FACEBOOK
BEING SOCIAL FOR BUSINESS
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Keep posts short & sweet – Posts with less words get more engagement. Why do you think
Twitter is only 140 characters!
Answer questions & respond to posts – Your page is not a walled garden! Respond to your
followers & be personal.
Ask questions & ask for feedback – The best posts on Facebook pages tend to be questions.
Ask them often & listen to what your users are saying.
Participate in the conversation – Customers appreciate business owners who take interest.
Provide helpful links – Be sure to help educate your fans, not just promote your products.
Follow thought leaders – Find people in your niche & follow them — and make sure to
interact with them & their followers.
Run Promotions – Offer specials, coupons & limited time offers.
Keep Customers Informed – If your shop’s going to be closed, let your customers know
ahead of time. If you’re an online company keep people informed of outages that may be
coming or have occurred.
Post Photos – If you’re a local company post pictures of your business & employees. People
love to recognise someone around town or in your store that they saw online.
Say Thank You – Thank your followers & fans often. Make them the centre of your focus.
Don’t:
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Over post – Only post as often as you can get good engagement.
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Excessively self-promote – I go by the 90/10 rule: 90% of your posts should be fun &
informative, 10% can be promotion.
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Use Bad Grammar – Make sure you don’t have any grammar errors or misspelled words in
your posts. The “Grammar Police” won’t forgive you!
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Be Shy – This is your opportunity to speak directly to your customers. Be outgoing &
engaging.
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Overshare – Don’t post rants or gripe about employees or customers. Some things need
not be on Facebook!
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Talk Politics or Religion – Have your opinions yes. But you’ll run off over half your potential
customers if you take a stand on political or religious issues. So choose your words wisely.
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Respond Hastily – Remember your messages are public. Well thought out & correct
answers are vital.
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Bad Mouth Competitors – You may think the competing burger joint down the street sucks
— and they might. But don’t air your opinions on social media about it. It just makes you
look juvenile.
Islands’ Tourism and Business Partnership Ltd, Steamship House, Hugh Street, Hugh Town, St Mary's TR21 0LL
Registered In England No. 08047403 Registered Office: 14 High Cross, Truro TR1 2AJ
[email protected] www.islandspartnership.co.uk 01720 424036
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Share Secrets- You don’t have to tell everyone all of your business secrets — again some
things need to stay in house & not be aired on social media. Plus, if you share every
problem you have, your customers will lose faith in you & your product
Tips and check list:
Setting up your page:
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make sure you have chosen the right category for your business
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fill out as much detail as you can about your business
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make sure your branding is tidy and clear
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make sure your header image is appropriate and change it regularly
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claim your Facebook user name so you can promote the URL facebook.com/your business
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if more than one person is posting make them administrators; do not give out your
password
Posting content
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do not auto post from Facebook to other social media
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make it relevant to your business and your followers
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share photos and video - they don't have to be professionally taken
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talk about the people in your business (as long as they have agreed)
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don't try and sell too much - be social not pushy
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when linking to pages on your website or other websites, once the link has loaded you can
remove the URL text and update thumbnails and link copy.
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comment on your own posts - especially if others have.
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create events where possible rather than just posting about them
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don't post every day unless you have something worthwhile to say
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look at your stats to see what time of day people are responding then use the scheduled
post system to post your content.
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where possible tag or label people and places and try and give everything a title
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use hash tags - (not quite as widely used as twitter but becoming more so)
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if people comment remember to like and respond
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use pin to the top or the highlight option for important posts.
Sharing content
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share posts from other business or affiliates
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share posts from your followers
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try and comment on the post you are about to share, then say something about the post
when you share with your followers
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comment on others’ posts
Building your fan base
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invite all your personal friends to like your page
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like other business pages and comment on their posts
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encourage people to share your post with their friends
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use paid for advertising
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add your Facebook feed or logo to all other marketing material
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push people to your Facebook page from emailers
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run offers and competitions
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reply to private messages and negative comments
post really engaging content
remind to use the follow button