Provide Content & Be Consistent on Facebook

Businesses need to develop a social media strategy as part of their overall sales and marketing plan.  In my previous post, I mentioned 3 keys to developing a successful Facebook strategy that will help you increase sales:

1.   Connection
2.   Content
3.   Consistency

In that post, I discussed how to make connections on Facebook. This post will focus on content and consistency.

2. Content

Once you have connected with people and asked them to “like” your business page, you’ll want to keep your audience engaged.  And the way to keep your audience engaged is by providing valuable content.  You can post on your blog and then automatically have it send to Facebook.  Your fans can click the link which takes them directly to your blog and get information that is useful to them.  Another way to engage them is to ask questions that are pertinent to their business and respond when they answer.  It’s also great to post links to other businesses they might be interested in and you can even promote their businesses on your page.  You need to think about the frequency of your posts and how they relate to the rest of your sales and marketing.  So if you are promoting an event you can post it on Facebook using the event feature and invite people or if you are running a special you can post that.  However, if you only post events and specials and never offer valuable content you risk losing the attention of your audience.  The idea is to have people checking your Facebook page because they don’t want to miss anything.  You can also run contests and give away free products.

None of this will work however,  if you are not genuine and do not truly care about your audience.  Insincerity comes across loud and clear on the internet.  If you are just promoting your products and services your audience will tire quickly.  Think about what you have to offer and give it freely.

3. Consistency

Just like with any other part of your sales and marketing you need to be consistent.  People show up once at a networking event and then tell me they didn’t get any results.  You have to attend several months in a row and get to know people before you will build relationships that can lead to sales.  It’s the same online.  You have to show up and be present. You need to interact personally and on a regular basis.  In order to do this I recommend having a sales and marketing calendar planned for several months in advance if not the whole year and make the social media part of that.  I have an editorial calendar that prescribes what we will post,  where and when we will post it, and we coordinate this with our other marketing efforts. In between I interact personally on Facebook by clicking “like”, commenting on posts and sharing info about myself.

Many people want to know how often to post on their business page and the answer is, it depends.  You have to get to know your audience and what they respond to, so you may have to try some things to see what works.  For Facebook once a week would be a minimum but you could post several times a day if you have something valuable to share and you will want to repeat some posts if they are important because not everyone is watching your page at all times.  But again remember that interacting with people is something that should be done on a regular basis.

For most businesses Facebook can’t be your entire sales and marketing program but it can be an important part and can give you great results.  You need a plan to get results and you need someone who can execute the plan and be consistent.  Facebook works best when it is integrated with other social media like Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, a blog, and with your traditional marketing and networking as well.

Call me at 775.852.5020 to discuss your social media strategy.