Table of Contents
Facebook Marketing
How to Drive Demand, Create Loyal Fans, and Grow Your Business on Facebook
For many, Facebook is the internet. That said, is your occupation taking full advantage of it ?
Your answer should be yes — confirmed by Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of VaynerMedia .
In an consultation, HubSpot ‘s Founder and CEO Brian Halligan, posed the question, “ Let ‘s say you ‘re getting started today in commercialize and you ‘re building a social media mark — where are you spending your energy if you ‘re that seller ? ”
Vaynerchuk said, “ … you ca n’t be alive in the crippled without a Facebook [ and an Instagram ]. I authentically believe that. I think it would be highly damaging. ”
so, how do you use Facebook to benefit your occupation ?
Facebook Pages are the gateway for businesses to market to this holy place grail of users. A Facebook Page is a public presence similar to a personal profile, but allows fans to “like” the business, brand, celebrity, cause, or organization. Fans receive contented updates from the page on their News Feed, while the occupation is able to raise mark awareness, deploy and track ad, collect detailed hearing insights, and old world chat with users who seek customer service .
Below you ’ ll find everything you need to know to become a master Facebook seller. No matter if your commercial enterprise has had a page for years or you ’ re just getting started, this comprehensive guidebook is for you .
Read along, email it to yourself or bookmark it for late, or jumpstart to the section that interests you most .
Facebook Marketing, the Inbound Way
Before we dive in, let ’ s get one thing out of the way. There are many ways to approach marketing on Facebook, but we ’ ll pin to the one we love most : inbound .
An inbound scheme is about being helpful and relatable to your audience. It involves understanding the goals of your customer and partnering with them to overcome challenges. One of the best ways to do this is to be available where they already spend their time — that means you need to be present on Facebook .
Facebook ’ randomness tools provide to the business that wants to form an authentic relationship with their consultation. It allows marketers to create and distribute quality content that ’ randomness helpful for users. And it allows sales and customer services reps to connect with consumers concern in a brand .
It’s not about being spammy, annoying, or deceiving.
If you ’ re building a Facebook Page precisely to check one more thing off the branding disturbance list, think again. dependable Facebook marketing requires a reproducible, long-run committedness. But we promise, the awareness and demand will be worth it .
cook ? Let ’ s go .
How to Set Up a Facebook Page
- Create a Facebook Page
- Add photos
- Add a short description
- Create a username for your Page
- Add your Page to Shortcuts
- Set up Page roles
- Customize your notifications
- Add a Page CTA
- Organize your Page tabs
- Verify your Page
If you ’ ve decided to build a Facebook Page for your clientele, you ’ ve made the right choice. In fact, you ’ ll be joining 70 million businesses worldwide who already market via Facebook Page — a count that ‘s jumped by 1 million in the final few years .
Before we get into publish content and boosting posts with ad, let ’ s rewind to the very begin and walk through the frame-up process .
1. Create a Facebook Page
As you probably know, the majority of Facebook is made up of personal profiles. however, if you ’ re a business looking to establish your presence on the social net, you ’ ll need to create a Page rather .
Pages are Facebook ’ s equivalent of a business profile. Pages look similar to profile pages but show specific information alone applicable to businesses, organizations, and causes. Whereas you connect with a profile by adding them as a acquaintance, you connect with a business Facebook Page by “ liking ” it and becoming a fan. If you create a personal profile for your business instead of a Page, you run the risk of getting it shut down by Facebook.
To get start building your own Facebook Page, go to https : //www.facebook.com/pages/create/ .
There, you ’ ll have two categories to choose from :
- Business or Brand
- Community or Public Figure
Facebook offers two categories so you can better customize the fields on your foliate. For the aim of this introduction, let ’ s say we ’ re a “ Business or Brand. ” We ’ ll create a page for a ( wholly fabricated ) company called Boston Coat Company and categorize it as a retail company. ( To choose a category, simply start typing and choose from the drop-down list. )
We recommend you choose the name for your Page wisely. Facebook will let you change your name and URL in most cases, but it can be a difficult and boring march .
If you haven ’ triiodothyronine already, you ’ ll be prompted to sign into Facebook at this bespeak. You must create and manage Pages from your personal Facebook account ; however, your personal information won ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate appear on the Page unless you add it .
Press “ Get Started ” and you ’ ll be mechanically redirected to add a Profile Photo and Cover Photo for your new page. ( You can skip these steps and do them late, but we recommend getting them out of the way now. ) If you do skip, however, you ‘ll see your new Facebook page a well as a few tips for building the foundation of a business page .
2. Add Photos
Add a Profile Picture
The beginning footstep to giving your Facebook Page an identity is adding a profile visualize. This will serve as the elementary ocular for your page, appearing in search results and aboard any of your content that shows up in a drug user ’ second News Feed. Most publishers suggest creating a photograph that ’ second 180 ten 180 pixels, however increasing this slenderly will help maintain choice. If you don ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate upload an image that is already square, you ’ ll be prompted to crop .
Think of your visibility picture as your first depression, and be certain to choose something immediately recognizable ( like a logo ). If you ’ re a loudspeaker or populace figure, go with a favorite headshot. local restaurants or shops may choose an picture of their most popular offer .
Add a Cover Photo
following, Facebook will suggest you add a covering photograph. A cover photograph is the large, horizontal image that spans the top of your page. It should express your page ’ second identity and can be updated frequently based on special offerings, campaigns, or seasons .
To upload a cover photograph, click the “ Add a Cover Photo ” option in the welcome menu. The official dimensions of a embrace photograph are 851 ten 315 pixels. however, if your photograph is not demand, you ’ ll have the option to drag to reposition the photograph. Press “ Save ” .
To change your screen photograph in the future, hover your sneak over the white camera in the lower correct corner of your embrace photograph and blue-ribbon “ Change Cover. ” It ’ s besides a well mind to include a conviction of text and a link in the description if you are promoting a specific campaign in your imagination. That way, if your cover photograph highlights a newly parka, they can seamlessly jump to your winter intersection note to buy .
Finding the right libra between a cover photograph that is both ocular and childlike can be a challenge. Try going with an abstract visualize or design to catch the eye, or a landscape shot with your product as the focal point. Often, the best cover photos are the ones that use negative space to their advantage .
Facebook Cover Photo Stock Images
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Download our free collection of patternsfor your Facebook Page ‘s cover photograph .
3. Add a Short Description
Your page is starting to come together with some beautiful imagination. next, you ’ ll need a description to let your hearing know what your business is all about .
Click “ Add a Short Description ” under “ Welcome to Your New Page ” to get started. Add one to two sentences ( or 255 characters soap ) about your business. This description will appear both on your page and in search results, so keep it descriptive but compendious. But don ’ t be afraid to show a act of your brand ’ south personality !
alternatively, you can edit your description by clicking on “ About ” in the left menu. There you ’ ll find the choice to include a phone number, web site, electronic mail, mission, and more .
4. Create a Username for Your Page
The last step on the welcome menu is to create a username for your foliate. Your username will appear in your custom Facebook URL ( besides known as a vanity URL ) to help people easily find and remember your page. You ’ ll have 50 characters to come up with a unique name not being used by another business .
By picking @thebostoncoatcompany for my sample Page, people can mechanically visit my foliate at fb.me/thebostoncoatcompany or send me messages at m.me/thebostoncoatcompany. Keep your Page ’ south unique URLs handy. You ’ ll use them again when you begin cross-promoting your page on your web site, blog, and other assets to get more Facebook likes .
5. Add Your Page to Shortcuts
We finished the four steps from Facebook ’ s welcome menu, but there are still a few things you can do to customize your page. For exercise, every Facebook drug user has a vertical navigation bar to the bequeath of their News Feed. By adding your page as a shortcut hera, you ’ ll always have easy access. Go to your News Feed and click on “ Edit ” next to “ Shortcuts ” in the leave erect navigation to make it easy to navigate to your page in the future .
6. Set Up Page Roles
With the basic skeleton of your Page dispatch, there ’ s an important step you ’ ll want to take before you send the foliate out to the populace … or even your co-workers. Remember how Facebook creates business Pages separate from personal profiles ? One benefit of this is so multiple people from an organization can edit and post from the page without sharing login credentials. But that besides means you need to designate who has what levels of editing access. That ’ s where Page Roles comes in .
On the exceed navigation bar, locate “ Settings. ”
then snap on “ Page Roles ” in the exit navigation bar. There are a few options when adding a collaborator :
- Admin: Admins can manage all aspects of the Page, meaning they can send messages, publish as the Page, respond or delete comments, create ads, see which admin published a specific post, and assign Page roles. This person would have all the same permissions as the creator of the Page. Choose wisely.
- Editor: Editors have the same permissions as Admins except for one key difference: Editors can’t assign Page roles to other people.
- Moderator: Moderators can send messages and respond to and delete comments, but they can’t publish as the Page. They do have access to create ads.
- Advertiser: Just as it sounds, Advertisers can create ads and view insights.
- Analyst: Analysts don’t have any publishing power whatsoever, but they can see which Admin published a specific post and view insights.
- Jobs Manager: Jobs Managers can do everything that an Advertiser can do as well as publish and manage jobs.
7. Customize Your Notifications
While you ’ re in the settings menu, jump up to “ Notifications. ” This department allows you to customize how you receive alerts for activity on your page. For example, you could choose to get a presentment every time there is activeness or good get one notification every 12 to 24 hours .
8. Add a Page CTA
One of the top benefits of having a Facebook Page for your occupation is the ability to attract an hearing you might not have been able to reach with a traditional web site. however, the typical buyer ’ s journey doesn ’ triiodothyronine end on Facebook .
Starting in December 2014, Facebook allowed Pages to include a call-to-action clitoris at the top of the Page. To create one, click “ + Add a Button ” below your cover photograph. You can choose from an array of choices depending on if you want view or book a serve, get in touch, make a purchase or contribution, download an app, or merely learn more .
Click “ Next ” and choose a associate for the CTA to lead to, such as your home page, Messenger, a land page, or a video recording .
9. Organize Your Page Tabs
want to take your occupation page to the future degree ? Add custom tabs to tailor what contented users see when they visit your page. For example, when you visit Starbucks ’ Page, there ’ s an choice to browse photos, see exposed jobs, inflict its Pinterest account, or find a store near you .
To change the tab key on your page, go to “ Settings ” > “ Templates and Tabs ”. You can choose to use Facebook ‘s default option yellow journalism, or you can add extra ones. You can besides create a custom app via the Facebook Developer portal site .
10. Verify Your Page
Have you ever noticed a bantam grey or blue check stigmatize next to the names of some businesses and brands ?
Depending on how you categorized your page, you could be eligible for a confirmation badge. A blue badge means that Facebook has confirmed an authentic page for a populace figure, media company or brand. Agray badge means that Facebook has confirmed an authentic page for a business or organization .
A verification badge is by no means necessary, but it does add a sense of authority to your Page and clientele. This could be particularly important for businesses in ecommerce or on-line services looking to build trust with potential customers and initiate transactions online .
To ensure you ‘re eligible, confirm that your foliate has a visibility movie and cover photograph. Go to “ Settings ” > “ General ”. There you ’ ll find “ Page Verification ” where you can enter your publicly listed call phone number, nation, and lyric. You ‘ll receive a call with a verification code .
The blue match badge is only available to some public figures, celebrities, and brands. unfortunately, it ’ s not possible to request a blue badge.
How to Get Facebook Likes and Fans
Of path, you want your Facebook business page to be successful. however, what success looks like on social media will vary based on your commercial enterprise goals. Your exceed focus could be launching new products, build awareness, driving sales, or collecting leads .
But no topic what, you need likes .
A “ like ” is how a user raises their hand and intentionally chooses to see updates from your occupation in their News Feed .
In this section, we ’ ll give you some hardheaded strategies to get Facebook Page likes from the moment your page goes live and how to grow that necessitate into the future .
Why You Shouldn’t Buy Facebook Likes
If you need Page likes to master Facebook market, that brings up a good question : Why not merely buy them ?
Don ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate believe this is a real dilemma ? Go ahead and Google “ buy Facebook likes. ” You ’ ll discovery pages upon pages of external services selling packages of likes for a flat fee. And for some, it may seem like a agile and easy way to make your clientele front credible .
however, the consequence lies in where these likes actually come from. Companies that sell likes use snap farms, juke accounts, or even compromise accounts to reach the promise number. That means it ’ s highly unlikely that any of these users who have liked your page will ever engage with your content .
Remember : not every Facebook post shows up in the News Feed. When Facebook decides what to include, the algorithm looks specifically at employment rates — not your full act of fans. Over time, the lack of likes and comments on your posts ( due to unengaged or fake fans ) compared to the number of Page likes you have could prevent your content from being seen. The average exploiter will likely besides question your credibility with such a discrepancy. If the long-run effects of a poor people betrothal rate aren ’ thymine adequate to scare you, remember that Facebook has a team that watches out for this sort of fishy behavior. They wo n’t hesitate to shut down your page without warning .
Promoting Your Page on Facebook
now that we ’ ve covered how not to get likes, let talk about how to get them — the right room. We ’ ll starting signal with promoting your page on Facebook and then through your other marketing assets .
As we mentioned in the previous section, take the time to thoughtfully fill out the “ About ” segment of your page. Fill your description with searchable information, but don ’ metric ton overstuff it with keywords. Include an overview of what your business offers, proper categories, and a link back to your web site. here ‘s HubSpot ‘s “ About ” section as an exemplar .
If you ’ re building a page from scratch, consider sharing it with people you ’ re already connected to on Facebook. From your page ‘s chief screen, check out the section titled “ Know friends who might like your page ? ”
As you choose contacts, be cautious about over-promoting to people you know won ’ thyroxine be concern. Spammy Facebook selling does more injury than good .
besides, don ’ metric ton forget to invite your colleagues to like your page. Encourage them to plowshare it with their own Facebook friends or include the alone radio link in their e-mail signatures. Employees in departments like sales, customer service, or HR who systematically email people outside your occupation are often a big fit .
last, be active. The best way to gain Page likes is to build an betroth community. Post helpful or entertain subject that your followers will want to like and share. Respond to messages promptly and interact with comments on your posts. Have you ever noticed some Pages have a green badge saying they ’ re “ very responsive to messages ” ? If you ’ ve received a 90 % answer rate and an average reply time of under 15 minutes over the last seven days, you besides can earn this badge .
Securing Facebook likes international relations and security network ’ thyroxine reserved for the initial apparatus of your page. You ’ ll need to build a consistent, lovable strategy to continue adding measure to your followers .
Promoting Your Page Through Your Website
Promoting your page doesn ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate end on Facebook. Include sociable media follow buttons on your web site and blog to make it easy for your hearing to connect with you on Facebook .
You can besides use a foliate plugin to easily embed and promote your page on your web site. Facebook will build the iframe code that shows a run of your latest posts. That way, visitors can like and share your page without ever leaving your web site .
Promoting Your Page to Your Customers and Email Contacts
Have a brick-and-mortar business ? Think of creative ways to let your customers know you have a Facebook presence. Place a Facebook spine with your page ’ randomness name in the front window or include the custom URL on your receipts. You could tied run a promotion where people get a discount rate if they like your foliate on the spot from their mobile device .
Ecommerce businesses can do similarly. Don ’ thyroxine forget a page link in your e-mail selling, whether it ’ randomness receipts, product suggestions, content updates, or customer military service messages .
Promoting Your Page on Additional Social Media Channels
Sharing your page from your other social media accounts is another option, arsenic long as you do it meagerly. The key is not to annoy the Twitter or LinkedIn hearing you ’ ve worked then difficult to build.
Facebook Post Types
When it comes to Facebook market, posting content is the core function of the job. Without a coherent flow of content, your page exists entirely as a reference of data for people who are already aware of your brand .
In other words, it ’ s no different than the most basic of websites .
however, when you use Facebook to publish and share quality capacity, you extend your compass into the adult blasphemous ocean of Facebook ’ south users. Users discover your content and may choose to like your page to continue the relationship. Over fourth dimension, their trust in your brand increases, hopefully enough to make a purchase .
That ’ s the recipe of inbound market, after all .
How to Post to Your Facebook Page
To post on your Facebook Page, front for the ashen box below your cover photograph that says “ Write something … ” and plainly begin typing. When your update is ready to go ( after a proofread, of course ), hit “ Share now ”. From this field, you can besides add a photograph or video, tag a merchandise or location, run a poll, or schedule or backdate your post if you so choose .
Facebook Images
Posting an double is always a capital choice, specially since Facebook posts with images see 2.3X more engagement than those without visuals and explanation for 87 % of entire interactions .
To post an visualize, click the “ Photo/Video ” prompt below where it says “ Write a post … ” .
Facebook Image Sizes
If you ’ ve done any sort of social media selling before, you understand the necessity of keeping prototype sizes handy .
As we covered in your page apparatus, there are a few types of images you can post to Facebook, each with their own size specifications :
- Profile Picture: 180 x 180
- Cover Photo: 820 x 312
- Timeline image: 1200 x 630 (The ratio is more important than the size. Keep a 1.9:1 ratio.)
It ’ s no clandestine that the best Facebook images are highly ocular. Try to keep a coherent style among all the images you post, and don ’ thymine be afraid to let your personality show .
Facebook Links
One of the easiest ways to start populating your Facebook page with content is to share the web log posts you publish. You shouldn ’ thyroxine share every blog post you create, but rather, pick those you know will resonate with your Facebook audience and hopefully get shared by your followers .
To post a associate, begin the lapp way you would create a textbook mail. Write a conviction or two and spread in your link. As opposed to summarizing the blog post in your copy, come up with a relatable or witty statement ( angstrom long as it ’ second in trace with your brand part ) that would intrigue person to learn more .
Before you publish, go ahead and delete the associate to make your mail look more clean and professional. By this point, the blog stake should auto-populate below the white box with the claim, meta description, and image. Hit “ Publish. ”
public speaking of, remember to include a compelling meta description with each blog post you write. Facebook automatically pulls this in to describe your liaison .
Facebook Video
If you ’ re looking to tell a story on Facebook, television is probably your best option. recently, video has gained a lot of hum, specially considering the Facebook algorithm now prioritizes both hot television and longer videos with high completion rates in users ’ News Feeds. In fact, a Facebook white house predicted the social media platform will be all video recording by 2021 .
To upload a pre-produced video to Facebook, click the “ Photo/Video ”, click the “ Photo/Video ” prompt below where it says “ Write a post … ” and select “ Upload Photos/Video ” .Select the file from your calculator. We recommend uploading video as an MP4 or MOV file .
adjacent, you ’ ll be prompted to add a title, tags, and some text to your post. You can besides add it to a playlist. As with Facebook links, habit this textbook to entice your hearing to watch the television .
Click along the seafaring on the right field slope to choose your video recording thumbnail and add subtitles and captions. Considering Facebook auto-plays videos without heavy ( and about 90 % of videos are watched without sound ), SRT files are a smart choice to make surely your television is silent by those scrolling through their News Feed on a mobile device .
Facebook besides allows you to run polls with your video ( if it ‘s 10 seconds or longer ), set up tags for tracking, and turn on 360º Mode ( which allows your users to view the video like a view .
Because Facebook auto-plays videos, the beginning 5-10 seconds are prime real estate. As you brainstorm videos for Facebook, make the beginning as visually compelling as possible to encourage the drug user to view the full video .
Facebook Live
aside from pre-produced video recording, Facebook Live is another choice to explore multimedia contentedness. Facebook Live is a feature that allows live-streaming capabilities to users on their desktop or smartphone. It ’ s available to any Facebook user, but is peculiarly appealing to brands who want to capture the culture of their caller and form authentic relationships with their followers .
To try it out on your desktop, go to your page and click on “ Live ” under where it says “ Write a mail … ” .
If you haven ’ thyroxine used Facebook Live before, you ’ ll be prompted to give Facebook access to your camera and microphone. Press the blue “ Continue ” button. Don ’ triiodothyronine worry — you won ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate begin recording even .
You ‘ll see a dialogue box pop up on the right where you can choose where you want to broadcast ( on your page or on your personal profile ), write a description, share your screen, and claim and tag your video. Under the “ interactional ” tab, you can besides run a poll while you do your Live video. once you click “ Go Live ” your Live video recording will begin .
On your smartphone, open up the Facebook app. Go to your page and suction stop on “ print ” as if you were going to write a new post, then select the “ Live Video ” option. Before you enter any information, go ahead and check the privacy settings. Under the description, you ’ ll see a choice to broadcast to the populace, just your friends, or only yourself. If you ’ re testing out Facebook Live for the first clock, we suggest using “ merely me ” to ensure your know stream doesn ’ thymine show up on your News Feed .
Before you go live, write a compelling title that will show up aboard your alive television. then use the two arrows in the upper berth right recess to determine if you want to change the camera view to the selfie see or vice versa. last, decide if you ’ ll hold your earphone vertically or rotate it sideways to landscape. As you ‘d do on your desktop, crusade the bluing “ Go Live ” to start air .
When you do go Live, keep your viewers engaged by asking questions and encouraging them to respond in the comments. Every few minutes, reintroduce yourself and explain the aim of the video in case modern viewers join. For inspiration, check out some of the best Facebook Lives we ’ ve ever seen.
When you ’ re fix to stop recording, snap “ Finish ” to end the air. The video recording will mechanically stay on your page like any other video recording post. You ’ ll besides be given the option to save the television to your camera roll sol you have a transcript for guardianship .
Facebook Instant Articles
Facebook Instant Articles are a sport that allows publishers to post text- and photo-based content in a format that loads on mobile without leaving the Facebook app. If you ’ ve ever been on your call and clicked on an intrigue headline fair to have the Facebook app wholly freeze, you know how torment it can be to load mobile contentedness .
That ’ s the main benefit of Facebook Instant Articles. They importantly decrease the time it takes to load contentedness on mobile, while offering a seamless user experience. You know you ’ ve found an blink of an eye article if there ’ s a small grey bombshell below the title of the post .
When instantaneous Articles were first gear released, they were only available to a few choice publishers. immediately, any publisher can use them if they sign up at hypertext transfer protocol : //instantarticles.fb.com/. Facebook will walk you through submitting your first sample distribution article and requesting approval from the Instant Articles team. Once you ’ re approved, you ’ ll be able to auto-publish in the new format .
While blink of an eye Articles are decidedly not for every business, they have helped some larger publishers monetize from native advertise. Because users are 20 % more likely to click on Instant Articles and 70 % less probable to abandon then due to hapless user experience, publishers have a greater opportunity to earn revenues from native ads. however, the format has received backfire because the publishers don ’ thymine own the analytics .
Facebook Virtual Reality
last but surely not least, there ’ s virtual reality for Facebook. At least for the consequence, Facebook ’ s main virtual reality offer is 360-degree video recording. Facebook 360 allows publishers to tell immersive stories that partake places and experiences with their fans .
The 360-degree video recording experience works best on mobile, as viewers are able to tilt and turn their phone to reveal video recording content all around them. On a desktop, users can click and drag. The format is besides compatible with VR headsets like Oculus Rift or Samsung Gear VR. The most effective manner to create a Facebook 360 video is to use a 360-degree television camera such as an ALLie or RICOH THETA. The THETA, for case, has two lens that together capture the 360-degree look. Since there ’ s no finder, you ’ ll indigence to use the corresponding mobile app to set the shoot and a tripod to keep the television camera sweetheart. The app then allows you to plowshare immediately to Facebook .
How to Pin a Facebook Post
now that you know all the different types of Facebook posts, let ’ s customize how they appear on your page. By “ pinning ” a post, you can determine which patch of contented sticks to the acme of your page. Any other posts will appear below, evening if they were published more recently than the trap stake .
To pin a post on your foliate, suction stop on the small down arrow in the crown properly corner of a published stake. then choice “ Pin to Top of Page. ” This post will remain trap until you choose to pin another post and replace it .
How to Create a Facebook Marketing Strategy
now that we ‘ve covered the types of content you can publish on Facebook, you ’ ll find that mail is the easy part. Knowing what — and when — to stake is the real challenge of Facebook commercialize .
To build a successful Facebook marketing strategy, you ’ ll first need a comprehensive sympathy of your audience. then we ’ ll dive into 1 ) developing the justly blend of content to drive results, 2 ) scheduling posts into your editorial calendar, and 3 ) exploring Facebook ’ s new offerings for connecting with prospects .
1. Identify Your Facebook Audience
To determine your Facebook audience, take a measure backward and evaluate the buyer character of your marketing strategy at large .
The beneficial newsworthiness is that there are a number of ways Facebook can assist in identifying your audience and learning about your buyer character. In fact, according to Crystal King, Social Media Professor for HubSpot Academy, “ The cool thing about Facebook is that you can get truly detailed. You can know a fortune more about your customers than you might have imagined. Facebook ‘s a platform that has all sorts of actually personal data on people. ”
here ‘s what you need to know to get started with this step of your strategy .
Buyer personas are fictional, generalize representations of your ideal customer that avail you to better understand your ( actual ) prey audience. No count if you ’ re in commercialize, sales, intersection development, or services, you can use buyer personas tailor your capacity, product, or behavior to better relate to your prey customer .
The same goes for Facebook. By understanding the challenges and goals of your persona, you can determine which capacity would be best to post and tweak the position accordingly .
To begin building your buyer character, interview a divers mix of customers, prospects, and referrals to gauge their background cognition of your industry, their biggest challenges, their ultimate goals, and what resources they rely on to learn and develop their skills .
then, take a look at your competitors. Explore their Facebook Pages and evaluate each for a few key factors :
- Visual quality
- Post frequency
- Content mix
- Engagement on posts (likes, comments, and shares)
- Response time and quality from business
Using Audience Insights
If you want a deeper agreement of your character, Facebook offers a knock-down, free analytics tool as a share of their ads platform called Audience Insights. We ’ ll cover Facebook ad in the final examination section of this guide, but you can still use this cock without deploying any ads .
Audience Insights allows you to obtain demographic and behavioral data about your audience and that of your competitors. It was created to help advertisers target their ads better, but it ’ s besides a great instrument for social media managers and content creators to determine the type of content their hearing is looking for .
To access Audience Insights, go to your Facebook Ad Manager and click the menu in the upper left field corner. “ Audience Insights ” is located under ” All Tools ” > “ Plan ” .
once you ’ re there, you ’ ll have to choose between analyzing everyone on Facebook or just people connected to your page. For the aim of these instructions, let ’ s look at “ Everyone on Facebook, ” but you can always change this former .
adjacent, front at the “ Create Audience ” column on the forget side to determine the segment you want to analyze. The United States will be the nonpayment location, but you should change this based on where your prey market resides. besides, specify age and sex .
The “ Interests ” section is a great way to uncover industry and rival information. You can add general interests or the names of particular Pages. however, be warned that not every page will be available to analyze if they do not have a substantial number of likes. In the case below, I ’ m choosing to analyze women in the United States between the ages of 18 and 35 who are interest in yoga and the apparel company Lululemon Athletica .
When I explore the data under the demographics tab key, I can see the dislocation of subcontract title, college education, and marital status .
Under the Page Likes check, you can get a glance into the other Pages they turn to for contentedness. Following the same model, this audience gets workout advice from trainer Kayla Itsines and apparel from Victoria ’ randomness Secret and Fabletics .
The more you dig into Audience Insights, you can look closer at aspects such as localization, device character, and the frequency of engagement on Facebook. together, all of this datum serves as a valuable starting seat to evaluate competitors and brainstorm content ideas .
2. Create a Social Media Content Calendar
social media managers juggle a lot of tasks on a daily footing : post content on multiple channels, responding to comments, monitoring mentions of your brand, reading up on recent trends. The stopping point thing you want is to scramble for a while of message to post two minutes before your 9 a.m meet .
How do social media managers keep up with all of those posts they need to publish ? By using a social media content calendar. just as it sounds, a social media subject calendar is a spreadsheet where you write out posts in boost and slot them for specific times. apart from keeping you sane, a subject calendar will help you keep tracking links organized and make it easier to evaluate the overall desegregate of format and subject you ’ re mailing .
Every great social media content calendar should have a few things :
- Tabs for each social media platform (you can use this for more than just Facebook)
- A day-by-day schedule broken down by time slots
- Columns for message, link, campaign name, character count, and image
- A monthly view to plot larger campaigns
Scheduling Facebook Posts
No matter how far out you build your social media subject calendar, you ’ d never be able to take a vacation if it wasn ’ triiodothyronine for scheduling posts. thankfully, there are multiple resources available to help you schedule and automate post .
To schedule a mail on Facebook, get down by creating a post in the white box at the top of your Page ’ south timeline. alternatively of clicking “ Share now, ” select the little arrow next to it and blue-ribbon “ Schedule ”. Select a time and date, and click “ Schedule now ” .
To manage all of your schedule posts, find “ Publishing Tools ” in the menu at the top of your page and chink “ Scheduled Posts ” in the left column. There you can edit or delete posts, vitamin a well as preview them for both desktop and mobile view .
Best Times to Post on Facebook
We get this wonder a draw : How much should you post to Facebook ? And once you determine how much, at what times should you post ?
As frustrating as it sounds, the answer to both of these questions is, “ it depends. ” Your area, goals, industry, and how your target consultation interacts with the social media platform must all be accounted for when determining the best times to post .
A good principle of finger is weekday afternoons, typically between 1 post meridiem and 4 p.m. If you ’ ra station on the weekends, inject for between noon and 1 p.m .
When HubSpot looked into how often you should post on Facebook, quality far outweigh quantity. Pages with over 10,000 followers were the entirely ones who benefited from posting more frequently. Companies with less than 10,000 followers that posted more than 60 times a month received 60 % fewer clicks per post than those who posted five times or fewer .
ultimately, this means it ’ s better to be selective about what you publish than to overwhelm your audience with content. Spend less time crafting a lot of posts and more clock creating more engage Facebook posts .
3. Generating Leads on Facebook
We ’ ve already mentioned that your Facebook goals will vary depending on your business and the type of message you publish. And it ’ s likely that much of the subject you post will be to gain views or awareness .
But what about using Facebook for lead coevals ? In light, a run is a person who shows sake in your company ’ mho product or service by giving their information in some way. typically, this means they filled out a phase for an ebook or requested a show of your product .
To turn your Facebook fans into paying customers, you ’ ll want to be strategic about posting subject that directs to a phase. For exercise, you could post :
- Landing pages for offers
- Blog posts that you know generate a lot of leads based on historical conversion rates
- Videos to promote lead generation offers
- Facebook Lives to remind people to register for an upcoming event
- Facebook events for upcoming webinars
You don ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate want every piece of contented you post to be lead generation, but experiment with a message mix that works for your clientele .
You can besides use Facebook Lead Ads to capture lead information from the Facebook platform and avoid the clash of a land page and longer click-through way. This feature of speech allows potential customers to access your offers without ever leaving the Facebook app .
Facebook Bots
In the world of artificial intelligence, a bot is a term used to describe a text-based program that can communicate with humans to automate specific tasks or try information. And thanks to Facebook, this engineering is being democratized for businesses of all sizes .
In April 2016, Facebook announced the launch of its Messenger Platform — a military service that enables any commercial enterprise to build a bot through Facebook Messenger. If you have a Facebook personal profile, you ’ ve probably used Messenger to chat with friends either on your background or mobile. In the same manner, you can talk with a bot to change a embark address or receive breaking newsworthiness updates. For example, 1-800 Flowers allows you to use their bot adjunct to shop, track your order, or work with customer care .
thus, why should Facebook bots matter to marketers ? For starters, Messenger has 1.3 billion monthly active users. And since bots are a kind of artificial intelligence, their lifelike lyric capabilities will undoubtedly get smarter over time. From the position of the customer, bots make the shopping and customer accompaniment processes much smoother, eliminating the motivation to scroll through pages and pages of product choices or talk on the call with a customer service rep. In fact, a HubSpot Research report found that 47 % of people are concerned in buying items from a bot .
In fact, in an interview, HubSpot Founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah, explained why Facebook Messenger has been so pivotal in the world of bots, ” With messaging apps, we have colloquial UI, where rather of talking to software with touches, swipes, clicks, drags, and things, you can actually take the thing that ‘s in your head, express it, and have some likeness of hope that the software — if it was designed to do that — will do something meaningful … If you ‘re ignoring Facebook Messenger overall, you ‘re missing out on one of the biggest movements we ‘ve seen in engineering, in my mind. ”
Tracking and Measuring Results with Facebook Analytics
You ’ ve put in a set of knead to launch your Facebook Page. You ’ ve given your page personality with images and copy, you ’ ve brainstormed creative ways to gain likes, and you ’ ve crafted a content scheme that appeals to your target audience .
sol, how ’ five hundred you do ?
Facebook market without a plan for tracking and measuring results will result in a bunch of guess, and, ultimately, underperformance. thankfully, Facebook has built out a comprehensive page Insights tool to help you analyze your page as a whole and drill down on specific posts .
Using Page Insights
To access Page Insights, click on “ Insights ” in the menu at the top of your page. There, you ’ ll be automatically brought to the “ Overview ” incision, which gives you a weeklong snapshot of the most crucial natural process on your page. ( My sample Page is mark new, hence the barely-there analytics. 🙂 )
In the leave vertical seafaring bar, you ’ ll see a list of tabs to view different aspects of your page metrics. In this section, we ’ ll go through the key tabs to look at when reporting on your Facebook page .
Likes
first, check out the “ Likes ” yellow journalism. here you can see how many likes you gained or lost each day .
On the “ Net Likes ” graph, you can see the numeral of new likes minus the number of unlikes on a daily footing. Click and drag on the graph to hone in on a short date range. You can besides use the “ Benchmark ” section on the correct side to compare your modal performance over fourth dimension .
Reach
The “ Reach ” yellow journalism shows the phone number of people your posts were served to, broken down by organic and paid traffic. Remember : The more likes, comments, and shares a military post gets, the more it shows up in the News Feed. Likewise, the more people hide a mail or mark it as spam, the less it will show up in the News Feed .
then, if you notice a spike in scope on a certain day, snap on that point of the graph to see the particular message and note how people engaged .
Page Views
“ Page Views ” helps you figure out how people got to your page and where they go once they arrive. Look at the “ Top Sources ” graph to see what external referrers bring you the most traffic. likely, it ’ s your web site, web log, or a search engine .
Posts
Of all the tab key in Page Insights, “ Posts ” is probably the most utilitarian. At the circus tent, you ’ ll find a graph of when your fans are on-line. This can be incredibly utilitarian as you build out your social media content calendar and schedule posts .
Below this is a record of all your published posts in reverse chronological order, ampere well their congress of racial equality metrics. Keep tab on this graph not simply to track your results, but besides to learn what types of posts your consultation tends to engage with .
In the upper correct corner of the table, click the drop-down arrow next to “ Reactions, Comments, & Shares. ” then choose which metrics you ’ d like to show in the chart. If you have the “ Engagement Rate ” view selected, you may spot a high perform constituent post. This would be a good post to consider boosting with paid advertising .
Post Details
While Page Insights is great for monthly report, there are times when you ’ rhenium browsing your page and want to see how one particular post is performing .
If you click on the “ people reached ” number directly above the “ Like ” button, you can quickly see post details without flipping over to Page Insights. For television content, this is where you can find more in-depth metrics, including 10-second views, and average watch time .
Facebook Reactions
In February 2016, Facebook rolled out a modern have called “ Reactions ” to users cosmopolitan. For years, users have been able to “ like ” message posted by both personal profiles and Pages. now, users can show their love, anger, laugh, and more .
At least for now, Facebook Reactions are counted the lapp as likes. however, you can see the breakdown of reactions on an individual post by looking at the Post Details .
Thanks to the addition of Reactions, marketers now have greater insight into what their hearing thinks of their subject. Take note of people who “ love ” your capacity – they are probably good brand evangelists. And remember that an “ angry ” may not mean they dislike the subject, but rather the capable matter .
Measuring Social ROI
With the sum of time you spend building and maintaining your Facebook, you want to know your efforts are worth it. That ’ south why measuring your sociable hark back on investment is sol authoritative .
Before you try tracking your ROI, you need to set goals. key performance indicators could include views, date, leash generation, or a combination .
future, remember to use tracking links with UTM parameters every time you post a associate to Facebook. If you ’ re using a market automation platform like HubSpot, you can create these links directly in the software, assign them to a political campaign, and track the count of clicks they contribute to your overall view and head goals .
In the end, the close loop report provided by a market automation software will help you know which social media posts are actually impacting the bottom line of the occupation — in leads and customers. That way, you can be convinced in your decisions and receive more buy-in from executives for your social programs.
How to Advertise on Facebook
When you begin advertising on Facebook, you might feel like there ’ s a lot of boxes to check off. Is your copy engaging enough ? Are you targeting the veracious people ? How much should I spend ?
unfortunately, the overpower nature of Facebook advertising prevents many from even trying it out .
But with such a massive and divers collection of users, Facebook offers a unique opportunity for marketers to drive awareness for their brands — an opportunity that could besides drive more leads for your business than any other paid groove. Below, we ’ ll walk through the steps to get started with Facebook ad, making certain you ’ re producing the properly ad at the correctly time .
How to Create a Facebook Ad Campaign
The inaugural gradation in the Facebook ad checklist is to understand the terminology. In Facebook, all paid advertise can be broken down into three elements :
- Campaigns: A campaign houses all of your assets
- Ad sets: Ad sets are groups of ads that target specific audiences. If you’re targeting multiple audiences, you’ll need separate sets for each.
- Ads: The individual ads you’ll post on Facebook, each with their own colors, copy, images, etc.
When you create your first advertisement, Facebook offers two choices of editors: the Ad Manager and the Power Editor. The Ad Manager is a great choice for most companies, while the Power Editor was created for larger advertisers who need precise control over a variety of campaigns. For these instructions, we’ll use the Ad Manager. To find the Ads Manager from Facebook, go to your homepage and find “Ads Manager” from the left-hand menu.
Before you create an ad, you need to choose an aim. Facebook provides 11 to pick from, broken into three categories : awareness, consideration, and conversion .
How to Target and Optimize Ad Sets
once you select an objective for your crusade, Facebook will walk you through a few steps to define the consultation, budget, and schedule for your ad set. If you ’ ve used Facebook ’ s advertise tools before, you can select a protected consultation here. Otherwise, specify demographic information like localization, age, gender, and linguistic process .
You can then make your targeting more specific in the detail target box. Choose one of Facebook ’ s pre-made categories, or character in the name of a specific business Page your hearing may have liked. For exercise, you can target people who are concern in women ’ s clothe and the store Anthropologie .
In the “ Placements ” section, keep the “ Automatic Placements ( Recommended ) ” selected .
then choose your budget and schedule. Facebook offers the option of setting a daily budget or a life budget :
- Daily Budget: If you want your ad to run continuously, choose Daily Budget. Choose the amount you’re willing to spend on this specific ad per day. Remember, this is an average, so some days you might spend slightly above or below.
- Lifetime Budget: If you’re looking to run your ad for a specified length of time, choose Lifetime Budget. Facebook will automatically try to evenly spread the amount you select over the period of time.
Depending on which option you choose, you can pick the allow schedule for your ad fructify. Decide if you want your ads to start immediately, or at a late time .
With your ad located options selected, click “ Continue. ”
Facebook Ad Formats
now that you ’ ve designated your campaign and ad set, it ’ second time to create your ads. In this section, you ’ ll select the format, media, textbook, and links to create one or multiple ads .
beginning, Facebook will give you two ad format options :
once you decide how you want your ad to look, upload your creative assets and write a clickable ad headline. For each format, Facebook will provide some design recommendations, including image size, headline length, and more .
In the past, if 20 % or more of an ad ’ sulfur image was text, Facebook would deny the ad. Facebook has since adopted a new system, but it still favors images with minimal text. now, ads with higher amounts of text will receive less or no delivery at all. Check out this tool to test your images .
last, tweak your text and preview your ad for desktop or mobile wake. then, place your order .
Measuring Facebook Ad Results
now that your ads have been released into the earth, you ’ ll want to keep an eye on how they ’ rhenium perform. To see the results, go spinal column to the Facebook Ad Manager. If you have ads running, you ’ ll see an overview of all your campaigns .
At the peak, the dashboard will highlight an calculate of how much you ’ rhenium spend each day on ads. The dashboard is broken down into column to make it easy to filter by results, reach, or total spend .
There are a fortune of metrics to consider when determining the success of your ads, including range, impressions, clicks, click-through rate, and more. however, here a few to pay detail attention to :
- Actions: In the first step of creating a Facebook ad, you choose an objective for your campaign. Always consider your initial rationale when weighing the success of your campaign.
- Cost per action: Don’t just look at the number of actions that occurred. Look at how much each action cost and compare this between your different ads within the ad set.
- Frequency: Frequency is how often someone saw your ad. An ideal frequency should vary depending on the type of ad you ran. For example, you’d probably only want someone to see a promoted piece of content once. But it might take multiple views of a Page Like ad before someone takes an action. If any of your ads have a very high frequency but low performance, it may be time to retire the ad.
To export your data, look for the drop-down menu on the right side above the results .
Want even more Facebook ad best practices?
Facebook and HubSpot teamed up for a video series on how to grow your audience faster than ever using Facebook ads .
Watch the videos here
It’s Time to Put Your Facebook Marketing to Work
In a massive sea of 1.56 billion daily active users and 70 million businesses, you must stand out if you want to successfully commercialize on Facebook .
You have to be helpful. You have to be careful. in truth, to master Facebook market, you have to be inbound.
thankfully, Facebook ’ second tools cater to the seller who wants to form an authentic kinship with their consultation. With Facebook ’ s impressive collection of analytics tools, you can understand your target audience before you post. You can stretch the limits of your creativity with Facebook ’ s increasing numeral of multimedia contentedness options. then, with Page Insights, you can see which contentedness people engage with and segment advertising to ensure you ’ re helping more than annoying .
Your fans are giving you permission to reach them through Facebook. Make the most of the opportunity by following the childlike tips in this template .
The Social Media Content Calendar Template
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The Guide to Facebook Live
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Created By
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Megan Conley
Content Strategy @ HubSpot
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