Getting the Most Out of Your Business Facebook Communication
Facebook’s popularity has not stopped increasing. In fact, it is more popular than ever. Facebook is used by millions for personal communications and business people use it for greater success through targeted communications on their offerings.
Facebook definitely seems like it is here to stay. Businesses have gotten smart enough to realize that they need to leverage it for their own business as much as possible. The face of online communication is changing. In fact, in many situations, people have replaced Email communication with Facebook. However, it is not just about connecting. The specific messages that are communicated through Facebook are just as important as the use of the social media network itself and what is being communicated should be well thought out and customized to achieve maximum success for your business. Always remember to keep your messages short and to the point so that you hold the interest of your fans and you keep them wanting to come back for more and more.
What types of messages should you, as a business owner, be posting on Facebook?
- Content: If you want your business to become very successful through Facebook, a great way to do it is to share your content. If you are considered a subject matter expert (SME) in your niche or industry, distributing your content on a very regular basis and promoting discussions will eventually lead to people wanting to buy what you are selling.
- Questions and Answers: If you want answers, ask questions. Reach out to your Facebook fans and ask thought-provoking and fascinating questions. The answers to your questions will give you a good understanding of your fans as people, what they like to do, on what they like to spend their money and what excites them. As you receive more and more answers, you will start to identify patterns in how the fans respond and thus you will start to understand what engages them. Armed with that knowledge, you can make your Facebook messages much more effective and specific to the needs of your fans.
- Facts: Sharing industry-specific facts will intrigue your fans. People love trivia. Quick snippets of interesting information that take very little time to read and absorb are magnetic and you will pique everyone’s interest and they will want to read more and more from you. It is wonderful to share with people information that they didn’t know.
- Humor: Injecting humor into your Facebook messages, even though your messages is about business, is a terrific way to get people interested in what you have to say. Life is tough enough. Everyone really appreciates a break from their reality. Laughing (or even just smiling) offers a welcome feeling of relief. You can search for and share a joke about your industry or even make up some of your own jokes.
- Promotional deals: Free stuff, coupons, sweepstakes, contests, etc, are all good ways to entice fans. People love winning things and being given free things. Interacting with your fans through promotional deals is a great way to get to know them. Once you have worked several promotional deals, you will be able to gather data and recognize trends and patterns of what works and what doesn’t work. You can then apply that to future promotions, which will help your business to become even more successful.
- The simple approach: There are many situations where the simple approach is the most effective one. You may want to give the frequency of your communications some careful thought. Perhaps, your fans don’t want to be overwhelmed with receiving too much information from you in too short a time period. Another possibility is that your niche is not one where there is a great deal of discussion among people. This is where the simplistic messaging approach works very well. Short and direct messages will have a tremendous impact in that case.
Conclusion
Everyone understands the importance of using Facebook for business and more and more businesses are leveraging it as much as they can and striving to realize all that it has to offer. Taking it to the next level—specific messages—is just as important and is an essential part of the success of your business and your online strategy.
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 and don’t forget to “like” our Facebook page.
What a well-written and useful article.
I’d be interested in a consult to review my blog, and Facebook page. The clients I am trying to reach in particular are young, blue collar injured workers.
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Group: A Solo Business – Solopreneurs And Business Owners
Discussion: Getting the Most Out of Your Business Facebook Communication
I agree with you completely that by posting content, promotional deals and Q & A sections on Facebook is a great way to engage and entice your fans.
Posted by Adam Hommey
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Group: Professional Bloggers
Discussion: Getting the Most Out of Your Business Facebook Communication
Thanks for sharing. This encouraged and reminded me that Facebook is useful tool to connect to my audience – I just have to remember to use it!
Posted by Marie Holzer
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Group: Professional Bloggers
Discussion: Getting the Most Out of Your Business Facebook Communication
FB is my least favorite social networking site, but I use it because of exactly what you said. It is important. My favorite is Care2. I get most of my readers from that site. I also like LI!
Posted by Michele C. Hollow
A well written Blog. Thought provoking too.
You have the monopoly on useful ifnroatmion?aren’t monopolies illegal? 😉
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Group: Inbound Marketers – For Marketing Professionals
Discussion: Getting the Most Out of Your Business Facebook Communication
Great info there Michael, thank you. I absolutely agree with injecting humour. I think the key to fb marketing is be authentic. Social media is so different to other forms of advertising. You MUST be yourself. You're making connections with people based on you and your personality rather than your company or what it has to offer. Give value and ask questions to get feedback for a greater "viral" effect. The more people commenting on your page, the more people see it.
Posted by Lori Moore
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Group: Inbound Marketers – For Marketing Professionals
Discussion: Getting the Most Out of Your Business Facebook Communication
Well, off course you can increase the popularity and effectiveness of your website through fanpages at facebook, twitter and at linkedin, with teh help of facebook you can even start a complete marketing campaign …
Posted by Alexandra Brian
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Group: Inbound Marketers – For Marketing Professionals
Discussion: Getting the Most Out of Your Business Facebook Communication
Well done Michael. Very well written and easy for beginners to follow
Posted by Charlie Pankey
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Group: Inbound Marketers – For Marketing Professionals
Discussion: Getting the Most Out of Your Business Facebook Communication
First time I have used this so apologies if this is not right but facebook
fan pages need to offer your visitors a reason to become fans in the first
place .seems obvious but how do you do it like the big boyz
Posted by Tom Smart