Social Media Business Personas Part 4 | Facebook

Having a business Facebook page has become the golden standard in terms of a professional social presence, there’s no denying it. Initially, the push for businesses to jump on board came about when customers flocked to the platform in mass quantities. This is still partly the reason for the need as the platform boasts a whopping 214 million users in the United States alone. An even MORE impressive stat: Nearly 66% of the entire U.S. population is on the platform. Businesses have to go where the customers are, it’s true. But there is so much more behind the need for a solid Facebook presence.

It’s all too easy to simply schedule out your posts and move on. A RELEVANT Business Facebook page is so much more than that and it can totally transform your business if you get it right. Businesses have a bit more freedom here in terms of tone, marketing and content strategy. Some businesses stick to a tone of humor, some keep it strictly professional. Regardless of whatever voice you choose to maintain, the tools at your disposal in Facebook are unmatched and constantly evolving.

Facebook remains one of the most diverse and effective means of reaching current and potential customers. We’ll run through some of those hard hitting Facebook tools here. Who knows, maybe you’ll find some ways your business can implement them and do a little more than just post articles every day.

1. Facebook Live: Facebook live first came about in 2015 but wasn’t released for public use until 2016. Use of the feature has since skyrocketed and continues to grow. Businesses large and small find that this is an easy means to connect directly with customers. The live chat feature offers customers the ability to ask questions and raise issues in real time. This can be problematic for businesses in certain situations but in general, the tool offers an easy and engaging means of speaking directly to the customer. We often see behind the scenes content, special giveaways and live reporting from businesses on this tool.
2. Facebook Polls, Check Ins, Tag Event, GIFs - Facebook has implemented a slew of features which can help you spice up your posts. Many businesses find that polls and GIFs are a highly effective means of getting users engaged. However, what works for one audience will not always work for another. One thing is for sure, the only limit to your post engagement is YOU. There are several tools out there to help you get the conversation going. So test them out, see what works and run with it.
3. Insanely large character limit - It’s almost offensive how generous the 63,206 character limit is on Facebook. Twitter’s character limit is famously short but even Instagram only allows 2,200. Although we advise you keep your posts relatively short (somewhere in the arena of 40 characters if you can manage it), there really is ZERO excuse for unclear communication with that large of a character limit. This also means that you can plug website content using full URLS and blog post names. No need to use URL shorteners.
4. Facebook Ads Manager - We’re not going to get into the weeds on what you can do with Ads Manager but now that for some businesses, it can be an effective and sneaky tool. Features such as geotargeting, Facebook Pixels and Analytics are all super easy ways to target specific audiences. If you’re brand new to Ads Manager, there are tons of free and paid training courses out there. If you’d rather save the time, hire someone to manage it for you (shameless plug)! ;)

What will work for one company will not always work for another. Depending on your brand and product, you may find more success on an alternative platform. We see this all the time with more visually based brands. Regardless of your brand or product, we firmly believe in the need to have at least a bare bones Facebook set up. Chances are that even if YOU are not actively seeking out customers, they may be looking for you.