Facebook marketing tips – how to get started

What’s QuickBooks got to do with Facebook marketing? A good question, but the fact is, we’re a business too and our in-house marketing team has some great ideas to help support you.

There are over 2 billion active Facebook users. That’s a marketing platform too big to ignore.

But how do you go about launching a Facebook page for your business? And how do you zero in on the right people, your potential customers? Follow these simple steps to take full advantage of what Facebook marketing can offer. And the sooner you do it, the better, as more and more people are signing up to Facebook marketing – there are over 60 million businesses with a Facebook page.

Setting up a page is easy

You’d be right in thinking it’s fairly easy to set up a Facebook page for your business. You can quite seamlessly convert your profile into a page – Facebook tell you how to do it. But surprisingly, lots of people get this wrong. It’s important to consider:

• Cover photo: use your logo, and make this and your background picture look attractive to draw people in

• About: be friendly in how you present yourself. Facebook is informal.

• Posts: make these relevant and useful, such as offers, new product information, or links to your blog. Use call to action buttons like “watch this video” or “sign up” to drive traffic back to your website. And keep on top of your timing.

Cut through the jargon

You get amazing data from Facebook, which helps you understand which messages and posts work and which don’t. To get the most of out of this data, it’s vital from the outset that you learn what metrics are important for your business on Facebook. It may look a bit daunting to start with, but actually, when you look closer, it’s easy to understand. Here’s the terminology explained:

• Total Page Likes - The number of people who like your Page.

• New Page likes - How many new likes your Page received during the last 7 days, compared with the previous 7-day period.

• Total Reach - How many people have seen any content associated with your Page (including any ads) during the last 7 days.

• Post Reach - The number of people who have seen your Page posts.

• Engagement: People Engaged - How many people who have clicked on, liked, commented on or shared your posts during the last 7 days.

• Likes, comments, shares and post clicks - How many of these actions have taken place over the last 7 days.

• Fan Reach - This is the number of people who see your post organically either directly from you or from one of their friends.

• Post Likes - Number of people who liked a specific post

• Post Shares - Number of people who shared your post with their friends.

Increase your visibility

It’s a good idea to put a bit of money behind your posts to ensure that everyone who ‘likes’ your page sees them. So allow a bit of budget every month to ‘boost’ your most important posts. This doesn’t have to cost you a fortune. As little as £5-10 a post can help get more eyeballs on your message. You can promote your post after you publish it by clicking the “Boost Post” button on the bottom right.

Remember, by boosting a post, you’re giving people who already like you more chances to see it. In the next post, we cover how to create a Facebook ad. This is a way of extending your reach into new audiences – and is also highly recommended.

Promote your page

Another pay-for-play option with Facebook marketing is promoting your whole page. This can be a cost-effective way of growing your audience and finding potential customers. It’ll put your business into the news feed of the specific audience you choose to target, defined by a host of factors including age, location, profession or interests. Try adding interests to your profile which match those of your target audience.

It’s a good idea to run a few different tests to see what kind of targeting gives you the best returns.

Use multimedia

Video and pictures rule in social media, and Facebook marketing is no different. Including a picture or video will significantly boost your chances of someone engaging with your posts. Demonstrate how your product can improve your customers’ lives. Pictures of people using your product or enjoying one of its benefits will go a lot further than a simple product shot.

Think mobile

When you’re creating content, think mobile. After all, there are over 2 billion smartphone users and 85% of those have the Facebook app installed. More and more people are making purchases on the go, so make sure you get in on the act. When you make those great pictures and videos you’re undoubtedly going to post, make sure they fit nicely in your customers’ mobile feeds.

Measure your efforts

To track your success, you can use Facebook Insights - via the tab at the top of your page. Here, you’ll be able to analyse things like the demographics of people engaging with your page and posts. This is really helpful in modifying your Facebook content strategy – publish more of what works, and less of what doesn’t. Watch the trends and follow them.

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Once you’ve set up your page, read the QuickBooks blog on how to get started with Facebook advertising. You won’t look back.

Feel you’re better informed about Facebook marketing? The QuickBooks Blog covers a wide range of business-related topics designed to help you grow and develop your business.

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