Facebook: one of the largest growing social media platforms of all time, being the first social network to surpass 1 billion registered users.
According to Zephoria, based on reporting generated between April 24th and May 14th 2019, around 1.56 billion people log in to Facebook daily and are considered daily users. It’s no wonder, with all those potential customers at your fingertips, why Facebook is such a prominent accessory in modern marketing.
Facebook is such a crucial tool for small or start up businesses. It gives your customers social proof of your business, it allows you to practice social listening, and you can gain organic exposure for your brand.
But, unfortunately, all of this means nothing unless used correctly and thoughtfully. Which is why we’ll also go through some ideas of things to post to successfully generate high quality leads for your business.
Social proof
Social proof is when potential customers visit your social media platforms to confirm for themselves that you are an expert in your marketplace and to see that it reinforces your website and their expectations. Facebook is a great platform to do this on. People are far more likely to check out your Facebook page as well as your website if they’re looking to purchase from you. Facebook is also brilliant for small businesses that don’t have a website.
Facebook is ideal for social proof, because not only will people be able to see that you’re a legitimate business from the content on your profile, but people can post on your wall, tag you, share your posts and leave reviews. Every single one of these will add social proof to your business and, in turn, people will trust you and increase the likelihood that they will buy from you. Reviews are particularly important.
Your customers also have the ability to message you directly via Facebook. You’ll be able to provide quick responses to enquiries and be contactable for people who don’t want to phone.
Some great quick wins to use Facebook and boost your social proofing to drive leads include:
- Collaborate and engage with other experts in your industry. Such collaborations can allow you to tap into the experts’ positive influences and give your social media audiences an opportunity to hear and learn from experts in the industry.
- Another quick way to create social proof is to show gratitude for your user or follower milestones. Reaching milestones is a fun occasion to celebrate and a great time to thank the people who have helped you achieve that. For example, “We’ve got 1000 followers on Facebook! Thank you all for following us.”
- Receiving shout-outs on social media from your customers is always fantastic. You can also share reviews and testimonials. You can also feature social shout-outs on your website.
- Encourage customers to leave a review on your Facebook page.
If you’d like to read a little more about social proofing click here: ‘ Social Proofing – your customers are doing it but what is it?’
Social Listening
Social listening is one of our favourite strategies here at UNIQ, but one that few small businesses are engaged in. Social listening is all about building your reputation, listening to your customers and to your competitors.
Monitoring your brand on social media is key to building it. Pay attention to your competitors, what are they doing that you’re not? What kind of reviews do they get? What are they posting? This all falls under social listening. You can take this information and learn from it.
If you can identify Facebook groups where potential customers converse with each other, it’s a great way to understand what they are interested in, the challenges they have and the solutions they are looking for. You can also learn what language they use to describe their situation, needs and challenges, and incorporate that into your marketing.
One of the key aspects of social listening is that you are not selling at people. You are engaging with them, following their conversations and posts so you can better understand them. When you do engage with them you need to share relevant, valuable information with them that helps them. Helping and assisting them is the name of the game when you are doing social listening.
Organic exposure
Best part about Facebook? It’s free!
Social media platforms, especially Facebook, are the best places to get organic exposure. This just means your brand or business will be getting seen by potential customers at no cost to you other than your time.
You can increase your organic exposure by developing a following. Like, share and comment on other posts or pages in the same industry. Top tips to increase your following on Facebook:
- Industry insights - what insights, new trends and information can you share with your audience? Any top tips or information you can share with them that they don’t already know will be greatly appreciated and will increase your following.
- Invite your Facebook friends to your business page. You never know who will follow you or who they might know.
- An easy one, but one you might not have done yet - invite your email database to like your Facebook page. Remember to have great content ready for them so they have a reason and benefit to following you.
- Advertise your business page. You don’t need to spend a fortune to do this and it’s a great quick way to boost your following.
What should you post?
The sort of things you post or share on Facebook can have a massive effect on your following and what business you get from Facebook. If you’re sharing unprofessional posts then the likelihood people will choose you will decrease. For example, if you’re looking for an experienced plumber who will get the job done well, you’re unlikely to choose someone who’s sharing videos from Fail Army or a picture of a cat in a top hat.
Here are some ideas of things to post:
- Share relevant and helpful blog posts with great industry insights.
This shows your customers that you’re there to help and are interested in sharing information.
- Any news from your business.
Your customers will be interested in what's going on in your company. New staff, new office etc. Be open.
- Use videos to present offers.
Video marketing is on the rise, people are just generally more likely to watch a video than read about the offer. According to Optinmonster, people who market with video see a 54% brand awareness increase.
- Run a contest or giveaway
People love free stuff. Fact. Contests and giveaways are a great way of increasing brand awareness. Get people to like your post and share the contest for a chance to win the prize.
- Ask for your customers input.
This is always a good idea to get involvement on your page. You’ll get feedback, while letting your customers know you care about their opinion.
