Successful social media marketing isn’t about being on every channel. It’s about engaging your best customers and sharing helpful, relevant, and valuable content with them. But it can be challenging to decide which social media platform(s) to be on, especially when new ones are coming out all the time! 

While your social media strategy will depend on your industry and audience, Facebook is a great place to start. As the world’s most popular social platform with more than 2.7 billion active users, Facebook will help you engage with your followers and provide them with helpful content that can lead them to your website — and/or a buying decision.

Here are five reasons why you need Facebook for your small business:

1. Build brand awareness and trust.

Whether you own a bakery, a law firm, or a construction company, you have to spread the word out about your business to get customers and grow your base. Since so many people are already on social media, why not reach potential customers there? When someone finds out about your business while scrolling Facebook, they’ll have the chance to click through to your website and learn more about your company, how you help others, and why they should consider working with you.

Even if someone visits your Facebook Business Page and isn’t ready to make a buying decision, they can still find value in the awareness and consideration content you share. This can include blogs on your website, links to third-party industry sites, landing pages with gated PDFs, and more. 

All of these pieces will encourage people to get to know your business better and trust you as a knowledgeable, helpful resource that’s not always pushing a sale. And when they are ready to buy, they might be more likely to turn to a company they’ve come to know and trust: yours!

2. Target your best customers with ads.

Facebook’s News Feed shows users the content that’s most relevant to them. That means only 0.5% of your current followers will actually see your posted content. But if you want to reach potential customers, you can create a social media ad strategy. Facebook ads can target your ideal audience, are measurable, and have a great ROI as a low-cost marketing option for small businesses.

So how do you find and target your ideal audience? When people sign up for a Facebook account, they can provide their age, gender, location, interests, and other information. Then, Facebook will analyze what content they post, share, and engage with to better identify their interests (and show them content they’ll actually want to read). Then, you can use this information to create Facebook ads that only show up for your target audience.

If you’re worried about the cost or effectiveness of Facebook advertising, the average price for an ad actually decreased by 9% in late 2020 — and the average user clicks on 12 ads every month. So people do see and click on ads, and they can be an affordable part of your marketing strategy!

3. Boost SEO and engagement.

As we mentioned above, just posting to your business pages usually won’t bring in new business. But it could spark additional business from current customers. That happens through helpful content, which can translate to better search engine optimization (SEO) rankings and more engagement between you and your Facebook followers.

Google and other search engines review the type of content you post on your Facebook Business Page, as well as how people interact with your content (i.e., by clicking, liking, and/or sharing it). By sharing content from your website, you can drive more traffic to your pages — which search engines take as a sign that your website has helpful, relevant content that people want to read and interact with. This, in turn, can lead to better SEO rankings (or being higher up on Google’s results page).

Along with an SEO boost, great (and consistent) content that encourages social interaction will improve engagement on your Facebook Business Page. Regular posts, shared links and videos, and other content will give you a chance to reach your customers every day. You can also engage your current followers by encouraging them to ask you questions, share your posts, or leave a Facebook review of your business.

4. Connect with your followers.

Setting up Facebook for your small business will give you the chance to communicate one-on-one with customers and share helpful information with them. Along with providing content for them, they can share more about themselves with you. Inviting their interactions, comments, and feedback will allow you to learn who they are and what they’re looking for in a business, product, or service.

Plus, making an effort to connect with your followers will give your company a more human side and make your page feel more like a community. This is what many of today’s shoppers look for in a company; they don’t just want to hear about helpful products and services. They’d also like to see what core values your business operates on, what community nonprofits you support, and what your company culture is like. When you share those things on your Facebook Business Page (in a professional and appropriate manner), those with similar values, passions, or mindsets will be more inclined to connect with you (or even become your customers).

5. Analyze helpful metrics.

Once you’ve started marketing your business with Facebook, you’ll want to analyze your post and ad performance. This lets you see what content was the most relevant, interesting, and useful to your customers. Analytics can also help you tweak your social media strategy for better audience engagement if they didn’t connect with a certain type of content, time of day for posting, or anything else.

To access these analytics, log into Facebook and click Insights in the top menu. This will take you to an overview that provides a summary of everything that’s happened with your Facebook Business Page in the past day, week, or month. You can then analyze all kinds of metrics, including:

• What time of day your target audience is most engaged 
• Types of content you’ve shared (videos, outside resources, etc.)
• How people engaged with your content (likes, comments, shares, etc.)
• How many users clicked through to your website from social media
• Which content was the most (and least) popular with your audience

Now that you know why you need Facebook for your small business, you’re ready to start engaging with customers online!

All of this may seem overwhelming at first, especially if you’re still learning the ins and outs of Facebook, or if you’re worried about posting on your Business Page and monitoring comments regularly. You also may not have the time (or the desire) to create, manage, and analyze posts and ads on your own — and that’s okay! 

A social media marketing agency can help you plan a Facebook strategy, set an advertising budget, manage your page, and analyze engagement. Then you can sit back, relax, and do what you do best: lead your business and watch it grow.

Our proven marketing protocol helps companies make more money, free up time, and plan an effective strategy.

Treefrog Marketing is an agency in Lafayette, Indiana focused on small business. We specialize in strategic marketing and advertising, graphic design, web design, social media, SEO, and more. For more information, please visit our website. You can also connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.