Updated Jan 2013.
Get Informed
Having a Facebook business page isn’t enough, even for a small business: you need to give it a custom look to really get results:
Why? First impressions mean everything, especially online, where people’s attention spans are easily diverted by cute YouTube videos, Farmville, or the latest quiz on your friends. You need to grab people’s attention and keep it. But how can you do that in a minimum of time? You need to get back to running your business, so here’s how you can get maximum results with minimum effort:
- Create a compelling Timeline. Shown above, the Timeline is what people see when they visit your Facebook business page. It’s essential to get them to LIKE your business page.
- Feed your blog content automatically. Not everything you post here has to be original. You can import your blog posts automatically, creating far less work for you or your staff. It’s an easy way to give people a taste of your deepest content channel, and you can still directly add shorter status updates. I’ve used several third party apps for importing RSS feeds and my favorite is RSS Graffiti.
- Use the four tabs at the bottom of your Timeline to offer specials to visitors to your page. Notice I offer a free class, video tutorials, and an infographic in those boxes? I want to be able to offer something of value to visitors so they’ll remember me. How? I capture their email address and send them the free tools. #4 tells you how to do this.
- Add an email sign-up box to one of your tabs. Give people the opportunity to sign up for your offers without ever having to leave your page. This is one of the best ways to capture people’s contact information and ensure they receive your marketing message. Even if people Like your business page, that doesn’t guarantee they’ll see your content on their News Feed. If they sign up for your offer, you can contact them directly, outside of Facebook. You can add an email sign-up to your tab using an email marketing program like Constant Contact or MailChimp, or use TabSite, a free tool I recommend for creating custom tabs.
- Display your presentations and videos directly in Facebook. The more value you can give to people, the longer they’ll stay on your page and Like it. Got a great PowerPoint presentation you’ve uploaded to Slideshare? Recorded incredible YouTube videos? You can add these to your Facebook page so people can see them right in the social network. Sure, you can post links to them, but eventually those will be replaced by your newer posts on Timeline. Give them a permanent home so you can earn customers’ trust.
Go Do It
Where can you learn how to do these tactics? Register for Facebook 102: Customizing an Existing Facebook Page for lessons in how to do each of these techniques and far more. I list ways to get Fans every month in the Community Forum, and I hope you’ll join us at the SocialMediaOnlineClasses.com family!
