Optimise your Facebook Page

This month’s blog has been written by Leigh-anne Pieterse, Pink Spaghetti’s training manager.  In it she shares some of her expertise on Facebook business pages.

So you’ve set up a Facebook business page, but are you making the most of it?  Here are a few things you may not have thought of which will give your page the edge when it comes to competing for the attention of your customers:

 

1. Make sure your ‘About’ section is complete.

Add as much information as possible to the ‘About’ section to save visitors having to contact you for basic information or else leave the platform to search elsewhere.  Add your contact details, website, other social media details, operating hours, etc.

 

2. Add a ‘Call to Action’ button.

Encourage your audience to take a particular action on your page by using the Call to Action (CTA) button.  This blue button under your cover photo makes it easier for a visitor to, for example, contact you, watch a video, make an online booking or book tickets to your event, based on the CTA you have set up.  You can adjust the CTA according to your overall business goals or for any current events or promotions.

3. Backlink to your Facebook page.

Wherever you can, set up a link to your Facebook page.  Include a link at the bottom of your blog posts, on your website, in email signatures, business cards, across other social media platforms. Encourage people to visit your page and make it easy for them to do so.

 

4. Use the ‘Our Story’ feature.

Now a year old, this feature seems to have been overlooked by many people but is a lovely way of giving your audience more details about the business.  Not to be confused with the 24 hour stories, this feature lives on the ‘About’ section of your page but also appears on the main page (on the right-hand-side for desktop users and under the cover photo for app users) – a prime location to give some background about your business, highlight your passions or introduce the team.

 

5. Manage your tabs.

Tabs appear on the left-hand-side of your page under the profile picture and they take the visitor to different sections of the page. Some tabs like About, Posts & Photos are standard but others can be removed, added and customised.  We recommend adjusting the order of your tabs to guide the visitor around your page: place the sections of your page that you want customers to focus on at the top of the list and less frequently visited sections at the bottom.

 

6. Earn your ‘Very Responsive to Messages’ badge.

Respond quickly and consistently to private messages and earn your badge by achieving both a response rate of 90% and a response time of 15 minutes over the previous 7 days.

 

7. Post, share and engage.

It seems like an obvious one but post, post and post!  Aim to post around 3 times a week but engage every day in the form of liking people’s comments or replying to comments, and liking and commenting on other business pages as your page.

To keep your content varied make use of the post options available: a post with a photo or video, create a voting poll, or a slideshow of images/videos.  Get blogging with Notes, get creative by constructing a Carousel or a Canvas or be brave and stream a live video with Go Live.  Bring some of your personality into the page, build anticipation with ‘sneak peek’ type of photos or bring in a bit of fun with funny polls or ‘add a caption’ photos.  Share links to articles or news within your industry, maybe post some light hearted behind-the-scenes photos.

 

8. Spend time on Page Insights.

The built-in Page Insights tool constantly gathers information about your fans and how they are interacting with your page and your content.  You can view information about your page’s overall performance, including data on audience demographics and engagement.  You can also look at the metrics for your posts and see how many people you are reaching, and how people are reacting to the posts.  Setting aside a few minutes each week to monitor these figures will help you understand what resonates with your audience and help you plan better content in the future.

 

With so many Facebook users and business pages on the platform, you have to give Facebook a reason to put your page’s posts out into people’s newsfeeds.  If you set up your page correctly and use it strategically, a Facebook page is a powerful tool for business.  Know your niche, monitor your Page Insights and constantly test & adjust posts to gain engagement.

Some business owners set up a page with one goal in mind… Facebook advertising.  While paid Facebook ads are a powerful feature, it’s important to have brand trust and customer loyalty and that starts with having a good page that people can trust and engage with.  Start by ensuring your Facebook business page is optimised by using some of these tips – let us know how you get on!