Facebook Etiquette for Business

Your personal Facebook and Facebook business pages should remain separate, with no crossover. There are different etiquette standards for each. Of course, there will be times when you have a Facebook friend who is also a Facebook fan.

Many business owners (the same business owners who initially only considered Facebook to be a social media site that they forbid their employees from using during work hours) have discovered its potential for extremely effective selling and business relationship building.

Your content in the two different types of Facebook accounts should be different and the communications that you have with that person should be different as your fan than as your friend.

Should you build your social media marketing campaign through your personal Facebook or your Facebook business page? When it comes to social media, there is a great deal of subjectivity; however, some of the options will be presented to you here so that you can make an intelligent and informed decision when it comes to social media and what is most appropriate for your particular business.

The benefits of a Facebook business page

If you publish content on your Facebook business page, you have a good chance that it will be included in search engine results, which may, in turn, strengthen your chances of good search engine optimization (SEO).

Facebook Insights (analytics) allows you to measure and monitor your effectiveness on Facebook. For example, if you notice that your postings are being hidden from the newsfeeds of one of your fans, your content is not effective.

If a person wants to become your fan on a Facebook business page, he or she does not have to display his or her personal profile to be able to connect with your business. This eliminates the privacy concerns that many people have.

There are many things that you should do when you have a Facebook business page to generate more business. There are also things that you should not do when you have a professional page because it isn’t polite and will not produce any positive results.

Dos

Promote your upcoming events: If you are holding an event (in a physical location), make sure that you let your Facebook professional connections know about it. Give them as many details as possible so that they will want to attend the event. Chances are very good that if your professional connections are able to attend your event, they are local people. They may encourage some of their business connections to come along also. The more attendance your event gets, the better it is for your business. You have a great chance of continuing the relationships with those business connections if you have been able to interact with them at your event first. You will see that they will keep coming back to you to do business.

Offer online coupons: A good way to entice people to buy what you are selling is to post “online only” coupons on your wall for your products. The coupons should offer some appealing discount or bonus offer and the incentive will be that anyone who orders from your business’s Facebook page will be able to take advantage of the promotion. This will go a long way toward turning regular customers into loyal customers. You are expressing gratitude toward them for going above and beyond when it comes to following you. The strategy will strengthen the bond in your relationship.

Product research: The customers who target your business and become your fan on Facebook are probably much more interested in your business than average customers. Those people will be more than happy to provide you with feedback for your business that is valuable for your business. If you are thinking about either improving your existing products or investing in new products, you should think about sending a survey to your most dedicated fans to learn their opinions about it. This will give you very valuable insight into what your customers are thinking and what they would like your business to offer and it will also clearly communicate to them that their opinions, feelings and ideas are valued by you and your business.

Don’ts

There are certain etiquette rules that you must follow no matter which type of page you choose.

Don’t post on your wall numerous times a day: No matter what you are trying to market, don’t post numerous times on your wall. This will definitely annoy people more than intrigue them.

Friend requests and then some: You shouldn’t send out a friend request accompanied by information on your business. You should always keep your personal connections and your business connections separate.

Don’t ignore your fans: It is essential that people feel that you and your business are approachable and that feedback is welcomed and will be taken seriously. However, you need to be discriminating when it comes to responding to feedback. There is definitely a balance that you need to achieve when it comes to feedback response. You don’t want to ignore all of the comments that you receive. If you do that, before very long, people will stop paying attention to you and your business. You should consider which comments will help you to strengthen your reputation and exposure as a business owner and share your thoughts with others by responding to those comments. Your responses to feedback will generate content on your website (through discussions) and other people will respond to you. The more discussions occur, the more content will be generated and the more people will pay attention to you and your business.

Using a personal Facebook account for business

Some people see advantages in using a personal Facebook account for business. Here are some of the advantages:

You and your business will appear in people’s “Friend” lists instead of on the info tab under “Likes and interests.” This can potentially give you more opportunities to do business.

The personal Facebook account makes you appear more human and less business like. There are many people who will find this extremely appealing and will be more inclined to interact with you.

Conclusion

Whether you are more comfortable interacting through your personal Facebook account or your Facebook business page, it is very important to follow the appropriate rules of etiquette. You should state, up front, what your intentions are when you approach someone about connecting with them. In this world of social media, it doesn’t take a very long time or a great deal of effort for people to get annoyed by your interacting with them if you do it too frequently or too aggressively. You need to make sure that you are always sensitive to other people and that you are providing them with helpful and informative information that gives them exactly what they need and want in the quantity that is good and comfortable for them.

We are pleased to provide you with the insightful comments contained herein. Please contact us at CompuKol Communications for further discussion on how we might be able to assist you and your team.