Facebook (Meta) For Business
Facebook – or Meta, as it’s now called – is a fantastic resource for businesses and companies to market online.
Like many social media platforms, Facebook has always predominantly been used to expand your network and socialise – but in recent years it has displayed success in being a must-have tool for any online business.
The platform – or at least CEO Mark Zuckerberg – now owns Instagram too (as well as Whatsapp). Many marketers find this especially helpful when sharing content across the two platforms, with resources and features that combine across both.
Let’s take a look at 10 ways to use Facebook for business.
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Create a Business Page
Our first point is clearly going to encourage you to create a business page. You can’t grow your business simply with a personal page on this platform.
As always, make sure you have an up-to-date profile picture or logo and a clear Facebook banner. If you can, make your username exactly the same as it is on other platforms and optimise your company details as best you can with industry keywords.
Additionally, Facebook displays a lot of information from your business address and maps, to opening times and price ranges. Make use of as many of these as you can.
The more information a customer can find on your page, the better – as it saves them looking elsewhere for those essential details.
Join Facebook Groups
Facebook groups aren’t as popular as they used to be but a lot of marketers still swear by them so it’s definitely worth experimenting with for at least six months and seeing what type of results you get.
Facebook groups are a great way to share up to speed trends about your industry or connect with potential customers. You can also set up your own Facebook group as a company.
Many businesses tend to create ‘VIP’ groups for their top customers where they share product launches, exclusive discounts and more.
This could be a great way to express customer loyalty.
Stream with Facebook Live
As with most platforms, you should definitely make use of Facebook live and stories.
The bonus is that stories can be linked to and from Instagram to save time – but when you go live, it is just on one platform only.
You should experiment with different reasons to go live and see what topics your followers respond to best – whether it’s a chatty post sharing some news or announcing a competition.
Customers love to see the faces behind brands and love to learn that their favourite brands are relatable and friendly – so make sure you regularly make use of this feature to live up to those expectations.
Share Engaging Content
When it comes to Facebook, you should be aiming for similar content that you share on LinkedIn – although you can get away with a more informal tone of voice on Facebook (which is swiftly becoming the norm on LinkedIn too).
Share plenty of images and videos and get your hashtag research done early. Unlike other platforms, hashtags aren’t as relevant on Facebook but they are still worth doing, so sticking to between 3-5 per post is ideal.
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Delve into Facebook Business Suite
Facebook Business Suite offers a plethora of helpful tools and resources for businesses.
Within it, you can view notifications and messages, create or schedule posts, stories and ads and find helpful insights to optimise your marketing – all in one place.
Additionally, you can track key trends and access helpful tools such as Ads Manager, Commerce Manager, Business Settings and more.
Link Facebook Business Suite to Instagram
Facebook Business Suite allows you to manage Facebook and Instagram all in one place.
If you’re on both platforms, it’s definitely worth taking advantage of to save time.
It’s essential that you link both platforms together.
It’s particularly helpful if you don’t use a social media scheduling tool as it allows you to post and schedule content across both platforms at once and see in-depth insights and analytics too.
Engage with your Audience
Facebook is predominately a social networking website, so you should use it to network with your audience too!
As well as responding to messages and comments on your own content, you should aim to create content that will encourage readers to participate.
Try asking readers to vote between two popular products or ask them to comment on their plans on awareness days like St Patrick’s Day or Halloween.
Unfortunately, as a business page, you cannot log onto users’ profiles and engage that way, but you can participate in Facebook groups.
Use Facebook Ads
Facebook Ads are a great way to take your marketing one step further and delve into paid advertising.
Facebook’s Ads Manager is your starting point for running advertisements across Facebook, Facebook Messenger and Instagram.
There are real-time insights and the ability to adjust and personalise your campaigns as you see fit.
You can also create A/B tests to determine the best target audience or delivery optimisation, which is a great starting point for anyone new to paid advertising.
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Add Milestones to your Page
A nifty little tool that Facebook pages have – that other platforms don’t – is the ability to add milestones to your page.
You can use this feature to display a timeline of your company’s history, as well as product launches, special events and any other stand-out dates that are relevant to your business.
It’s a nice touch that shows a more human side to your brand.
Create Custom Page Tabs
Lastly, you can also create custom page tabs on Facebook – which, again, isn’t available on other platforms.
You can create additional tabs for things like roles you’re currently looking to fill, promotions and case studies – whatever you like!
This is a great way to share alternative content too.
Bonus
If you sell products, you can also set up Facebook Shops in Commerce Manager!
Here you can display all your latest products which provide a unified presence across Facebook, Instagram and Marketplace.
Additionally, you can divide your shop into different collections from theme to product use.
Summary
Facebook is one of the top platforms available to help businesses reach their marketing goals and grow their online presence.
Particularly because of its links to Instagram and in-depth business suite.
However, one thing to remember about Facebook is that it is continually improving and changing – so as a word of advice if your company decides to invest in Facebook Ads or use Facebook Business Suite regularly, ensure you stay up to speed with any changes.
Additionally, there are a lot of helpful guides online to help you understand Facebook Ads – and it’s changes – in further detail.
