In 2015, Facebook is not only the largest social network, it’s the second largest website right after Google. If you’re a small business owner, the chances are most of your customers are on Facebook.
Naturally, it’s quite crowded with advertisers and businesses looking to tap into this marketing channel.
However having a presence and sharing isn’t enough to acquire customers. For a business being active implies building a community around your service. And where there’s community, there’s a word of mouth as well as an opportunity to build a lasting relationship with your customers.
Building a community is about communicating and engaging with your customers. But how can you communicate in an engaging way while running a small business Page? Here are some of our tips:
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1. Ask for Advice
People love to answer questions and to help solve problems. Asking for advice is not only a great way to get valuable business feedback, it builds trust too.
If you can make your customers feel like they’re part of your business, they’ll feel more invested and more engaged. Naturally, they’re more likely to purchase your products as well.
2. Run a Poll or a Quiz
Running a poll is a more user-friendly way to ask for advice. People like polls, as they require little work and create a sense of curiosity to see how your answers compare with others.
In fact, polls and quizzes are among the most shared and viral types of content on Facebook!
People who are among your fans likely share some commonalities. In general, we all like to learn about what others think. At the end of the day, we’re social beings and how our ideas and opinions relate to the rest of our community matters to us, and is one of the prime reason behind driving social networks.
That’s why people like this kind of data. If the results confirm their worldview, they’re more likely to feel a sense of belonging and engagement.
But don’t just share plain statistical data, use compelling pictures and infographics to make it easier to stand out.
4. Invite People to a Webinar
A webinar is as close to a personal meeting as you can get over social media. This form of content is great to build trust and establishing the position of a thought leader.
At the same time, once you get your fans to participate in a webinar, it’s quite easy to make an offer and convert them into customers.
The webinar must be about something useful and related to a customer pain your product is trying to solve. At the end of the day, it is the virtue of value addition that will turn your fan into your customer.
5. Freebies
Everyone loves freebies. In fact, freebies are among the most shared content on Twitter and Facebook.
Thus, it’s a good idea to let users engage their friends and boost the virality of your freebie campaign. A great example is how Gary Vaynerchuk let’s users tag their friends.
Another great example are viral giveaways run by Appsumo. Every time you invite a friend, you get another entry in the contest. Thus, if you have an extra reason to share it with friends.
6. Funny Hater Email / Testimonial Compilation
We all get trolled sometimes, it is a common occurring in the world of social media where everyone comes equipped with the same superpower: access to an internet connection. However, in some cases a business can come across haters and trolls who can be surprisingly funny. The key strength, then, is to not freeze up and hide the feedback, but instead share this kind of comments with fans, making most of it.
7. Trending Topics
A sure way to engage your fans is to join a conversation about something they currently care about.
Facebook displays trending topics in the right navigation bar, so that’s a place to start. Trending shows you a list of topics and hashtags that have recently spiked in popularity on Facebook. This list is personalized based on a number of factors, including Pages you’ve liked, your location and what’s trending across Facebook.
However, for a business enterprise a more elaborate approach towards following current trends is via finding some relevant trends to your industry using tools like Google Trends or Buzzsumo.
8. PR Stunts
This is a great marketing tactic in general. Entrepreneurs like Richard Branson built billion dollar empires on the back of this marketing tactic. it’s more like saying: Do and show, don’t tell!
The best thing about it? It’s free (well, almost!) and can generate a lot more attention than any other marketing tactic.
A great consistently relevant example of a brand employing PR stunts is Red bull. Their PR campaigns are designed to WOW it’s customers and never fail to generate a lot of buzz.
9. Congratulations
Congratulate someone. Be a face of celebration. People love to join celebrations, even if it’s as trivial as clicking a ‘like’ button or posting a comment. It might be a colleague, a partner, a community member or even a trending celebrity who landed him/herself at a milestone worth raising a toast to.
Employee birthdays and company anniversaries are also a great topic to share.
10. Celebrate Holidays / Fridays
If your fans are regular people like you and me, they’re probably happy about Fridays and holidays. We all work hard and look forward to spending time with family and friends. One way of appreciating this bond of commonality is by celebrating the break.
Hey, but don’t just say something bland like ‘enjoy your day off,’ go an extra mile and share a funny picture or video.
11. Behind-the-Scenes Business Pics
Showing how your business operates builds a sense of trust. And trust is the single most important emotion that affects our buying decisions. People like to buy something they feel they know well.
But it’s not just your potential customers, your most hardcore fans will surely appreciate details about how your products are made and what’s the science behind the process.
12. Fun Office Pics
I hope your workplace isn’t boring or dull. Even if it is, I am sure there’s always a little room for laughter or fun. These are the moments showing your personality.
Personality is important because people love to buy from another people, not some inhuman corporations. Showing your human side is the best way to connect on a personal level.
13. Employee Interviews
Another great way to show your personality is to show off your employees. If you’re a restaurant, run an interview with your chef. If you’re a marketing agency, let your creative director share some valuable tips.
The best thing about this kind of content is that aside from making your brand look human, it can also contribute to your image of a thought leader.
As it is with the internet, there’s always something controversial going on. You can piggyback on it by reacting to some of these topics and offering an alternative view. This is a so-called ‘grenade.’ A marketing tactic that can generate a lot of buzz.
But don’t just say your opinion. Supports your stance with facts and evidence. The chances are people and media will pick it up and link to it.
Just be sure to avoid topics that can damage your reputation, such as politics or religion.
Apart from reacting to controversies, as a thought leader there’s surely a lot you have to say about the current business affairs. Especially if it’s something, your customers might benefit from.
If you’re running an e-commerce business, share a list of your highest sellers or top-rated products. If you’re a service provider, share a list of the products and tools beneficial for success in your business.
15. Ask Fans About Business Decisions
You can even ask your fans about some of your business decisions. E.g. launching a new product line? What kind of color would you prefer?
Not only can you show off your product, you can also get valuable and genuine customer feedback. Another important point is, that if your customers feel like they’re a part of your business, they’re more likely to purchase your products.
16. Photos of Your Products in Use
Showing your product in use is one of the best ways to take on board new customers as well as to explain your value proposition.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be just about selling. Show the use of your products in a creative way. Basically, just show!
17. Viral Content from the Web
Just as it is with trending topics, build upon the hype of viral videos and pictures spreading across the web.
Obviously, you want to be among the first ones who shares it, so don’t forget to monitor what’s going on in that space.
18. Customer Testimonial Videos
I guess this is a no-brainer. What’s surprising is how few actually do this. Your satisfied customers are your best salespeople. Take some time to invest in gathering testimonials and even creating videos with customers praising your product.
At the end of the day, do people like to hear about the product from a salesperson or another customer like they are? This is the best form of social proof.
19. Quote Pictures
We all need a bit of inspiration from time to time. Sharing inspiring quotes and motivational messages is something that keeps your brand’s human side prominent.
They’re also easy to share- which implies greater virality potential, and stand out in the feed because of their format.
20. Run a Q&A and Post a Video Answering
Another great way to connect is to let Page audience ask questions they’re interested in. It doesn’t have to be strictly product related. In fact, it should be something they care about, and you can answer from the position of a thought leader.
A great example here is a book author Tim Ferriss. His books are about lifestyle and productivity so he let’s his fans ask for advice and then posts a video answering them.
21. Ask to Tag a Person
This is quite typical for Instagram but works great on Facebook as well. Just post a photo and ask people to tag their friends.
How? For example, post a photo on Valentine’s day and invite people to tag their loved ones. Or inspirations quote about friendships to tag their best friends.
Incentivizing such a simple call to action boosts engagement. E.g. give some prize or a freebie to a random winner.
22. Ask a Hypothetical Question
Such as ‘would you_ if you could.’ The even better strategy is to let people fill in the blanks. It minimizes the effort, so people are more likely to engage.
23. Food Pics and Vacation Tips
We’re not really sure what makes food and vacation tips so popular, but it is the most shared content across all social media networks.
So next time you take your colleagues to a restaurant, don’t forget to take a pic of your gourmet burger.
Now Over to You
As you can see, we have shared here definite traffic driving, yet inexpensive post practices exercised by big brands as well.
Over the years Facebook has evolved at a tremendous pace. Now that it’s a public company it’s more biased towards advertising, and naturally they have to grow revenue. In practice that means Facebook wants you to pay for promoting your content.
This means your content has to be EXTRA juicy so that you can capitalize on the “Share” feature. The more the audience respond to your posts, the greater is the chance of your posts having a greater reach.
According to a study by SocialBakers, you can expect your posts to reach between 3-4% of your fans. Native video shows the best reach (8-9%) but in any case, you should have some kind of budget set out to boost some of your posts. Pick the ones you know resonate the most with the audience type you want connected to your brand.
Another point to bear in mind is to have a goal aligned with your strategy. Do you want to increase sales, engagement or brand awareness? All of these goals require a slightly different approach.
Now over to you, what are some great post ideas that we forgot about? Is there anything you tried that worked really well? Share it!
And hey, don’t forget to make use of the social sharing buttons bellow!
