As we see the ever growing demand for small businesses to engage in social media I decided to share some of what I’ve learned as it relates.  Here are 4 absolute must-do’s if you and your small business plan to be successful with a Facebook Fan Page.

1.  Have A Strategy

Entering into the land of building and maintaining a Facebook business page without a strategy is like etch-a-sketch; mildly entertaining but in the end pointless.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned working with businesses in building Facebook pages it’s that unless you know what you want to do with the page, it isn’t even worth making it.  All too often fan pages get built and then just sit there, the odd fan lingering around, just waiting for something to happen.

So whether your strategy is to attract new business through positive referrals, increase demand for a specific product you’re selling our just to remind those who you’ve dealt with previously that you still exist, be sure to come up with a game plan before lacing up your skates.

2.  Promote Your Page

Having a Facebook page without promoting it is like adding a new high margin item to your kitchen but not bothering to put it on the menu.  You should be doing all that you can to promote your newest marketing channel as it will be the most cost-effective long term marketing tool you have.  Adding a fan box to your website, running promotional offerings and/or giveaways to Fans as well as using a little Facebook Advertising are all really really good ways to start off.

3.  Understand Your Audience

As you embark on various parts of this journey you’re going to find that the more you know about your audience the better.  From utilizing Facebook’s hyper-targeted marketing right down to when you post the more you know about your fans the better.  Here’s an example: You own a pub and you’re wanting to promote something via a post.  Careful consideration should be given to when you post, as posting on a Friday night at 7pm will almost guarantee that the bulk of your fans will miss it.  They’re all out pubbing.  Now Sunday at 2pm would be a much better time as they’re all recuperating from good weekend checking out what their friends did!

4.  Engage

About the only thing more painful than the Facebook business page that doesn’t get used is the one that simply spouts out information about itself.  Whether you’re running a bar, shooting wedding photo’s or mowing lawns, the one thing that will set you apart from your competition will always be engaging with your customers.  Ask your fans questions, propose certain changes to your company, etc. people love to be involved.  The other item to note with regards to engaging your fans is that with the recent changes to the way Facebook displays news you’ll stand a much better chance of your fans seeing your posts if they’re interacting with you.

If you follow these 4 simple rules you’re sure to be off to a great start in the land of Facebook.  At 4CAST we ensure that all of our customers who sign up for our Social Media Start-up package get all of this as well as some valuable insights on what works and doesn’t here in Southern Alberta!

Thanks for reading, feel free to comment and if you like please retweet!

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Tags: facebook, facebook business page, lethbridge marketing, marketing, social media, social media lethbridge

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 at 8:50 am and is filed under social media marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.