A small business owner is always looking for indigenous ways to promote their business. As they have a limited budget, it is imperative that they get innovative with their marketing campaign, and use digital tools to their advantage. One of the best digital tools for small business is social media platforms.
Numerous social media platforms can help you market your business, but the pioneer of social media-Facebook will always remain on top.
Facebook has over 2.45 billion monthly active users making it one of the biggest platforms ever. Already 90 million brands (startups) are on it promoting their business and launching a wide-range marketing campaign. It can be ads, or you can use FB to create brand awareness without ads.
The trick is to find the right tips to help you get the maximum subscribers, likes, and engagement. Facebook not only helps with brand promotion, but it has multiple uses. When you create a page on it, it gives credibility to your business while ensuring that you can find out other companies, who you would like to do business with and vice versa.
Daily users on Facebook are 1.73 billion. It shows that a customer on FB visits it at least twice a day, so it gives small businesses a lot of scope for promotion. No matter how many platforms come into existence, Facebook still has more reach. It was 60% per cent in the year 2018. These numbers give Facebook a lot of power and influence over other social media platforms.
In this blog, we will discuss how small businesses can use Facebook for their brand? But before we divulge in it, let’s check out why Facebook can help small businesses.
Why can FB aid marketing campaigns of small businesses?
1. Facebook aids search engine optimization
Every business has a website or a blog, and they need high traffic and lead conversion on it for making a profit. For that, SEO is the best tool as it ensures that you get top ranking on the search engine results page and more traffic. One of the elements of SEO is Facebook, as it can bring a lot of traffic to your website or blog.
If a search engine indexes your FB page, the posts and links and other things on it can help boost SEO for your business.
2. It helps you learn about your target audience
Every business has a specific set of the target audience who they have to cater to. You must know the interest, likes, dislikes, and more about your audience to provide better services and content to them. For that, knowing your customers is most important.
Facebook can help you with this as your customers know that your company is on the platform and they interact with you through it. They leave suggestions and feedback via comments or in FB groups which can be insightful data for all businesses.
3. It is cost-effective
Marketing campaigns require a million dollars which is not the best option for a small or medium business. For them, Facebook is a cost-effective option, and even a business with a limited budget can use it to market their business to a global audience within seconds.
It is also a perfect platform for trial and error as you get an immediate response, so you know what is working for your business and what is not.
4. It is a platform to share information about business
Facebook is also a great platform where you can share important details about your business. From your history, to contact details, and products and service description, you can share a lot on FB. It keeps your target audience aware of every critical information.
5. Customer service
A lot of the audience uses social media for customer service, as it is immediate and responsive. No one likes waiting around for hours to solve their queries. Thus, Facebook is best for small businesses as it helps them provide the best customer services to them, and it ensures that no queries of a consumer go unnoticed.
How to use FB for your small business?
1. Make sure you select the right theme and template
Facebook lets you choose templates and categories and subcategories for your business. You must select the right things for your small business. It is because if your templates and categories are not right or justify your business, your FB page will have no results. Also, getting them right helps your audience find you with ease, and also you get to use features like reviews or shops.
If you think the current template or category is wrong for your business, you can switch it up right now.
2. Blend in with your content
Content is the key to success irrespective of the platform. So, if you are throwing posts on your FB page without ensuring that it is relevant or something that the audience is looking for, then it won’t work for you. Thus, make sure you play with your content, go for fun, sarcastic, out-of-the-box ideas to connect with your audience.
Moreover, don’t stop with text content, use images and videos and memes too as they connect more with your audience.
3. Work on your cover image
Facebook cover can be beneficial for your small business as it has multiple benefits. A Facebook communicates what your brand stands for and what your business is all about. For instance, if you are dealing in jewellery, show models wearing jewellery or photos of jewels on the cover image.
In addition to this, a cover image is the first thing that the audience will see on your page, so it should be appealing and must justify the brand.
To create the best Facebook cover images, use Canva. It has templates for the same, which makes them consistent always.
4. Make use of messenger
Facebook messenger is not just a place to chat with friends and family anymore. It has become a tool for customer service, and small businesses need to take advantage of the same. Moreover, it is easier for a small business to get approval for using a messenger as a customer service tool.
With this, you can set up timings, automated response, and more and can communicate directly with your audience.
5. Make a Facebook group
Creating groups on Facebook has a bigger purpose than sharing and promoting your content. It is an opportunity to connect with your audience and also give a place for like-minded people to communicate with each other. You don’t have to create a FB group for your business, but you can create a group about products of yours in which people are showing interests.
It will give them a chance to discuss and provide feedback, and you can use it to learn their interests and likes. Furthermore, if you share articles or links in the group related to their conversations, it is the best way to get them to notice you without promoting yourself.
6. Have a content calendar
To get the most out of Facebook, you need to post at least twice a day or more, if you can. Now, it takes up a lot of time if you are creating immediate content and posting it at that time only. The better thing to do is schedule your posts using a tool like Buffer.
It will make it easy for you to look at other aspects of FB marketing and not worry about posting content on a specific time. To make this easier, you need to have a content calendar. This calendar keeps your content organized, and you know what you want to post on which day. It also makes it easier to create more fresh and original content and share it on a given day automatically without you having to stop doing your work.
7. Set aside a small budget for Facebook ads
The competition is tough on each platform and, on Facebook, it is reaching its prime limit. So, if you want to get in front of your customer, you need to set aside some budget for paid content. Posting unpaid content is becoming a waste of time, as it doesn’t get across the target audience.
Thus, it is best to have small paid content that you can post once in a while, that will have better results. Opt for Facebook ads as they are effective in ensuring that your content gets in front of the correct demographic and target audience.
8. Use analytics
The Facebook analytics tool is beneficial and provides knowledge about the reach and engagement of your posts. If you don’t use analytics, you will never know whether your techniques are working or not. Also, make use of other analytics tools for better information.
9. Keep learning
My last advice for you is to keep learning about the use of Facebook for small businesses. The trends and techniques to get ahead of your competitors using Facebook keep changing. So, if you want to stay ahead of the curve and make money and earn leads off FB, you need to keep learning about this platform and how it benefits your business.
Facebook may dwindle, but it will always be the best and most important platform for small businesses. Use these tips to kick-start your marketing campaign right now.