Everybody is telling you that you need to use Facebook to boost your business. Easier said than done, though, right?
Right, indeed. You can’t just put a Facebook page out there for your business and then rightfully expect the dollars to start coming in. Nothing works that way, unfortunately, but Facebook can be an important part of your arsenal to help bring more attention to your business, if you use it right.
If You Build It, They Can Come: But don’t assume just because you have a Facebook page that you’re done. You need to build a sizable “like” base on your page for it to have any value to you.
The biggest mistake that small-business owners make is assuming that everybody in the world will see their posts. Look at your number of “likes.” That’s how many people will see your posts, more or less. You’ve got to get that number as big as you can for your Facebook page to have any impact on your bottom line.
Use It, or Lose It: Or maybe you have a healthy “like” presence, but you’re afraid of overusing it, to the point that you maybe post only an item or two a week. Bad rationalization there. That “like” audience only does you any good if you talk to it regularly.
You very well may lose “likes” by posting frequently to your page. You’re just as likely to lose “likes” by posting infrequently.
Facebook should be a building block for your marketing strategy, but you’ve got to work at it to create any value from your Facebook page.
Chris Graham is the president and CEO of Augusta Free Press LLC, a full-service web- and graphic-design and marketing-services firm based in Waynesboro, Va. More online at www.AFPBusiness.com.