Facebook for business, really?
Yeah, really!
Did you know that Facebook is considered to be “the largest social network in the world with 500 million active users of whom 50% log in on a daily basis”1?
“At 1.49 billion, Facebook has more monthly active users than WhatsApp (500 million), Twitter (284 million) and Instagram (200 million) — combined.2“
Then, is it any wonder Facebook is a MUST HAVE lead generator for business?
However, businesses need not spend many hours on Facebook like, say, an average active user would, else you would be wasting precious time needed to generate income for you business. Why you ask?
Well, over the past few years (2012 to 2014 to be more precise) organic reach for the average Facebook fan page dropped from 16% to 6.5% (http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/facebook-declining-organic-reach). And, “according to a Social@Ogilvy analysis of more than 100 brand pages, organic reach hovered at 6%, a decline of 49% from peak levels in October”3 2013. While other studies claim an even greater loss for organic reach.
I have heard it said that Facebook fan pages are lucky if they have a 10-12% reached on average for any status update or post you create … meaning that nearly 90% of the your Facebook friends who like your fan page don’t even see you status updates or posts.
So, as a business posting on Facebook, do NOT waste hours browsing through numerous posts shared by others. Personally, I like to use an egg timer set for 20 minutes for all social media accounts. Now that’s all the time used for sharing and answering comments made to posts that I have shared.
There are several techniques you can use to gain what is called EdgeRank. This means that the more fans that interact with you on your business fan page the more your posts will appear in their Facebook news feed.
Know too that responding quickly to messages left for you, will also work in your favour.
The easiest way to get your fans to interact with your fan page is by posting engaging content … or you can simply ignore this and suffer your fan page posts being totally ignored.
Personally, I like to quickly scan my personal Facebook news feed for positive quotes on images (or create them myself) or positive videos (preferences for short videos with cute animals) to share, being sure to thank the poster (tagging them using only their first name) for sharing. I have found this to be a very successful way to gain interaction from, at the very least, the friend who original posted or shared the media.
This technique I learned from simply watching how others with business fan pages were creating posts. My business fan page has GAINED fans generically since using this method.
It seems that most humans tend to prefer visual content, so make the most of this fact … and, be sure to always ask you fans to share your posts!
This tip might help you
Six aspects of engagement that I have been advised to use in my Facebook fan page posts are: positive posts, controversy, videos, images, topical status updates, and negative posts.
For myself, I prefer to NEVER share or post negative posts … and sparingly on controversy posts. Reason being is I don’t have the time to respond to the THOUSANDS of (possibly nasty) comments that these types of posts would … could cause. And I would dread any potential backlash.
For your ease in sharing, you can schedule your Facebook fan page status updates or post … here’s how:
- Select an image (or a link to a post or a video if you prefer) and drag n’ drop it into your fan page status update text box.
- Using the down arrow beside the Publish button, select Schedule from the drop down list
- Change the day and time you wish your post to appear and then click on the Schedule button.
… and then your post will be scheduled to appear.
Some say it is best to schedule posts for mornings from 6:00 am to 8:00 am, lunch time from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm and after work hours from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Though, if you check your Facebook fan page Posts, you will be able to determine the best time of day … and, day of the week, that your fans are online most.
Checking my one fan page, it seems my fans are on pretty much steadily from 9:00 am (10:00 am being the peak time) to 9:00 pm … and, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays being the most frequented.
As a business, the best advice I can offer you is to spend your time on social media wisely and always share or post quality content.
You need to know that a focused email list will gain you much more attention to what you have to say than your time spent on Facebook.
I would love to hear your comments … good or bad … on what I have shared here. Please comment below … and be sure to share.
Sources
1 https://blog.kissmetrics.com/facebook-statistics/
2 https://zephoria.com/top-15-valuable-facebook-statistics/
3 https://social.ogilvy.com/facebook-zero-considering-life-after-the-demise-of-organic-reach/
Credit for Header: image by Kvarki1 Vertically flipped version of Facebook like thumb.png 19 December 2012, 00:39:42
This is very interesting- I knew that facebook was popular, but, wow! I too struggled to build up a fan base, but then I discovered that it was because I was posting all these cute pictures and captions but I wasn’t engaging. I wasn’t interacting with other people’s posts within my niche!
So I started doing that-this week actually! And low and behold I have lots of page likes!!!
I also discovered a tool where you can embed your page feed into your website and people can like it from there. Genius!
Users can like my page without leaving my site!
The trouble is getting users to interact with my own content. Nobody comments on my posts 🙁
Thank YOU Emma, for taking the time to comment. Many of us are in such a hurry to learn as much as we can with what little time is left of our day, we truly have to be careful not to waste a lot of time on social media. Have you tried offering a free ebook on your website’s topic? That MIGHT help intrigue some into leaving a comment or two.