KNOW AND UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE
Before you even get started with anything on Facebook, you need to know who your target audience is and therefore who you want to reach. From this, you will then be able to decide what type of content to put out to attract that audience. There is no point researching the web for the latest memes or pop culture posts when your demographic is 40-60-year-old gardeners. It is really important to do your research before you begin or you will waste a lot of time and get disheartened as you attract the wrong customers who don’t want to invest in your brand. Your audience can change organically on your journey but having an idea initially is very important and can help with other aspects of the business too.
2. HAVE A DESTINATION
You need to have a rough idea of where you want your brand to go. Do you want to be the go-to person for advice? A social media influencer or are you just happy getting a few occasional sales here and there. This will determine how you should approach your Facebook strategy. If your goal is to be the best of the best in a certain field, then that is going to take a lot more work than someone who just wants to occasionally sell the services that they do for a hobby. Once you have a destination you can work towards that goal by trying different strategies. Don’t worry if your goal changes along the way, you can just adjust your strategy accordingly.
3. CREATE AMAZING CONTENT
The one thing that will keep your audience coming back to your page is your content! So creating amazing content is a must. There are a variety of free tools online that you can use to create your content with most of it being simple to use. Websites such as Canva and Crello allow you to create simple graphics that make your posts stand out. Consistency in the style and quality of your content is also really important. Being consistent in style will allow your customers to recognise your content and brand without the need for a name or logo. Think Apple advertisements, always crisp, clean and modern.
4. INVITE PARTICIPATION
Encouraging your audience to comment, like and share is a great way to build your audience. Ideally, you never want to force people to like and share your posts, they should have done so organically. This allows you to see the type of content they like to interact with and which content doesn’t work well. You can use this information in the future and either improve on it or avoid creating content like that. When people participate and interact with your content your brand becomes more trusted and therefore will result in more followers and engagement.
5. KEEP YOUR CONTENT FRESH AND UPDATED
If you’re using a Facebook Business page, then it is really important to keep the information on that page up to date. If you change address or email, you may lose out on customers due to this. Throughout your Facebook page regardless of what you sell, it's important that all the branding is kept the same and there isn’t an old logo in with new content etc. This can confuse the audience and make it look like you’re unprofessional or just don’t care about your brand.
6. HAVE BRAND PERSONALITY
Whether it be a personal brand or a corporate brand, people connect to people. Your audience will see right through your sales posts and will begin to disconnect. They need to feel your personality and like you before they begin to interact or buy from you. A consumer is shown hundreds of advertisements throughout the day, they want to get away from the sales pitches and view some content that's fun and real. Incorporating GIFs, fun memes and short videos can break up this and make your audience feel that you’re more a person than a robot. See below for how consumers relate to brands.Perhaps you want your brand to be perceived as sincere such as brands like Propercorn whose owner reveals the story of how the brand came to be. Or maybe your brand fits in the Sophistication section like the brand Dolce & Gabbana which oozes luxury.
7. POST INTERESTING CONTENT
This should go without saying, but sometimes if you begin to see your views and interactions drop then you can be tempted to share quick and fast content just to look like you’re still active. This, however, can have an adverse effect that can lead the audience to unlike your page as your content is uninteresting. If every piece of content you post is interesting, informative and shareable. Then followers will see it as high-quality content and are more likely to stick around even if you don’t post as frequently as some other pages. This leads me nicely onto number 8…
8. PLAN YOUR CALENDAR
Creating a posting plan is a sure-fire way to keep on top of content and grow your audience. Planning content is one of the most important things to do. I recommend everyone to always have a notebook or notes on your phone that you can actively write in when a new content idea pops up. Having a social media calendar is also important to ensure you don’t miss important events. Depending on your brand events like Halloween, Christmas and Valentine's day can be used to create opportunities for attracting more traffic to your page. Therefore having a calendar also allows you to be much more efficient and saves a lot of time and stress worrying about what to post.
9. CONNECT AND COLLABORATE
Connecting and collaborating with influencers in your field can be a great way to increase Facebook growth. When you’re first starting to build your page it can be hard to reach new people, but with collaborations, you can have a mutually beneficial agreement that allows each of you to obtain new followers and interactions. It is however important that you choose your collaborations carefully! You need to ensure that if you’re selling a product that the person you’re collaborating with isn’t a competitor or collaborating with a rival company that sells a similar product to you. You also need to ensure that the influencers you work with are Authentic, Active and Engaging otherwise this could also reflect badly on you and your brand. It would show that you have chosen to work with someone who doesn’t share the same values and goals as you’re trying to portray.
10. ENGAGE, ENGAGE, ENGAGE
Last but not least is engaging with your audience. It is no good posting onto Facebook, making a post and then leaving again until the next time to post comes up. Your audience will notice that you don’t interact with them and therefore you can lose trust. Replying to people on your page even with something so simple as a thank you can help your engagement and build a certain level of trust with your audience. Remember that Social Media Marketing and Growth is a marathon, not a sprint. These things take time and a lot of effort but you will start to see steady growth if you incorporate these tips and then it will all be worth it.