A lot of people have a Facebook page but not everyone is using it in the most optimal way. Why do you need to make the best use of your Facebook page? Facebook is still the biggest player in the social media game. Some people will tell you there are no millennials on Facebook anymore, but they’re wrong. Facebook is overwhelmingly popular and the millennials are still there. People are spending a little over 2 hours per day on social media and Facebook is the most used platform with over 2 billion active monthly users. 92% of consumers make buying decisions based on social media. So, do you really need to be on Facebook? Yeah, you really do. You need to make sure your page is doing all it can to promote your business effectively. Let’s break it down into 2 parts: what you need on your page and how to get found.

What You Need On Your Page:

Great Cover Video

Yes, you can have a cover image and those are great but ideally, you want to have a video. What my business does isn’t super exciting to watch. It’s just us sitting in front of our computers. Not really great for video. It’s not like we have a super cool retail store and we can show our super cool products. Instead, we had to get creative, so we put together a video featuring client testimonials and the services we offer. It’s very simple and it’s been seen about 3,000 times. Does video work? It absolutely does. Who can tell your story better than you? Nobody. If you have the opportunity to be filmed in action, all the better. 

If for some reason you just can’t use video, make sure you have excellent cover art. With all of the free programs available for creating graphics, there is no excuse for not having high-quality cover art. Seriously, this is the first thing your customer sees when they come to your page so you want to make sure it’s working for you. 

A URL That Matches Your Page Name

This is a very common problem that is super frustrating. If your URL is JoeSellsRealEstate then your Facebook page can’t be JoeSmith. You’re making yourself impossible to find. Your business name needs to match up to your actual Facebook page name. 

Complete Your Info, Including Your Story

Make sure you use all of the descriptions that you can. Fill out all the information. Make sure your contact information is listed and correct. It’s surprising how many businesses don’t list a phone number. Come on! Old people (like me) love to pick up the phone and call when we have questions. You need to have a number available. You need a phone number, website, email, and anything else pertinent to finding you. You want it to be easy to work with you and streamline that process for your end-user. 

There is a great area for your mission statement and your about section. You want to use it all. Your story is a great place to put your company story and what you bring to the table for your clients. Your mission statement has limited space but your story doesn’t. Fill that space with keyword-rich information that makes you searchable. 

Don’t forget to add your hours of operation and your price range. You can also add your privacy policy if you have one. Many small business owners have the mindset that they work all the time but you really want to set an expectation about what is appropriate for your business. I think it’s completely ok to not want to be called at 8:00 at night. It’s also completely acceptable to set pricing expectations. If you are cost-effective, you want to tell people. If you are more expensive, don’t waste their time and your time if you’re not a good fit for their budget. If you’re a real estate agent specializing in luxury property, let people know that up front so they don’t make the mistake of thinking you can sell them a starter home for $65,000. Let people know where you stand. It will save you and them both time and heartache in the long run.

Contact Button

Make sure your “Contact Us” button is completely filled out. If you look at your cover art, there’s a section right underneath that is a button. Normally it says “Contact Us” but it can say “Learn More”, “Email”, or “Call Me” depending on how you want people to respond. I can’t tell you how many audits we’ve done for clients where that information is dead wrong. It may be an old email or an old phone number. That’s a problem. However you want people to get in touch with you should be the destination of that button. 

Get Reviews

There are people who love you, who buy your stuff, who have bought your stuff and they want to tell other people to buy your stuff. Make sure you have your reviews in a public place. People believe third-party endorsements. If you don’t believe me, go look on Amazon. People will buy from the person with the most reviews and highest ranking. They like to hear what other people think about products. You can take those reviews and use them in your future marketing materials. You can post them on your other social media platforms. It’s great to have awesome reviews. A lot of times the only thing standing between you and a really great review is asking for it. It’s totally ok to send out a follow-up email that says “Thank you so much for your business. If you’re happy with your services, here’s a link to leave us a review on Facebook.” Ask. Most people are happy to do it.

Check Your Page Settings

You have a profanity filter. You have a country filter. You have auto-responder options. There are several settings available that most people don’t take advantage of. If you don’t want someone in New Zealand to contact you because you don’t ship internationally, restrict your page to being visible only in this country. Profanity isn’t something most business owners want on their page, so set your profanity filter so that if someone uses that language it won’t be seen.  If you only check your Facebook messages once per day you may want to set up an auto-responder that lets people know you will be in touch within 24 hours and how to proceed if they need a faster response. The easiest thing to do is just go into the general settings and read down the list. Make sure it’s set up the way you want.

Facebook Pages Manager

Facebook Pages Manager is an app for your phone that separates your personal Facebook and your business Facebook pages. This makes it much easier to tell which notifications are for your personal page and which ones are for your business page so that none of your business page notifications fall through the cracks. You can keep up with your business without getting caught up in the personal side. 

How to Get Found

There are really just a few ways to increase your organic search capabilities on Facebook. Let’s dive into those now. 

Combine Your Business Name with a Keyword

Ideally, your business name will actually say what you do. Let’s go back to our example from earlier. John Sells Real Estate is a great business name because it tells people exactly what you do. This can be a huge struggle if the name of your company isn’t clear. It needs to be clear to everyone, not just to you. For instance, if your business name is Career Expectations that’s not super clear. What am I buying from you? Are you a career coach? Are you a headhunter that will help me find a job? Maybe you’re a consulting business that helps other businesses retain employees. Try to avoid that kind of confusion whenever you can. If you can build those keywords into your page name you will help people find you easier. Keep in mind that you can change your Facebook page name from time to time if necessary but you can never change your username so make sure you start with a name that you love and that totally works for you. It really needs to be that branded URL that is the same across all the platforms. 

Build Keywords and Phrases into Your About Section, Story, and Content

Take a look at your Google Analytics and figure out how people are getting to you. You might be surprised at some of the keywords people are using to find you. Use this information to create a hit list for yourself. JoeSellsRealEstate may find out that people are finding him by searching “Homes for sale in Birmingham”, “luxury homes in Birmingham”, and “Best Birmingham Homes”. Whatever those phrases and keywords are need to be built into his story and content so people can find him easily. Facebook allows searches on any keyword. Facebook has it’s own search engine so if I go into Facebook and search “luxury homes in Birmingham” any content, such as a post or story, that has that phrase is going to pop up. It allows you to search for pages, people, posts, photos, and more. So if someone is searching posts and you have a home listing posted with the phrase “luxury home in Birmingham” it’s going to show up. 

Google and Facebook don’t like playing in the same sandbox. While this is true, they’re kind of being forced to now. Google can see the keywords on your Facebook page. When you build those words in it just makes it so much easier to find you. 

Post Great Content and Engage

You want to make sure that you’re posting great content and responding to everything. You may have heard that Facebook’s algorithm is changing AGAIN. It is and part of the reason is they are constantly trying to force out the spammy clickbait content. They are ranking your content based on the engagement it receives. Quality content receives engagement. Make sure your content is engaging and then respond to each person who engages with you. You spend so much time building your following and creating good content, so respond to each person who comments. The more engagement a post has, the more likely Facebook will show it to other people. If someone says they love your post, respond with a simple thank you. It doesn’t have to be a big, complicated soliloquy. It just needs to be completed. People want to know that they’re heard. Why would anyone engage with you on a regular basis if you’re not going to talk back to them? Use mentions whenever you can. Mention another page or tag another user. Share whenever you can. 

Create Your Own Branded Content

If you are creating your own graphics, blog, and other content then it needs to be branded. Don’t waste your time using someone else’s picture. Post your own stuff and brand it. It needs to have your logo on it. If you want to see a great example of branding check out our Instagram page. Our team does a great job of this. One glance at our page and you immediately know it’s ours. The colors are there. The logo is there. It stands out. 

Video, Baby

Video is a great way to be found on Facebook. Facebook loves video. They give it a much higher ranking and allow more people to see it. They will suggest more information based on your engagement. If you can’t go live that’s ok, but put your face in front of your audience. It helps people feel more connected to you. It helps with your branding. It also helps with your message because nobody knows your information better than you do. Video is going to help you. Live is awesome but any video is great because it helps your statistics and your organic growth. 

Give Your Facebook Page a Checkup

Now that you know what your page needs and how to get found, the last step is to implement this knowledge. Give your business page a checkup today and make it work as effectively as possible for you.