How to Expand Your Network and Elevate Your Marketing with Facebook Business

With all of the recent big changes to Facebook in 2021, many of us are still trying to catch up to what’s going on. If you’re feeling like you’re in the dark with Facebook for business, you’re not alone! Here is a quick start guide to using Facebook to grow your business in 2022.  

Facebook For Business

Now more than ever, Facebook is being strongly utilized for business and marketing purposes by small mom and pop shops to large corporations. Facebook has been a trusted platform for many years to help businesses reach their target audiences and market their products or services. If you’re not excited about using a social media platform like Facebook to grow your business, know that it’s not impossible to run an online business without Facebook, but using this platform makes it easier to connect with your potential clients and customers. 

How To Use Facebook For Business

While there are many different how-to articles and endless pieces of advice across the internet about how to use Facebook to grow your business, the real key to success is consistency. No matter what strategy you ultimately decide to follow, create a schedule for yourself and stay with it on a regular schedule. Here are a few tips to help you get started on using Facebook for your business today. 

How To Use Your Facebook Profile For Business

When you start using Facebook for business, the first place your prospective customers are going to check you out is your personal Facebook profile. It’s important to make sure that your profile is designed to attract customers and educate them about you. Take some time to clean up and optimize your personal profile.

1. Upload a high-quality, professional-looking headshot as your profile image. If you don’t have a way to do this yourself, ask a friend or family member to take your photo or barter your services with a photographer in return for a testimonial of their services
2. If you’re not a suit and tie person, don’t wear one. Wear something that shows your personality and makes you feel comfortable.
3. Upload a cover photo with your business’s branding.
4. Change your place of work to your business Facebook page so there is a clear link between you and your business.
5. Give yourself an awesome job title like ‘Founder of [Your Awesome Business]’
6. Remove or hide any old photos that you wouldn’t want potential clients to see.
7. Consider making your profile ‘Public’ so that potential clients can see your profile.
8. Use your about section as a chance to tell people about your business and what you do to help people. 

How To Use Your Facebook Business Page

Consider your Facebook business page as a summary of what is on your business website. It gives your prospective customers and clients an overview of all necessary information they might need to know when considering your business. While many business owners might not see the value in having both of these avenues of information available, consider the positive benefits of having a Facebook business page:

• Facebook is a low-cost marketing strategy
• You can share basic information about your business
• Share pictures and videos from your business
• Talk to existing and potential customers
• Provide customer support
• Raise brand awareness and promote positive word-of-mouth
• Facebook can steer traffic to your website

Having a Facebook business page is not enough, however. Optimizing your profile is an absolute necessity in ensuring it is a successful asset for your business. Check these 8 points to ensure your Facebook business page is optimized:

1. Is your business page named correctly? If your business name is different to your name, consider putting your name next to the business name in brackets so there is a clear association.
2. Go through all the steps that Facebook recommends. Choosing a main category for your business, add a location and contact information. Completing all these sections will help you get in front of the right people and it shows Facebook that the page is informative and relevant.
3. Write a description for your business using keywords that are relevant to your business and the people you want to attract.
4. Choose a username that is as close as possible to your name or business name.
5. Upload your professional-ish headshot (or your logo) as a profile picture. You could use the same headshot as your personal profile. The dimensions for profile pictures are 180 x 180 pixels. 
6. Add a cover photo with your branding. This could be the same as the one you used for your personal profile.
7. Make the most of your Call To Action button to encourage visitors to go to your website or message you (or any other action you want them to take).
8. Post frequently on your business page. This doesn’t need to be your own original content. Find reputable articles and videos that are going to be of value to your target audience and share those. The recommended posting frequency for Facebook business pages is 5-7 times a week.

Posting to Your Facebook Business Page

When someone visits your Facebook Business Page, you want to send them a clear message that you are reputable and trustworthy. Providing valuable tips, tricks, and other important information is one of the best ways to do this, and you will establish credibility as an expert with your audience. Additionally, make it a habit to share valuable articles from reputable resources that are relevant to your audience. 

You can schedule posts on your Facebook Business Page without any additional apps or subscriptions. When you’re on your Facebook Business Page, click on ‘Publishing Tools’ in the right-hand menu then click on ‘Go To Creator Studio’. Once you’re in the creator studio, you can schedule posts and videos on your business page. You could schedule a whole month’s worth of posts to keep your business page looking active! The recommended posting frequency is 5-7 times a week.

Don’t forget to share YOUR business news, too. Have you recently completed an awesome client project that you want everyone to see? Has a client shared an amazing testimonial with you? Your Facebook Business Page is the place to share all of these great milestones.

Facebook Group Marketing For Small Business

Facebook has largely been built on building communities with common likes, interests, careers, and lifestyles. Facebook Groups are the best tools to help forge those new connections. One billion people already belong to Facebook groups and about 10% of those belong to groups that Facebook has identified as “very meaningful”. It’s no wonder that these communities quickly become the most important part of someone’s experience on Facebook!

There are dozens of awesome Facebook groups for entrepreneurs and creative individuals in general. This is where you can network and build relationships. Being an online freelancer can be a bit lonely, so it's nice to know that there are others just like you out there. 

In order to get the most out of Facebook groups, you need to be an active member. Set aside time each day to not only post and create conversations but also dedicate time to genuinely and authentically helping others. Sharing your wisdom, knowledge, and advice can go a long way in creating a solid reputation with a potential customer or client. Here are a few tips to help you engage with others:

1. People like to share their wins with the groups they’re a part of. Comment a personalized congrats on a post. Instead of simply commenting something generic like ‘Congratulations!’ try making your comment more personal like ‘Awesome job with X. You must have worked so hard! This is something I’m struggling with… Can you tell me more about how you did that?’
2. Google is your friend. If someone posts a question in the group and you don’t know the answer, Google it and share an article or video to help them solve their problem. With so much information at your fingertips, you can find the answer to anything.
3. Comment questions on posts in order to spark a conversation with someone. Ask someone how they did XYZ or share a similar experience.
4. A lot of groups have threads where you can promote yourself. You might not have anything to promote, but you can always like and comment on other people’s promo links. If they’re sharing an article, read it and comment about something specific in the article so they know that you genuinely read their article.

Facebook Video Marketing For Beginners

Since Facebook Live was launched in 2016, live streaming video has grown massively in popularity. Facebook Live is particularly popular, and Facebook even rewards live video content with up to 3X the engagement of traditional videos shared on the platforms. Millions of users live stream on Facebook around the world and this is a great tool for increasing engagement for your business.

If you’re completely new to Facebook and don’t know how to use the Facebook live feature, here are a few tips:

1. In your News Feed, you’ll see a camcorder icon with the words ‘Go Live’ next to it - click on it.
2. Allow Facebook to have access to your camera and microphone when prompted.
3. At the bottom of the video, you can change your privacy settings. If you’re broadcasting for your business, you’ll more than likely want to be ‘public’. If you’re just testing out Facebook live and want to get the hang of it before you broadcast publicly, you can change the privacy settings to ‘Only Me’.
4. Write a description for your video that will grab people’s attention and also tell them what the video is about.
5. You can tag people, add a location and activity to your live video just like with a status update.
6. Before you go live, make sure your camera view is facing the right way.
7. You can even add a lens, filter, writing or drawing to your live video if you want to.
8. Finally, click the blue ‘Go Live’ button to go live!

You might not be comfortable broadcasting a live video right away, but I encourage you to try it out using the ‘Only Me’ privacy setting so you know how to use this tool, should you ever need it in the future. Getting comfortable with the camera takes lots of practice, so don’t worry too much about being nervous. The truth is, everyone is! Try to remember that you’re going live to benefit your audience, not you. Make your potential customer or client the star of the show and you’ll be surprised how quickly you forget about how nervous you are on camera. 

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