We hate to admit it, but there’s no hiding from social media, especially when you run a growing business. In fact, over 90 million small businesses use Facebook according to Hootsuite.com. Regardless of whether you’re a seasoned social media specialist, it can be difficult to get page likes and increase your overall visibility. Here are some ways to promote your business’s Facebook page for free so you can expand your reach and get more clients from Facebook.
- Build Your Base Audience: The friends and family advantage
After you get your Facebook page up and running, the next thing you need to do is to invite your friends and family to “Like” the page. This helps by starting you off with a digital footprint (which proves the legitimacy of your business page) and gives you a valuable test audience.
Use this base audience to:
- See what types of posts get the most engagement – do people like photos/videos or insider tips more?
- Get ideas and suggestions for your business by asking people what they want to know and see.
- Word of mouth marketing– ask people to share and invite others to like your page.
Promoting a business page that doesn’t have much life or engagement isn’t going to do much to help your business. Focus on building a quality audience first. The natural activity that fills up your page from that quality audience will then serve to promote your page.
- Offer Promotions and Facebook Contests
Another way to promote your Facebook page is to offer a contest or giveaway. Here are some contest ideas:
- Offer your customers discounts for “shares” and “likes”
- Hold a name drawing for products or services your business (keep a record of new followers and pick a winner)
- Host an event that your fans would want to share and bring friends to. This is an opportunity to spread the word about a new product!
- Provide Interesting and Helpful Content
Remember: people join social media to be social. Facebook, in particular, is about connecting with your audience. You will have the most success in raising awareness of your agency by creating content that is useful, relevant, and helpful.
Here are some content ideas to get you started:
- Tips and tricks – decorating ideas or pictures for upcoming holidays, seasonal industry information
- News and events – provide information about upcoming industry events or business events
- Interviews – interview a customer or important person in your industry and post a video
- Behind the scenes – show behind the scenes video or pictures of your agency or events
- Share Promotional Updates
Promoting your products and services can actually promote your own Facebook page! When you strive to keep your clients up to date on your offerings through Facebook, you will be posting regularly. This gets your customers accustomed to checking and interacting with your Facebook page, and it will attract new customers to your business. All these factors serve to promote your Facebook business page for free.
- Share Reviews
Customers are the lifeblood of your business, and they are also your ticket to free advertising. You can use customer feedback as a way to attract other customers and start a dialogue about your agency. A great tip is to tag customers when posting their feedback to increase visibility of the Facebook post. This is also a great incentive to get feedback for your agency if you don’t have any already! Reviews are very important for small businesses. To learn more about asking for reviews, check out this ThriveHive article!
Be sure to get your customers to post about your agency on Facebook and tag your location to promote your page to their networks.
- Interact with Other Businesses
The point of having a Facebook page is to grow your network and increase your audience. Liking and interacting with other Facebook business pages in your industry is a great way to gain access to more people. All of our Affiliates should be following the ASNOA Facebook page, so you will have access to our network of people who will repost and engage with relevant content. If you want more business tips and ideas, follow our ASNOA Private Group to interact with other Affiliates. “If you link or share the updates from other businesses, they will be more likely to link to or share yours” (Hootsuite.com). You should also follow local businesses and news stations, as well as people who have lots of followers.
There is an important distinction to be made when promoting your Facebook page: it isn’t just about promoting your business. Your focus when promoting your page should be building up its quality so that others will naturally promote it for you. It’s about exploring and expanding your network. It’s about growing your audience, and most importantly it’s about gaining visibility for your agency. These six tips, as well as our ASNOA Facebook page, are proven ways to grow your sphere of influence and increase your agency’s online presence.