How to market your business on social media: Part 1 - Facebook

Every day, billions of people use social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, making them essential for reaching existing customers and reeling in new ones.

Do it right, and you've got an effective tool for engaging customers with your company. Do it wrong, and you lose the chance to connect.

Back when I first started out on social media, I wasn't sure how to set up my page, let alone how to market using Facebook or any other social media channel, but along the way and after a heck of a lot of googling! I've found my feet. I'm still not an expert by a long shot, but I do know my way around now so I thought it may be useful to share some of what I've learned.

In this three-part series I've noted some tips and tricks for marketing on the most popular social media channels. Today's topic: Facebook.

Setting up your Facebook page

With about 1.13 billion active monthly users, Facebook's reach is pretty much unbeatable. As a result, it should be an integral part of your marketing strategy. Business Facebook pages should be community hubs that provide interesting, engaging information surrounding your brand. Posts should encourage customer interaction and comments to create an active following.

According to Hubspot, the way your page is set up is as important as what you're posting. Make sure to fill in the About section, as a portion of it will appear below your profile picture, and potential followers will rely on it to see what your page is all about. You should also make sure to use a profile picture that people can easily associate with your business.

Once your page is set up, it's time to recruit followers and start posting. Facebook suggests using its invite tool on your page to reach out to current friends, customers and business contacts. In addition, Facebook has a "custom audiences" tool that can analyze your current list of customers and then use a "lookalike audiences" tool to find similar people.

If you provide relevant content and effectively engage your audience, you are also bound to gain followers organically, according to Facebook.

What and how to post

According to Business2Community, businesses need to post regularly to keep audiences interested. B2C says Facebook's algorithm is set up to favor businesses that post regularly, meaning the more you post, the more you will show up in people's newsfeeds.

However, you should be careful not to overwhelm your audiences with too much content. Aim for posting well-crafted content one to three times per day over all your social media sites.

So what makes well-crafted content? Well, it will be different for every business, of course, and you will have to experiment with different types of posts to figure out what works best for yours. Facebook recommends posting genuine, authentic information.

If it is something that makes you excited, it is bound to do the same for your customers. Generally, it is also a good rule of thumb to use multimedia in your posts. Posts that include some sort of visual component can lead to 94 percent more views, according to Hubspot.

Tracking your comments – and your performance

Beyond posting regularly, keep track of what your customers say and respond promptly. According to Hubspot, customers who complain believe a business should respond within an hour.

Facebook provides analytics tools to tell you how posts are performing, so you can easily track what does and does not work. Facebook also allows you to pay to target specific demographics using age, gender, location and interests, which could really help boost your following.

According to B2C, Facebook ads are currently one of the most effective marketing tools, leading to good returns on investment.

If you've liked this post, you may also like part 2 which is about Twitter.