Facebook for Business had a fabulous training course in Port Charlotte, Florida last week. Here are
Powerful Tips for using Facebook and Instagram for your Business
Brand Awareness
- For brand awareness you need a business facebook page which you can set up after you have a personal facebook page. To advertise your products or services you need a facebook business page. Advertising cannot be done from a personal page.
- Once you have created a business page, make sure you fill in all the elements. Then it is easy for potential customers to connect with you directly through your facebook business page. Your fans can connect with you through messenger right from your business page and you can respond to them quickly. Here’s how: https://www.facebook.com/business/learn/lessons/facebook-business-page-tour?course_id=1033687366962558&curriculum_id=809171499485562
- Once you have a business page on facebook, post organically on your business page, ie your blog posts, videos, podcasts etc. and then share those same items to your personal page for more widespread organic reach. You can organically grow your facebook business page by posting links to this page in other facebook business groups. If you have employees make sure they are liking your business page and sharing it with their facebook friends.
- You can also pin a “welcome” message post to the top of your business page to make it more inviting to your new followers.
- Add Store Hours, Location and connect
- Add a Call to Action Button underneath your cover picture to direct them to your website or message you
- Instagram can help your business grow but it is a different type of platform that is more visual than facebook. The same applies to Instagram as facebook. In order to advertise on Instagram you need to set up an Instagram business page after you have set up a personal profile for your business. In the bio on Instagram there is only room for one link to your website, but using an app called Linktree https://linktr.ee/ you can then direct people to different segments, ie your business shop or business courses.
Advertising on Facebook
- Choose an objective
- Choose an audience, are they local, or doesn’t it matter?
- Choose a format
- Set up a budget
- Measure your ad response
In choosing an object for your ad, what are you trying to achieve?
- Increase brand awareness
- Promote your app
- Increase online business
- Promote your local business
- Generate leads
- Retargeting people who have already gone to your website
Ads also include video ads and ads optimized for mobile. Don’t forget before people will buy from you, they want to know, like and trust you. Your first ad needs to have this in mind. What can you offer them for free to get them started before you sell your product/service? To see how various facebook ads have been used by businesses, take a look at these success stories. You don’t need an elaborate series of ads to be successful, you just have to target the right audience with the right message! https://www.facebook.com/business/success/categories/small-business
Choosing your Facebook ad audience
- Gender (male/female/both?)
- Age Group
- Geography (region, country, state, city or postal code)
- Interests/behaviours
- People who like your page and their friends
Don’t make the audience too wide or you may be casting the net to far afield and therefore very few responses to your ads.
Connecting on Instagram
Once you have your business Instagram account set up, decide what you want people to know about your business. Next create a few visual posts at least nine to start an initial grid of images. You can design your pictures using a free or paid version of Canva. Make sure to select the Instagram templates so that all your posts are square.
You can create your pictures in Canva on your desktop, if you find that easier and then using the Canva app on your phone you can download your finished graphic to your phone photo album and then share the graphic to Instagram. Or if you don’t have time to create and post in real time, there are always scheduling tools such as HooteSuite, Buffer and PromoRepublic to take care of that for a monthly fee.
If you are using Instagram “stories” your post is only going to last 24 hours, therefore you want to choose the most popular time of day that your fans would be online. That would depend on the demographics of your audience. Use Instagram ‘posts’ if you want it to last longer on your feed.
If you have a storefront, you can always capture with your phone interesting pictures of your staff, your products or your customers (if you have their permission!)
Create compelling captions
- Keep captions brief and interesting.
- Incorporate a few hashtags. We recommend a maximum of three if you are using “stories” so they don’t detract from the simplicity of the post, more if you are using “posts”. There are a free hashtag apps for your phone that will give you the popular hashtags by topic.
- Ask questions to engage people.
- Tag your location to reach more people in your area.
Facebook Pixel
And last of all, what is the facebook pixel all about? A facebook pixel is a few lines of code from Facebook that you copy into the header section of your website. This code allows the pixel to receive information about the actions taken on your website to make your Facebook ads more relevant to your audience. Here’s how it works
- Install the pixel in the code on your website
- Receive insights about visitors to your website, like where traffic is coming from, the devices people use to connect to your page and other demographic information
- It also shows the actions visitors take on your website like what they purchase and which pages they view
- The Facebook pixel also allows you to keep track of actions that happen on your website as a result of a paid Facebook ad or free organic reach. This helps you analyze your Facebook ad conversions
To install a facebook pixel on your website there are two ways to do it. If you have a wordpress website you can install a plugin to do this easily for you. If you have another kind of website, you need to go to “Events Manager” on facebook and click on Pixels. Here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/business/learn/lessons/tips-to-create-and-install-facebook-pixel?ref=ahc_lwe 
Thank you Facebook for the fabulous training in Port Charlotte and for the SWAG bags….so cool!
if you want to learn more, there are a series of courses at facebook.com/blueprint.
If you need help setting up your facebook or instagram business pages we are happy to help. We can also manage all your business social media posts using Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin and facebook. Need a landing page on your website for your ad offer, we can create that too! Connect with us for a half hour complimentary video call.