2nd April 2013 ©Copyright – Martin Reynolds

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8 Facebook Tips for the Small Business Owner

1. When setting up your Facebook business page make sure that your vanity URL is available – this is your Username and can only be changed once, by changing it to something more simple you are making it easier for the search engines and visitors to find you, plus it is easier to use on all your promotional and marketing material.

2. Once you have 30 Likes you have access to Facebook Insights - make the most of this as this gives you valuable information on your target audience and when and what to post at the best time of the day on the best day of the week.

3. Be careful with your Cover Photo – it is vital that you DO NOT place a Call-to-action on your cover photo, this includes a web address, phone number or anything like “Buy Now” or “Like Us”. Facebook can and will suspend pages that break these conditions.

4. Make use of the “Pin” and “Highlight” features – these enable you to Pin an important post to the top of your Timeline for up to a week or Highlight any important posts within your Timeline. Try Highlighting a post to see what happens.

5. Facebook have recently added a “Reply” button to Facebook Pages – this is valuable as you and others can reply to an individual post on your Timeline instead of a reply being added to the bottom of the whole conversation, this gives it a more of a Forum feel and the conversation begins to make far more sense! The main benefit of this as far as I can see is that anyone asking a question can see a reply directly underneath their post rather than trawling through the whole thread.

6. Be visual – Photographs and videos have a far higher response rate and encourage`s engagement. They also stand out against a whole screen of text posts so make the most of images.

7. Be consistent – Just adding a post once a month or even once a week isn`t going to give you much return, be consistent and post regularly but on the other hand don`t go mad and post 20 posts straight off and then do nothing for the rest of that week! Be consistent, be helpful, be interesting and forget the sales pitch! The time to sell will come but build up that trust and relationship first.

8. Respond everytime – Answer everything, even if it is negative or criticism. If you just ignore it there will be many others that will see this and it will not reflect very well on you or your business. Likewise if you attempt to help a unhappy customer resolve their problem many will see that you are prepared to help and listen to your customers.