So, you’ve built a social media marketing foundation. That’s great, but let’s take things to the next level.
Today, we’re going to talk about how to improve your Facebook performance to get more followers, build engagement and drive traffic to your website.
If you’re just getting started on Facebook (or social media in general) or if you need a refresher, we have a post for that too. Check out this post to learn how to get started on social media.
Let’s start with goals.
How to Determine Your Facebook Marketing Goals
One of the first steps to gaining more followers and improving engagement is to determine your goals.
Every business has different goals, but I'm betting that you want more likes/followers, more engagement and more sales or traffic to your website. Those are the goals we are going to work on in this blog post.
Goal #1: Get More Facebook Followers/Likes
Everyone wants more followers, right? I probably don’t need to tell you why you need more Facebook followers, but just in case you didn’t know, followers and likes build trust with people who research your Facebook Page before choosing a business.
AdEspresso probably says it best. To quote them:
More likes = more trust = more purchases
As your business grows, your Facebook followers will probably naturally grow too. However, there are plenty of things you can do to get more followers on Facebook!
Here are a few ways to get there.
Facebook “Like” Campaigns.
You’ve probably seen a Facebook “like” campaign before. A “like” campaign is exactly what it sounds like — an ad campaign on Facebook with the specific goal of helping you find more people who are interested in your business and getting those people to like your Page.
“Like” campaigns allow you to pay per 1,000 impressions or per like.
It’s common to target either custom audiences or interest-based audiences but it’s probably best to leave this to the social media advertising pros. Otherwise, you could end up wasting money by targeting the wrong people.
Invite people who have already liked your Facebook posts to like your Facebook Page.
This is so easy, and it tends to work since the people you are inviting are already interested in your business.
Here’s how to invite people who have liked your posts to like your Page:
- Go to a recent post.
- Click/tap the list of people who have liked (or reacted to) your post.
- You'll see a screen that says "Invite to like [your Page]." Mine says "Invite to like RevLocal."
- See where it says invite? Click/tap that and start inviting.
If you have Facebook Pages Manager on your phone, you can do this at night until you fall asleep and drop your phone on your face. Or not. Up to you. We all have different hobbies, I guess.
Seriously, though, this is an extremely effective, easy way to get more followers. Give it a try. Let me know how it works for you.
Don’t forget that you can also invite Facebook friends and employees to like your Facebook Page.
Add the Facebook “like” icon to your website.
Adding the Facebook "like" icon to your website prompts people who found you through a search to engage with your business on Facebook too, so it's a win/win!
You can also link to your Facebook Page in emails to drive more traffic that way. If your goal is to get more Facebook followers, you should be linking to your Facebook Page any time you can (and feel it’s appropriate).
Goal #2 – Get More Facebook Engagement
Getting more engagement can be tough. Everyone wants to go viral, but most businesses that focus on social media marketing will find that engagement tends to grow steadily the more you work for it.
Besides, going viral is short-lived. It's better to steadily increase engagement rather than see one huge spike only to watch your engagement plummet and return to where it was before you went viral.
Let's work on steadily improving your engagement.
Here are some ways that you can work to build Facebook engagement:
- Post questions and ask people to answer the questions in the comments.
- Ask for shares and likes. Seems easy, right? That’s because it is. Ask your followers to like and share your posts.
- Try a contest. Ask followers to like and share a post for the chance to win a coupon or discount. Make sure to follow Facebook’s promotion guidelines, though. If you want more details on social media contests, click here.
- “Like” it when someone shares one of your posts or mentions you in a post.
- Reply to all comments on your posts. And don’t forget to “like” the positives and resolve the negatives.
- Share visual posts. Images and videos get more engagement than text-only posts.
- Be consistent. Because Facebook’s algorithm favors friends and families over brands, you’ll need to post consistently to make sure that your posts have the best chance of being seen. Besides, if you’re not posting regularly, your followers might forget you. Keep your business fresh in their minds by showing up regularly in the Facebook Newsfeed. Here’s how often you should be posting.
- Use what’s worked in the past. Look at past posts that have received high engagement. If that’s what is resonating with your audience, you should be posting more of it!
- Figure out when to post. Test different posting times to see when you get the highest engagement.
- Try Facebook advertising to expand your reach and boost engagement.
Goal #3: Drive Traffic to Your Website
Social media can be a great way to get more website traffic and drive people to pages on your site that are designed to help your customers through the purchase process.
Here are a few ways to do that.
- Share updates on your business hours. Any time you update your hours (for winter holidays or if you lengthen/shorten your hours for any reason) let your Facebook followers know. Write a quick post with a link to the page on your website that displays business hours.
- Share blog posts on Facebook. If you have a business blog, share new posts with your Facebook followers. Link to the blog post and write a quick caption of what it’s about.
- Add a new service, product or menu item? Link to the page on your website that houses that particular item and let followers know you’ve got something new!
- Share your promotions. Running a new promotion? Share a link to the landing page or coupon to let your Facebook followers know.
- Add links to your website from your Facebook Page. You can add your website to Facebook and also add links in your About and Our Story sections, so take advantage of that.
Final Thoughts on Facebook Marketing
Whatever you do with your social media marketing plan, be consistent; that's the best way to make sure you'll keep improving your business's Facebook performance.
I want to know, though, what are your biggest Facebook challenges, and how do you plan to achieve your goals? Connect with us on Facebook to share your thoughts!