7 DO'S AND DON'TS IN FACEBOOK MARKETING

In the early years of Facebook, it was easy for the businesses to be seen and heard. As the network was growing, Facebook had to set priorities in order what pages to show, when, and to whom. It is well known that this social media platform gets the revenue from advertising. Therefore, is not difficult to conclude how the priority system works. Yet, paying for the Ad is just not enough in the battle for staying under the spotlight. We advise you to follow these guidelines to play well in the social media marketing  game:

DO POST  VALUABLE CONTENT

Facebook wants to provide its users with authentic and useful content. Out of  1.6 billion, 1billion  of Facebook users are active on a monthly basis. This means that 1.6 billion people have something to say and show, with the result that newsfeeds are overcrowded,  and at the same time, Facebook is very selective on what to present to its users.

What is a valuable content? For each business, a relevant content would be a useful piece of advice or exciting news from its industry. In another word, the business pages should post whatever they think would be of great help to their customers. Think, on what questions your clients might want to have answers.

DO USE GOOD VISUALS

In one of our previous blog posts, we have talked about the importance of creating the posts that contain a great photo, slide show or video. We, as a human beings, are visual types, meaning that an average person will process the information taken from photo six times faster than from a plain text. That is why “the picture is worth a thousand words. ”First of all,  assure that you have a copyright for the photos you use. There are many simple tools for creating great visuals to check out. Those are the ones for nondesigners that help you easily create the great images. Of course, there are more advanced tools that require certain knowledge in design.

DO POST REGULARLY

Nowadays, as organic reach doesn’t exist practically, it is vital that companies post on a regular basis, if possible once a day. Regular posting creates the picture of the reliable company. It is ok to post other people’s content, as long as it is relevant to your business. Nevertheless, you should not share the posts that belong to someone else on the regular basis since it can make the audience to question your power and abilities as a company. Arrange your weekly post planner that will contain relevant but versatile content(blog posts, inspirational quotations, infographics, GIF’s, memes, etc.)

If you post on a regular basis, you gain double benefit. First, your audience will always return for more, and most probably will share your content with their friends or invite them to like or follow your page. Second, the Facebook will reward you, for an excellent, valuable content, by showing your post to more people.

DO REPLY ON COMMENTS

People like your page for a reason. If they comment on the post, you've  created or uploaded means that they gave you a few moments of their precious time and you need to show your appreciation by replying back. People love to be recognized for their effort. At the same time, you maintain the professionalism of your business,  emphasizing that you respect your customer's opinion and building the long-term relationship with them.

Which leads us to the DON’TS section…

DON’T  POST  IRRELEVANT CONTENT

Either you share the valuable content from someone else, or it is your own, make sure that the post is relevant to your business. For example, you might run a successful restaurant, and your Facebook page is about your products and events or interesting articles about food and nutrition. Great! But, if you run across the internet on an interesting and valuable article about organic facial creams, it is not ok to post it on your page just because you find the content high since your audience expects other things, the ones that they have signed for by liking your page.

DON’T IGNORE NEGATIVE COMMENTS

On our personal profile pages, we are deciding by controlling who can see our post and where. When it comes to business pages, the things work little differently. First of all, everything we post is public. We can control if people can leave a comment or not, but it is highly advisable to leave this option on at the settings. It is for a simple reason that comments provide a bigger visibility of the page. So, what happens to the negative comments?

There are two types of negative comments. The ones related to complaints about your services or products or typical spam comments coming from the people that decided to engage with your content for irrelevant reasons.

In the first case, don’t be intimidated to reply because it is your chance to flip the situation for your benefit. Don’t forget, the comments are public as well, and many eyes are watching your reaction and how you deal with a situation. Be polite, flexible and show the willingness to help to resolve the problem. If the customer has little more intense attitude, you can always suggest continuing the conversation in a more private manner like on messenger or through your customer service. This way, not only that you protect the image of your company but leaving the message to your audience that they can rely on you on any issue that might come up.

On the other hand, in the case of spamming negative comments, it is the best to ignore them and protect your business image and the audience by hiding it from your timeline. With this option, only the person that wrote it and his/her friends will be the only ones to see it.

DON’T BUY THE FOLLOWERS

Now, that Facebook reach is down some companies, desperately seeking to enlarge the number of followers, end up buying them. This is not a good idea at all for several reasons. First, it is not only against Facebook's policy but all other social media platforms as well. Sooner or later you will get caught and have no longer the access to your Facebook account. Second, you jeopardize your brand and company’s reputation. Your Facebook audience, as it is, is there for a reason. They follow you and engage with your posts because they value your content. Fake followers are just the numbers that never engage. On the other hand, less the people participate, less Facebook show the content. You don’t want the fake followers to cause your engagement rate to go down.