It is my great pleasure to introduce to you another great guest blog post from the lovely Mark Scott. What is even nicer is that Mark lives this side of the pond not too far from me in Knaresborough. In this great post Mark shares 5 of his top tips for using Facebook in your business. Be sure to comment, share and syndicate this great post and connect with Mark too!
Top 5 Tips for Using Facebook for Your Business
1. Is Facebook right for your business?
Many businesses delve in to Facebook without thinking ‘is it right for my business?’ You need to consider if facebook fits with your business / brand values and target audience. Don’t just enter in to Facebook because everyone else has, you need to develop a strategy to ensure your page has direction.
2. Create the right Facebook page
Lots of businesses have created a personal profile for their business and although this is easier for people to connect to, when Facebook recommends your page to friends-does your business actually know this person?
This will increase your friends on the profile but it will incur problems further down the road for your brand. Recently Facebook developed a tool to switch your personal profile to a business page, but as reported by Mashable this tool incurred many problems.
From losing content and the custom URL that you created, you are then unable to retrieve your custom URL once the page is changed to a business Facebook.
Due to the amount of problems Facebook have removed this feature, so it’s more important that you create the right page from the start. This is the first step for Facebook marketing. Another draw back for creating a personal profile for your business is that you won’t be able to add any custom tabs, which means you can’t add your brand experience to your Facebook fans.
3. Be Human
A common fault for many businesses is that they just broadcast to their fans on the Facebook page. Some businesses tell their fans about exclusive offers to but after a while they become bored and switch off from the updates from their news feed.
To prevent this from happening you need to add the human element by showing your fans the personality of yourself and your business. This doesn’t mean telling your fans that you are ’gonna take a shower or make a cuppa’.
But be conversational, interact and create content about your business that will want your fans to engage with your business or brand. The right content will have your fans sharing your content with their friends.
4. Time
Businesses often think that creating a Facebook presence will be enough and from day one they will have every man and his dog on the page. This is not the case.
Having a Facebook presence requires a lot of time and dedication, similar to the rest of your social media strategy, from your blog to Twitter.
You need to schedule in some time to your working week to ensure you keep your page up to date. What you don’t want is a person looking at your page and seeing that the last time it was updated was 3 months a go.You need to ask yourself the question, ‘Would you want to like your page?’
5. Don’t use Twitter language in Facebook
This has been seen in many businesses pages, with them being able to link Facebook to Twitter or vice-versa. Businesses use this method to save time, but it just annoys people because if they are using Facebook they don’t want to see Twitter language, hashtags for example. The best approach is not to link the account and to create content for Facebook and different content for Twitter. Be creative not lazy.
I hope these tips will help you make a start or think about using Facebook for your business. There are many other tips; I just thought these were a good start.
Thanks for Stopping By,
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May 20th, 2011 at 3:19 pm
The five tips that you have provided is really interesting. I am not sure if I am using twitter language on my fan page but I am sure I am keeping it as human as possible. I have to agree that it is important to be conversational, interact and create content about your business.
Ruth´s last [type] ..7 Rules to Get Your Ex Back
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April 19th, 2011 at 10:54 pm
These are all really good points. I especially like the one about being human. Being conversational and sharing a bit about our personality. That is the way we cultivate good relationships with people.
Melodie Kantner´s last [type] ..Do Realize The Power In The Social Media Revolution
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Mark Scott Reply:
April 20th, 2011 at 12:13 pm
Hi Melodie,
Thank you.
So many businesses and brands forget to add the human element to their social media.
You have a great blog too.
Mark : )
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April 16th, 2011 at 12:49 am
I really appreciated Mark’s 5 points for using Facebook. I agree that you shouldn’t mix Twitter with Facebook, as they are 2 different cities, sot to speak. And yes, the important thing is to be real and present who you really are, letting people into your life, if they choose to want to get to know you.
Thanks Mark for the great info and thank you Beth for sharing!
Your friend,
Lynn
Lynn Jones´s last [type] ..Do You Ooze Confidence
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bethhewitt80 Reply:
April 19th, 2011 at 9:15 pm
Thanks Lynn, for stopping by. You are so welcome. I hope you found Mark’s tips helpful. If you would like to guest post anytime, be sure to get in touch with me.
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April 15th, 2011 at 5:23 am
Hey Beth - thanks so much for sharing Mark’s article! It is so important to learn the proper way to use FB or any social media for that matter - for business purposes - the whole point is to be Social - not to try and sell-sell-sell - so glad that Mark brought this up in point number 3.
Lori
Lori Tisot´s last [type] ..I’m Inspired…What Will This Inspire You To Do
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April 15th, 2011 at 2:49 am
Hey Beth! These are great tips! I love the tip about not using Twitter language on Facebook. I see that happening a lot and I know people want to save time but I think they need to be separate too. Thanks for sharing this!
Angela´s last [type] ..Fasten Your Seat Belts- It is Time to Get in the Drivers Seat of Your Life
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April 14th, 2011 at 11:02 pm
Hi Beth,
you made some awesome points in you great post!
Being human is one of the ones that stood out to me.
You are so right, people will switch of, or get bored if it is all about business.
I have not put much time into my fanpage so far but I will keep your great guidance in mind.
Thank you!
Yorinda
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bethhewitt80 Reply:
April 19th, 2011 at 9:18 pm
Hey Yorinda, I can’t take the credit for this post. Mark Scott wrote it. But I am sure he appreciates the comments.
Speak soon,
Beth
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April 14th, 2011 at 1:51 pm
I like the first few points, esp when it says broken link and lose content. But I disagree with not linking twitter with facebook. I guess i rarely if ever use twitter language. Cuz even if i am on twitter i avoid those post. the point of linking them isn’t about lazy
It is how u setup your latest blog post to be annouced to both twitter and facebook fan/friends. I must add if u link youtube with twitter than this link will able auto post a new line when u add favrote youtube video. And most of us go to youtube at least once a week, so it is guarentee no such thing as 3 month old post. But if u do want to seperate your work and private life, don’t link personal youtube account to ur biz facebook.
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bethhewitt80 Reply:
April 19th, 2011 at 9:19 pm
Hey Vivian,
I appreciate your comments, you raise some good points.
Beth
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April 10th, 2011 at 4:18 pm
Some great tips from Mark, thanks for sharing Beth
No 2 is so important to start out with the right type of page, many don’t are are sorry later.
Peter
Peter Fuller MBA´s last [type] ..How to Attract your Niche to your Blog – Day 3 of 5
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lenore charles Reply:
April 27th, 2011 at 4:51 am
i try not to use face book for my business but it’s kind of hard when you convince yourself about the amount of friends you have on facebook it seem like a book just waiting to be open.
i did try opening a new webpage but like you said it created a lot of problem, but i will keep what you say in mind next time i want to put my blog from tweet to facebook
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Mark Scott Reply:
April 11th, 2011 at 9:02 am
Thanks Peter,
You have a great blog too.
Mark
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