hey ladies, what do you think about…” Or if you need to share location specific content for an event etc, it’s a great way to target people in specific cities, states, or countries! Just click the little “target” icon next to the clock icon when you’re posting something. Note: this is only available for Pages, not personal accounts. :) If only!
13. You only promote your own stuff
There’s more to Facebook than just promoting your own stuff. You should be sharing other relevant content. You don’t need to do it constantly. If you post once a day, then think about posting off-network items 1-2x a week as you find things you think your network would actually want to hear about.
14. You never promote your own stuff
Have you ever liked a Facebook page that was always posting mildly interesting things but never posted anything about themselves? It feels weird when a brand never posts anything of their own. I liked your Facebook page to hear about YOU not just to see what you’re “curating” these days!
15. You OVER or under mention other brand
There’s a time and a place for sharing on other brands’ Facebook pages with your own brand (using the ‘Use as…’ feature). However, if you’re doing that everyday for every post @ mentioning other brands or commenting as your brand, you might get yourself marked as spam. So think of mentioning other brands and posting as your brand as a bit of Sriracha in your cooking, helps spice things up sometimes, and gets you noticed, but if you overpower every dish with it no one is going to be happy – including you!
16. You don’t use any Facebook widgets to promote your Facebook page on your website
One of the great things about social media is the ability to convert “drive-by” traffic into your community. Someone might not sign up for your newsletter or buy from you or do whatever it is you think you want them to do, right away. But over time, if they connect with you on Facebook or Twitter, then you at least have a way to reach out to them again. They communicated that they want to hear from you again. That’s great! So if you’re on WordPress, add a Facebook like box or button to your sidebar or header widget area. Here’s an example of Early Bird Strategy’s like box:
And if you don’t have a WordPress plugin installed for people to like your posts, definitely hop on that. You need to make it easy for people to promote your stuff.
Did I miss anything? Add your tips in the comments!
This is Part II in a series on using Facebook as a business, read Part I on how to get started on Facebook.
