No matter the type of business you have, your customers are on social media. That’s not likely to change—in fact, over the coming years, there will be even more of them active on social networks.
If your business can offer consumers interesting content, they’ll remember your name. If your business can offer them something they want or need, at the right time, then you’ll have struck relevancy gold. Whether you’re just getting started or already on social, it’s important to make sure your channels work hard for your business.
For businesses of all sizes, there is no denying the importance of social behemoth, Facebook. With 1 billion daily active users on Facebook, it’s an audience business owners can’t afford to miss.
Facebook recently announced they were redesigning the pages of the 80 million businesses on the platform. The changes come after years of patchy visibility of business page posts among user News Feeds and are part of Facebook’s efforts to provide increased utility to users. The goal is to make business pages more useful to customers, not just the businesses that run them. Here is an overview of the changes:
- Useful information is highlighted: As a consumer, have you ever visited a Facebook business page and struggled to find the information or features you need? Whether it’s a “call now” button, appointment setting feature or services, business page features that are useful to customers are now given prominence. You can also now see “Stories” on Pages to learn more about your favorite businesses.
- Mobile first: According to Sprout Social, the average consumer spends five hours per day on his or her mobile device. And 19% of that time is spent on Facebook. With that in mind, Facebook redesigned pages on mobile to make it easier for consumers to interact with local businesses via their cell phones.
- Meaningful reviews: If you run a business, and have a Facebook business page, you’ve likely experienced the wrath of the 1-star review with no comment left. Of course, the opposite also happens in the form of the coveted 5-star review—also with no commentary. One good, one not so much—but neither provides great utility to other consumers. What’s so great or not so great about the business? Facebook recognized this challenge, and in an effort to make reviews and recommendations more useful, they now require a 25-character minimum for all reviews.
Roll with the Changes
At Vivial, we have been working with businesses to leverage these latest changes to Facebook. Our team of dedicated social media managers has been on the front lines and have the following tips for businesses navigating the new Facebook landscape:
- Basic information is key: This likely goes without saying, but make sure your business’ social media profile is completely filled out. Customers need to know the essentials—including your website URL, location, hours and contact information.
- Take advantage of services: Facebook changed the layout to services, making it easier for businesses to clearly demonstrate all of their offerings. Be sure to utilize this functionality to let consumers know exactly what your business does.
- Tell your story: Let your audience get to know you better by telling your company story. With the new pages, businesses can provide a detailed account of their history, product offerings, staff and more.
- Don’t hide behind reviews: Facebook has become a leading source of online business reviews. Now customers are required to leave a comment when recommending a business—no matter the rating. Businesses should use this in one of two ways: reward loyal brand fans or nurture dissatisfied customers.
In addition to embracing these changes, it is critical for businesses to continue to focus on delivering highly relevant and engaging content to their audiences on Facebook. Don’t post mindlessly but do make sure your content is engaging. How do you know what content is engaging? Pay attention to what kinds of posts see regular comments, shares and interactions. It’s also important to create a diversified content mix to ensure you’re building brand loyalty.
It is important to remember that there is such a thing as “too much of a good thing.” Posting too much of the same content, even if it garners strong engagement isn’t a strategy that we recommend. This can go wrong in a few different ways, the first being that the content may fatigue as your followers grow weary of seeing it repeatedly. Even if your engagement does remain high, you may find your business pigeonholed into a very narrow view as your followers forget about the other things your business does.
Using Facebook metrics to determine what types of content are resonating with your followers is just one part of getting your posting cadence right—timing is just as important. You don’t want to be posting every hour on the hour as that could feel like spam to your followers.
Once you know what to post, it’s important to do so consistently. Businesses that have steady and reliable streams of new content along with pertinent information and services have a great potential for developing trust with their audience.
The recent changes to Facebook pages are a good thing for the businesses who leverage them properly. Following these best practices and continuing to stay on the cutting edge when it comes to your Facebook strategy will set the stage for continued growth and engagement for your business.
