When most people hear social media, they think Facebook. Of course, social media is not limited to Facebook, but Facebook is the giant. Two of Facebook’s offerings that I feel are important for small business to learn about are Facebook Pages and Facebook Advertisments.
Facebook Pages for Business
If you’ve got a personal Facebook page, that’s great, but it’s not the same thing as a Facebook business page and, in my opinion does not replace a business page. My personal profile is where I can connect with my cousins overseas; it’s where I can wish people happy birthdays and post silly photos. The HerBusiness Facebook business page is strictly for communication with women in business and women looking to engage with us to learn about business, to improve their skills. With a business page, you can post visuals (e.g. pics of your products and services), videos, special offers, and even poll your customers and capture their details. You can also carry out contests and promotions on your Facebook page. For example, we do a promo on our Facebook page called Friday Success Stories, where we ask those who are on our page to share their wins for their week. This creates engagement and a feeling of community, which is important for all social media platforms. Be sure to check out Facebook’s rules about competitions and offers as they can shut you down if you violate their T&Cs.
Advertising with Facebook
Facebook also offers advertising for businesses, and Facebook advertising allows you to advertise to highly targeted audiences, geographically, by age, by interest, etc. For instance, you can target your ads right down to women aged 25-45 who live in Sydney who like the Lorna Jane Facebook page. You can be very specific, and you can start it and stop it as you wish. And you don’t have to worry about spending too much money, as you can set a daily spend limit. We’ve advertised for as little as a total of $50 to test a headline, concept and offer. It’s flexible and measurable, with inbuilt Facebook Insights showing you how your ad performed, how many viewed it, etc. While advertisements can be used to sell direct to your public, in my opinion they are better used to drive traffic to a landing page, offer a free download, eBook or other lead generator. The character and size limit is best suited to lead generation activity and funneling prospects to your other online properties or even to call you. Regardless of the size of your small business, both Pages and Advertising can be a good part of your marketing mix and an inexpensive way to market your business. Also, Pages are no substitute for your own website, but can be a place to start when you’re just starting out and until you develop your website. Visit the HerBusiness Facebook page here.
