How to start your business on Facebook

You have business but still don’t promote it on social media? You want to start but don’t really know which platform to choose? You read my recent article and want more information?  Okay, that’s great! Today I will tell something you about Facebook.

First of all if you are not on Facebook, you don’t exist. Wondering why? Because Facebook is the biggest social media platform. According to Facebook stats, there are 1.86 billion monthly active users and 1.23 billion daily active users. That’s a lot, right? And if we talk about business fan pages, there are 60 million on Facebook.

You probably have your own, private Facebook profile and you like many fan pages, including business fan pages, both of big corporations and of small, local business. And you probably know that you can have your business profile on Facebook regardless of the size of your company. Therefore, whether you are a CEO of big and worldwide company or you are working in marketing in a local start-up, my advice about starting your social adventure is to start from Facebook. How to do it?

Have a look at the fan pages of companies, which are similar to yours. For example, if you have a B2B business, see how other B2B companies are communicating with their fans. Here are some fan pages, which are worth checking out because they’re influencers who have put a lot of work into not being too obvious about their ultimate purpose – to sell their brand:

• Google Chrome
• Nike
• Microsoft

1. Think about content you want to show the world. Strategy is nothing without good content or great product. Think about what you want to achieve with your fan page. Do you want to sell something, display expertise in your area, or simply build your image by showing your mission and how you’re putting it into practice? If you have unlimited resources you can focus on everything. However, most of us only have limited resources, so it is better to be focused on one main thing as this will allow you to be more effective.
2. Think about your target group: who is the ideal audience for your content? Are they teenagers, fashionistas, foodies, dandies, social ninjas, newlyweds, corporate beasts…? If don’t think about your target group, no-one will think much about you. But you need someone’s attention – target them!
3. Build a persona. Once you’ve selected your target group, you need to outline the general characteristic of a typical person who will read your content. What do you need to think about? As much as possible: their age, gender, interests, their typical day, their occupation and their ambitions.
4. Plan the timing of your activity. If you want to get the maximum effect without excessive round-the-clock effort, you need to define how often you want to post your content. This allows you to plan your posts in advance and determine when and how often you’ll be visible to your followers.
5. Set your Facebook advertising budget. What makes social media so attractive is the almost unlimited audience for messages you can convey for free. But unlimited audiences don’t mean unlimited business – they may simply mean wasted effort when your message gets spread too thinly. To be most effective in reaching your target, you need to spend some money: pay for an ad and you get to choose who sees it. Buying ads on FB is pretty flexible and therefore affordable, and it’s best to think about doing so at the beginning of your journey. If you’ve gone to the trouble of building personas for your targets, just input those criteria into the Facebook insights.

Well, that’s everything you need to do if you’re seriously thinking about going social with Facebook. Consider the steps above as your homework.