Now that you have established your Facebook business page as a hub for people who have interests related to your products and services, you should be engaging in social interactions with your fans on a regular basis. Perhaps you own a ski shop, and a customer shares that her recent purchase made her trip even more enjoyable.
Maybe you operate a farm-to-table restaurant, and a customer asks what’s growing in your restaurant garden. In these instances, it is rather easy to see that gratitude for your customers’ interest and comments would foster their continued connection to your business. Following some generally accepted rules of etiquette can help you to navigate the overall Facebook landscape, which isn’t always as clear-cut.
Once you start posting updates on your business page, take a look at where they fall in the news feed. Showing general awareness of the context of your message is an indication to fans that you are part of the Facebook community and not just using a page as a web marketing tool. Your posts will show up in the same feed that contains family photos, humor, and updates from friends, so they needs to resonate with fans and offer value.
At the same time, make sure that the conversations you initiate are genuine, and that you aren’t posting as if you were one of their friends. Let’s return to the farm-to-table restaurant. It would be much more engaging to share a special appetizer you will be featuring that evening, perhaps with a photo of one of the ingredients being picked, than to ask if they had a nice weekend. Your customers will appreciate valuable information and an attractive photo, and they might even share it with their friends, thus extending your reach.
While you have established a Facebook page to support your business, heavily pushing products and services can be boring and downright annoying to some fans. More valuable approaches balance your business needs with the intention to build relationships with customers. Certainly provide information about your business, but also consider your customers’ needs broadly and aim to serve as a resource. Repeating the same hard sell in status updates is a lazy approach that might even lead to your posts being shown to fewer people over time.
When it comes to using Facebook for your business, proper etiquette is important for interactions with your fans, and it might even help you avoid a decline in organic reach. The Facebook algorithm is designed to identify high quality content that is likely to lead to engagement and to show this content in news feeds. It takes into account multiple factors including the credibility of the source, whether the content is likely to be shared, and whether the source is simply pressing people for likes as opposed to being genuinely interesting. If your posts are relevant and engaging, you will build credibility with your customers and send the message that your content is valuable enough to include in the news feeds of more people. If you need help managing your Facebook page, talk to one of our experts at Premiere Creative or give us a call at (973) 346-8100.