How to Socialize Your Business on Facebook

When you’re considering ways to reach new customers and at the same time stay in contact with existing customers, social media ought to be a key player in your game plan; and of the countless social media sites, Facebook should be one of the primary tools in your belt. With over half a billion registered users around the world, Facebook users account for more than 7% of the people who call this third rock from the sun their home, and that is A LOT of people.

Whether you’re just beginning your social media efforts or are well-versed and already fluent in Facebook, the following tips will help you get the most out of Facebook for your business.

Be active and update often

There are few social media mistakes worse than not updating often enough (ahem, see 6 below). Visiting a page and seeing that it hasn’t been updated in months give the impression of a lack of news, or even worse, that the organization no longer exists.

Make it interesting

Before you post anything you should always ask, “Will the people who see my page benefit from this?” One of the quickest ways to lose friends online is by continuously sharing uninteresting content. If you’re like me you don’t always have something interesting and original to say, and that’s okay...

More than words!

One of the easiest ways to help your followers stay interested in your content is to add media. Links, photos, videos, and info-graphics all help to pull your audience in, and are especially helpful when you think you’ve run out of fresh and original content. Read an interesting article related to your business lately? Share it with your followers and ask their opinion.

Be authentic, and be yourself

Whether you have a website for your organization (and by all means, you should!) or you use your business’s Facebook Page as a jumping off point, in many cases it will be the most forward facing image of your organization. People of all walks relate better to genuine, personal interactions than they do to canned, emotionless content. So, be yourself and be open to the conversations that follow.

Engagement is king!

Think of your business’ Facebook page as a stage, but it isn’t a performance stage — it is a conversational stage, and all of your audience is standing by your side. Conversations through comments and questions will help you to realize the potential of being an active business on Facebook.

Don’t be a spammer, @#$%! 

The average social media activity of a Fortune 100 company is 27 tweets per week, 3.6 Facebook posts a week, 7 blog posts per month, and 10 videos per month.

Monitor your page

Check your page as often as possible. People will ask questions or give feedback about your page and your business (sometimes negative), and it’s important to respond to their comments, compliments or criticisms. Negative comments shouldn’t be removed, but instead seen as opportunities to save a relationship and show others that you truly care. If someone leaves spam comments on your wall you should delete them immediately.

Short and sweet does the trick!

Twitter limits status updates to 140 characters and Facebook limits them to 420. Too many long updates make for an abundance of text and often results in an ugly ‘read more’ at the end. If you have more to say, create a note on your Facebook page, or better yet, set up a blog on your website and point people to it.

Give thanks

If someone ‘likes’ your page, send them a message and let them know that you appreciate it. If you’re really on top of your Facebook game, you’ll use it as an opportunity to add a link to your website or invite them to your next event.

Implement social signals

If you don’t already have Facebook’s ‘like’ buttons installed on your organization’s blog, you should. It is a great way to let others share what they like from your website, and it will help expand your online reach at the same time. If you want to know how to add Facebook ‘like’ buttons to your site, and we’ll give you some pointers.

Bonus Kudos

Enable your fans to post to your wall, and update your wall settings to show “your business page + others” by default. It will help visitors to see what your fans are saying, and create a more engaging atmosphere.

Sources: Social Media Facts, Facebook Statistics, Our Digital Culture, Social Media Infographics