In our last post, we covered the new Facebook Graph Search, which is quickly revolutionizing the way people search for businesses on the web. Today, we’ll focus on what business owners need to be doing in order to be web-accessible to the modern day Facebook user.
Facebook has set up a free system for creating business pages on its social media platform. While it’s tempting to set up your own page and update accordingly, hiring a social media professional to assist you with the task will yield better results. The Graph Search feature is changing the game for businesses. Although, without a Facebook Page, your business may still show up in users’ searches as a “place” (due to check-ins by other users), it’s likely that your business will come in at the bottom of the list.
A social media professional will be able to generate and maintain interest in your business, which is one of the primary ranking factors for the Facebook Graph Search. You’ll need a vibrant, growing page to attract users with consistent updates and upbeat, informative posts. Working with a marketing team will give you access to a better campaign and Facebook provides its own analytics so you can easily monitor results.
Using someone who has expertise in Facebook and SEO is the ideal situation. Since Facebook Graph Search is ultimately a form of search engine, SEO companies with social media experience will be able to easily adapt to the task of creating an effective, results driven campaign.
When hiring a social media expert, you’ll want the company or individual to provide a comprehensive proposal. This should include a plan of action, examples of posts and topics, and creative of images that will be shared on the Facebook page. It should also include the budget for the marketing campaign. Facebook has its own system advertising and campaigning with pages. There are different CTR(click through rates) depending on area, terms, and size of audience. In addition, there are tools like “Promote” which allow you to push an important update onto more users.
Making yourself familiar with Facebook’s marketing features will help when choosing someone to run your campaign. After you approve a proposal, make sure your representative signs a contract about content, as anything offensive can and will be removed by Facebook. Also, request that copies of Facebook Insights be shared with you every month. In order to gain access to Insights, your page must have 30+ likes. If your professional can’t achieve this status, it’s time to find a new page manager. In order to ensure your page will remain in your ownership after a change of hands, insist on having an administrator role. Just make sure you stay out of the way and leave the posting to the trusted professional.