Recently we have had a lot of people asking us about using Facebook pages.  Some of the common questions are “Will they actually bring something to my business?” or “What do I post on Facebook to get business?”  These questions can easily be answered but would you prefer a generic answer or a personal one to your business?

I personally believe that Facebook holds true value for businesses that sell to consumers. Businesses that operate on a B2B system might not increase their sales via Facebook and so for them I would suggest using LinkedIn.  However, Facebook can be a very useful tool for getting your message across, keeping in contact with your clients and potential clients and showing your brand’s expertise.

Setting up a Facebook page is a very easy process and takes very little of your time.  Once you have created the page,  you can personalise the channel to suit your company brand. This can include photos, videos, website links and information.

When you set up a Facebook page you must first look at your social media objectives.  What are they? Are they to increase business turnover? Increase website traffic? If your social media objectives are to get more people to visit your websites, then post engaging updates with links to your website. Blogs are really useful in this case as it gives you fresh engaging information that you can share with your audience. Newsletters, videos and articles work just as well. If you want to increase the amount of people attending an event, then create a Facebook ‘event’ and invite all of your contacts. Increasing sales is the difficult one.  If you want to increase sales, then post videos and photos that create a sense of desire to your audience. You may struggle with services, but I would advise posting links to your website with more information on the service.

I have been working on a few clients’ Facebook pages and I must say that their performance has so far been brilliant. Using a range of techniques, the Facebook pages have successfully achieved a high level of interaction for our clients, increased website traffic and even got an increased footfall to one of our client?s events.

If you want to see an example of a Facebook page, then have a look at ours. The Appletree Facebook page posts once a day every working day. ‘Like’ our page and comment on any of the posts to keep in contact with us. Do you use Facebook in business? If so, how effective has it been for you?