Event Recap: Facebook for Business – Top Tips for Success

Written by Innovate New Albany@InnovateNA9 years ago

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Facebook has become more than a social media platform to stay in touch with friends and family. For businesses, it has become an effective and targeted way to engage and reach your customers. But you must have a strategy, and be willing to invest your time – and a little bit of money.

Tracy L. Teuscher, president of The Buzz Maker Public Relations, presented “Facebook for Business” at Innovate New Albany on October 22. The presentation was part of Innovate New Albany’s TIGER Talks luncheon series, which educates business owners on topics of Technology, Innovation, Growth, Entrepreneurship, and Responsibility. TIGER talks provide attendees with information, resources and advice to “earn their stripes” towards starting and running a successful business.

Tracy began the presentation by explaining the change in the Facebook landscape over the last few years. Facebook integrated a new algorithm called Edgerank, which filters the feeds using a formula of nearly 100,000 indicators. The result was a reduction in organic reach to between two and eight percent. What this means to business owners is if you want your posts to reach your audience, you are going to have to invest in Facebook advertising. The good news is, Facebook advertising is highly targeted, there are a lot of insights, and it’s not that expensive.

If you want your Facebook page to be successful in the Facebook universe, Tracy advises the following:

1. Optimize your page. Tracy said to think of your Facebook page as your online universe. You should brand it and connect it with your target audience. Create images and custom graphics for your Facebook cover and profile images that match your website. Tracy advised the group to fill out the “about” section completely with your company description, location and contact information. Then seek out non-competitive like-minded brands (including media sources) and like their pages.

2. Use hashtags and tags. Similar to hastags on the Twitter landscape, Facebook hashtags provide an automatic link for social listening. Tracy said to use two or three hashtags in your Facebook posts, and make them creative, brief and related to your brand. Tagging other pages allows you to join the conversation, and automatically sends a notification to the page manager about the mention.

3. Use and share quality images and custom graphics. The images you use in your Facebook posts should be high quality, reflective of your brand and style, and include a unique and authentic message. Sharing posts with images from like-minded brands help you to connect with others in a meaningful way.

4. Use and share video to inspire, inform, entertain, persuade, and move to action. A brief 60-90 second video is powerful and is likely to be shared. Tracy cited a statistic: in less than one second of video, you will see lift in video ad recall, brand awareness and purchase consideration. The longer the viewers watch your video, the more it increases. She said if a picture paints a thousand words, one minute of video paints 1.8 million images.

5. Invest in your page. Any investment you make in Facebook advertising results in lift across both organic and paid reach. It’s affordable, targeted, effective and flexible. Promoting the page and boosting a post are a great place to start, and you can invest as little as $1 per day.

Although Facebook has become a “pay to play” landscape, it gives you the most powerful targeting elements you can ever have access to. Tracy recommends to start now, connect with your Facebook audience, and use enticing calls to action to drive them back to your website.

For more information about Facebook for Business, please contact Tracy at Tracy@thebuzzmaker.com, or visit her website at www.thebuzzmaker.com.

Innovate New Albany, the city’s incubator for technology startups, entrepreneurs and small businesses, features 16,000 square feet of space within the New Albany Business Park’s Signature Office Building, 8000 Walton Parkway.