How to Use Facebook for Small Business

Are you wondering how to use Facebook for small business and it if will help?

Want to increase the visibility of your business through effective social media tactics?

When you understand which features on Facebook support local marketing, you can focus the power of Facebook to expand your influence where it matters most.

In this article, we will show you how to connect with local customers on the top social media networks.

There may be over 1.4 billion active users on Facebook, but only a fraction of them live near your business. That’s okay!

Engage Local Customers by Learning How to Use Facebook For Small Business

[thrive_headline_focus title=”Promote Facebook check-ins at your business.” orientation=”left”]

When people check in, they’re giving you free visibility in the news feed. For example, Sally recently visited Cedar Rapids Coffee House and checked-in on Facebook while she was waiting for her order. By doing this, Sally just posted to all her friends that she LOVES Cedar Rapids Coffee House and your business just got free advertisement! Whether you incentivize check-ins (offer free coffee) or simply display visual reminders for customers to check-in on Facebook, this is a great way to promote your business to a local audience.

[thrive_headline_focus title=”Post an update to your business page, and then share it as yourself.” orientation=”left”]

This allows you to reach a wider audience. By sharing it personally, you can decide whom to share the post with and focus on people in your local community. Don’t go overboard with this tactic, however. Your family and friends may not enjoy an endless series of updates about your amazing product or service. Consider only sharing once every couple of weeks.

[thrive_headline_focus title=”Promote Facebook events.” orientation=”left”]

Hosting local events increases your visibility both online and off. Create a Facebook event and share it with your fans and friends or promote it via Facebook Ads. Everyone invited to the event will continue to see it in their notifications and in upcoming events, unless they decline the invite. Again, focus your invites on people who live and work near you.

[thrive_headline_focus title=”Target Facebook Ads to a local audience.” orientation=”left”]

Use the tools in the Ads Manager and Power Editor to target people based on their location. Facebook has excellent targeting tools, including the ability to target people on facebook who live in your geographic location, their gender, age range, income level, etc. The list goes on and on! You can even target a segmented email list of local people to make sure they see your important posts.

Best Practices for How to Use Facebook For Small Business

[thrive_headline_focus title=”Use a Recognizable Profile Picture” orientation=”left”]

It’s important that your brand is recognizable, not just on Facebook but anywhere you are marketing your business. Since your profile picture is at the top of your Facebook Page and used as your thumbnail for all posts and comments, you need to make sure it is recognizable to potential clients and your followers. The most obvious profile for local businesses is your company logo like this:

[thrive_headline_focus title=”Coordinate Your Cover Photo and CTA Button to Promote Your Business” orientation=”left”]

After your profile picture, these things are the most immediately visible parts of your page. You need to have a clear call to action across both your cover photo and your call-to-action (CTA) button.

For example, if you want customers to call you, your cover photo should clearly display your phone number and you need to set up your CTA button to “Call Now”.

[thrive_headline_focus title=”Post During Strategic Times of Day” orientation=”left”]

The best time of day can vary from page to page and audience to audience. Some research suggests that Facebook posts published between 1 – 3 p.m. get the most shares and have the best clickthrough  rates. You can start with these times. As your page and following grow, you can use Facebook Insights to see when your followers are one facebook the most – what days and which times.

[thrive_headline_focus title=”DO NOT Leave Your “About” Section Blank” orientation=”left”]

Make sure your about section displays relevant information about your company: what you sell, your website, phone number, address etc. It important that this information is consistent with any other local citations your might have, like Google My Business. It also helps answer questions that potential clients might have about your business.

[thrive_headline_focus title=”DO NOT Forget to Post Multimedia Posts” orientation=”left”]

Visual content is essential to succeeding on social media. That means pictures and videos. How many times have you scrolled through your newsfeed only to have an eye-catching picture or video catch your attention?

Hubspot researched the effectiveness of visual content and found that visual content in Facebook campaigns can generate 65% more engagement after only one month.

[thrive_headline_focus title=”DO NOT Be Slow to Respond to Messages and Comments” orientation=”left”]

Whether your audience posts negative or positive comments, ignoring them only creates possible anger or disappointment. So take a few minutes out of your day to monitor your Facebook Page and respond. Facebook has also started putting a badge on pages who have quick response time to messages. This shows your customers that you attentive and care to respond to each message.

Do you feel like you have a better understanding of how to use Facebook for small business? Let us know in the comments!