This month we have invited Digital Marketing expert Serena Dot Ryan to share her tips and tricks for using Facebook for Business.
How To Be Productive On Facebook For Your Business
Facebook for business is for connection and opportunity that should contribute to your business profitability.
However, if we’re not set up for this, your Facebook presence can be a huge waste of time.
Prior to commencing my business, it was very difficult to find me on Facebook. Unless you knew one of my friends, you couldn’t send me a friend request. I actively hid my profile as I didn’t want to be found. I worked in Social Media and Digital Marketing for some big brands and made an active choice when I wasn’t working, I didn’t want to be found online.
“WHEN YOU RUN A BUSINESS, SOCIAL MEDIA CAN BE EXHAUSTING AND AN UNNECESSARY ADDITION TO YOUR TO DO LIST UNLESS YOU HAVE A DEFINED PURPOSE TO BE THERE.”
I’m still naturally very shy, however when I started Serena Dot Ryan in 2014, I developed the #PPP (Private, Public, Promotion) approach to being online for business. This approach enables me to have an online presence with a purpose where I can be efficient with my time and clear with what and where I’m sharing to have a positive impact on my business.
Private
We all have a private life, it is important to keep it that way. My number 1 rule with this is if you truly want to keep it private, don’t post on Facebook or any other Social Media platform. You can do your best to set your privacy settings, but that doesn’t control how others use Social Media. Screenshots can happen. So with that being said, here are guidelines for you to control what you want to put on Facebook.
Controlling your Privacy Settings:
-
Go To Your Settings On Facebook. This is located in the drop-down menu on the far right of the blue menu bar.
-
Select Privacy from the Menu on the far left.
-
Adjust who can see your stuff.
There are quite a few options here you can adjust. I recommend going through each one and adjusting accordingly.
If you believe your previous posts shouldn’t be public, you can limit the audience on past posts to friends of friends, friends only or even ‘only me’ (actually you not me).
Alternatively, you can change post privacy individually in your timeline.
Plus; Under ‘Who can contact me?’ you can restrict this to only Friends of Friends to limit clients/ customers wanting to connect. If you do take this option, makes sure your bio is up to date with your business details, so people can connect with you there instead.
Public
Gone are the days of thinking you are not a celebrity, therefore, you’re not a public figure. If you run a business or represent a business, you are a Public Figure of that business. So if you haven’t already done so, you need a public figure business presence online that is separate from your personal profile.
With your Public Figure page, you can share why you started business and talk personally about your passion for your business and what is important to you.
Set up your Public Figure Page:
-
Login to your Facebook Account.
-
Go to https://facebook.com/business.
-
Select Community or ‘Public Figure’ as a category.
-
Click ‘Get Started’ and type in your name.
-
Click continue.
-
Your page will then appear.
-
In the upper-left corner of the page, click ‘Add a Picture’ and upload a professional-looking headshot.
-
Next, click ‘Add a Cover’ to upload a cover photo or cover video.
-
I use and recommend Canva.com to create your Cover Photo. Whilst you can use any photo, look to add one that represents you in a work setting.
This is powerful and immediately sets you apart from your others in your industry. As your story, your experience and reason for your business are unique to you.
Promote
Once you have set up your Public Figure page, the next step is to promote your content to your ideal customers online. Through the Facebook Ads manager, there are opportunities to set up custom audiences of people who are interested in what you do. By promoting your personalised business content to these people you are increasing the awareness of people who could be interested in the product or service you offer.
TradiePad has successfully applied this approach to their business and increased with their ideal customers by 237%.
Discover more about maximising social media for your business in our TradiePad Tech Talk featuring Serena:
“Click With More Customers: The Importance of an Online Presence.”
Would you like to understand how your online presence performance could be improved?
