Facebook can sometimes seem like an endless struggle for those of us with business pages. They are constantly changing things and creating new algorithms, which only seem to create new roadblocks for us. But, even with the frustration, Facebook is still an awesome place to build your online business presence. It's a great way to create a following and engage with your followers. In today's post I'm going to give you 15 strategies to increase your following on your Facebook business page, and in the process, up your quality. You want to be the page that everyone wants to hang out on. You want to have the posts that people don't want to miss! So, here we go...
15 Ways to Increase Your Facebook Business Page Following
1. Use Great Images! They don't even have to be your own. Just make sure they are captivating and relevant. For example, I tend to share great pictures of people who use my patterns and take excellent pictures. It's free content for me and it shows off the talent of my followers, which they love! This particular picture was one I shared from Instagram to my Facebook business page.
3. Invite People! Let there be no shame in your invite game, people. Don't assume that because you invite them to follow your page that you are bothering them. There are businesses built by people with loads of confidence, and there are businesses built by people who are afraid that they are bothering others. You want to be the one with loads of confidence and stop making assumptions. This is coming from former "assumer". If you flip one thought in your head it will make all the difference in the world. Your invitation is a simple gesture. If people are interested, they will follow. If they are not, they won't. And you'll never know the difference unless you write down every person you invite and stalk them! You can start with friends and family and build from there. Facebook makes these helpful suggestions to you in your notifications, so I use them. If you click on the notification it will take you to a list and show you who you have already invited and those you need to invite. You simply click on the "invite" box and move on with your life.
4. Cross promote your page on other social media sites. Talk about your Facebook page on your Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc...but make sure you are pointing them to a specific post about relevant content. Just saying "Hey, come follow me on Facebook!"' without giving them a reason why is a sure-fire way to get ignored. This post on Instagram pointed people to my pattern and my CAL Group on Facebook.
5. Don't just post about your sales. Follow the 80/20 content rule. 80% of your posts need to be about information and fun. Things that make people laugh or show your followers glimpses of the "behind the scenes" of your business. The other 20% needs to be about your business sales, etc. I'm not selling anything but who I am in the next pictures. This is a chance for people to get to know me.
Here my husband is helping me roll balls of yarn while I work on organizing other things.
Here I'm working on other projects while listening to business training videos.
6. Link, Link, Link! Link from your personal Facebook page, your emails, your other social sites. If you are online anywhere, make sure that people can find you. Don't assume that because people know you that they know what you do. Sometimes even our friends have no clue how to find our businesses, or that we even have a business page. And if you comment on other Facebook pages as yourself, and you say something that causes people to say "Hey, I want to know more about this person"...make sure they can find you!! Here is my personal page. I am linked to my business and to several places that I manage and I want people to know about. Those are all links, people. USE THEM!
6. Keep your posts short and simple: Between 40-120 characters is optimal, depending on which researcher you look at. If you have a graphic with great content or a picture that really does speak a 1,000 words, then let it do the talking for you. It can be exhausting to try and come up with great content all the time. Put a K.I.S.S. on everything you post! Keep.It.Short. & Sweet.
8. Use Facebook Lives!! Oh man, these are gold. Facebook LIKES it when you go live. They will share your post to more people. Why do they share lives better than regular posts? Because Facebook is all about "engagement." They want business pages to be engaging with their followers. And if you are going live one to two times a week...you are investing in that relationship and Facebook helps you. Like I talked about earlier, Facebook's algorithms change constantly, but currently, it favors live engagement over just posting things...so get over your jitters and use the platform to your advantage. This picture is of the first ever live I did on my Facebook business page, and even though I only had about 12-15 people watching me at the time that I did it- it went to more than 500 views in a 24 hour period.
9. Be Personal! Be Genuine! Let your followers know who you are. People want to know who they are buying from. They want to know that you learned how to paint from your Aunt Martha, and your Grandma taught you how to bake the best cookies on the planet, and your family went on its first vacation in 10 years. People live their lives online anymore. Just think about the people you follow. Why do you follow them? They have something that interests you, don't they? There's a presence, there's a reason. Your best customers/clients will be the ones that connect with you. I tend to share about my family, what I'm cooking, and what makes me laugh...
10. Check your Facebook Insights. Facebook Insights can be a confusing mess of information to try an understand. The things you want to be really cognizant of are: Watch what types of posts have engagement and what time do your followers interact with your posts the most? You want to make sure that you are putting out content that encourages your followers to participate- which they will be more likely to do if you put out things that you know they like. And you want to be aware of what time of day the majority of your visitors visit. You don't want to be posting your content at 8pm when your greatest engagement is at 9am. The best place to look at your insight information is on a PC. The phone app has them, but it's very limited. Below are a couple of examples of the limited information on the app.
11. Schedule your posts ahead of time. Ideally, you should be posting at least four times a day for Facebook to take you seriously and share your page to your followers with frequency. You could sit down one day a week for an hour and bang out all of your scheduled posts. Now, that doesn't mean that you can't post as you think of it in the between times. It just means that you are now not tethered to your phone or computer making sure that you are putting out content at least four times a day. You can go get a massage and get your nails done, instead. Or work on OTHER business building skills. If you are unfamiliar with scheduling your Facebook posts, I have a short photo tutorial coming up. I did it on my phone, which is where I do most of my posting.
When you click "share" this page pops up asking you when you want to publish your post. Click on the little arrow to the right of the question as shown below:
What will pop up is a scheduler which allows you to choose the time and date.
Once you are satisfied with the date and time click "done" and the next page will pop up. Click on "Schedule"...and you're all done.
12. Don't use "Boost", instead create your ads. Boost does not get shown to as many people, therefore does not generate very much engagement. If you really want your sponsored posts to stand out create your ad. Facebook has many helpful tutorials to walk you through creating an ad campaign. But, my favorite, just for the sake of growing my page, is a "like" ad. It is literally an ad that you purchase with your budget and your time frame in mind to get your name out there and gain followers. Just like there is no shame in your invitation game, there is no shame in your ad game. Once again, how will they know you're there if you don't tell them?? Facebook is no "Field of Dreams"... just cuz you build it does NOT mean they will come.
13. Share posts from more popular pages than you. You can definitely share posts from pages smaller than you. I like to share from a mix. But, the reason I say share from ones more popular than you is that the more popular pages already have a following. Their share rate is higher, therefore they have more engagement on their posts, therefore your post will be shown to more people because they are already popular. See how that works? Use their popularity for your benefit. That's why they create shareable content, so don't feel like you are doing something wrong by piggybacking or "drafting" off of their momentum.
14. Engage with other pages AS your business page. On the PC you can choose to switch how you are engaging on Facebook. You can post as your business page. This is a GREAT way to be discovered and to gain followers. The picture below shows where you can change how you are posting. Just click on the arrow and change the page.
15. Last, but definitely not least, Be Interesting! No one likes to see the same thing over and over. Share things, post things, script things that will appeal to people. Give them a reason to like what you do! Below are some pictures of the other things that I share on my page other than my "business" things. I share them because they are engaging and interesting and sometimes nerdy and educational. They evoke my personality, create content that means something to me, and speaks the things I can't always say.
This is a video about how cowboys used to weave and braid horse hair into lassos.
This list is by no means comprehensive. There are at least another 15-20 things you can do to help grow the following on your business page, but I wanted to share with you the top 15 in my book. These are the ones that have helped me grow and continue to expand my following. The biggest thing about a list like this is: Don't just read it. Implement it. That's how you'll actually see change.
I hope this helps you.
Blessings,
Biz
Make sure you connect with me!
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