Getting traction with your Facebook business page can be a nightmare. It often feels like you’re throwing everything against the wall to see what sticks. You might be draining hours trying to come up with creative posts that no one sees. And what’s the point anyway… will your Facebook page bring you any business? It can!
One of the best parts of running a Facebook business page is the ability to boost posts and set up Facebook ads. For certain businesses, Facebook ads can be a game changer. Plus you can set really low budgets and easily see how each ad/post performs.
But before you start running ads, you need some content on your page, and ideally that content has people engaging with it. So how can you proactively reach people through Facebook, and how can you get more organic reach per post?
1. Engage as your Facebook Page.
My number one recommendation: spend time engaging with other business pages and on Facebook groups. The more you can serve people (and be seen serving people), the more people will know, like and trust you. I recommend building a pages feed on your Facebook business page and joining several relevant Facebook groups as your business page (aim for 2-4 groups you can be super active on). If you’re giving people great advice and insight, they may check out your page and follow you there.
2. Allocate budget to boosted posts/Facebook ads.
Facebook wants people to use the platform to connect with other individuals, so recent algorithm changes have de-prioritized Facebook business pages. You might have seen your engagement go down. They’re increasingly pushing business pages to boost posts or buy ads to have their content delivered to people. It’s a pay-to-play model these days, so I recommend spending at least $10-20/month on Facebook ads or boosted posts to help get your reach up.
3. Ask your followers to chime in.
Give your followers an invitation to engage with your content. Ask a question at the end of the post, use a fill-in-the-blank question/statement, or encourage people to tag their friends (“tag someone who keeps you accountable” etc.)
4. Keep an eye on your analytics.
In your Facebook insights tab, check out which types of posts are performing best, and take a look at the type of post (video vs. photo vs. link vs. plain text, etc.) as well as the content itself. Shift your post type/content based on this data. Check out what time people are engaging with your content post and schedule posts at that time. I recommend looking at post insights over a few month timeline instead of just one week or month at a time to see what does well over time.
5. Once you find what works, work it.
If a blog post you share does really well, craft a few more posts to share about it in the following weeks or months. Consider creating a short video or graphic highlighting a point or two from it. There are many ways to use one piece of content, and if it’s something that’s already resonated with your audience, chances are good that it’ll resonate again.
6. Think quality over quantity.
You don’t have endless time to plan out Facebook posts. You should prioritize high quality, compelling, service-based posts, even if this means you’re posting less often. For most of my clients, I recommend posting just 2-3 times a week. Businesses often find that focusing on high quality posts and posting less often increases engagement per post.
7. Post videos directly to Facebook… and make use of Facebook Live.
Facebook’s algorithm is constantly changing, but for the past couple years the platform has really prioritized video content. Posting directly to Facebook rather than embedding a YouTube or Vimeo link is best — these videos will auto-play as people scroll through your news feed. Even better is doing a Facebook Live — it’s not for everyone, but if you’re into it, it’s worth doing a couple times a month. Facebook saves your live videos so people can watch them later too. Be sure you’re using good titles and descriptions (think keywords!) and tagging your Facebook videos too.
