Before we consider the 7 things mentioned in the title, let’s start with several questions to help you decide if you even need to continue thinking about making a Facebook page.
If you are not able to answer any of these questions with a resounding yes, then you should not consider a Facebook page as part of your marketing strategy.
- Are you willing to share your best kernels of knowledge for a long time with no expectation of an immediate return?
- Do you have an extensive background in a field and network of people with similar knowledge in this field?
- Are you willing to invest your own money to promote your content on many networks and even hire a virtual assistant to help you do so?
- Are you willing to work on building a mailing list through a tool such as MailChimp, Constant Contact, or Infusionsoft?
- Is your mission clearly defined? What drives you and what will entice others to join your cause?
Creating a Facebook page does not equate to instant traffic and a huge following from the general public.
Sure, a celebrity can tweet and receive millions of responses and shares, but don’t expect the same for your page. It takes time and effort for most people and businesses to develop this type of following.
So, if you are still convinced that a Facebook Page is the right thing for you and your business keep reading to learn how to build an engaging page with an active and well-developed following.
-
1. Define Your Mission
- This is putting your passion into words. What is it that makes you put in the long hours? What makes your motor purr or your clock tick? Need some inspiration before tackling this step?
- Take a moment and watch Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why” Ted Talk video.
-
2. Create a Website
- To make the most of your Facebook page you must control the site. So, start a blog using a true WordPress install on your own domain or a subdomain.
- Now, you will have the ability to collect Facebook custom audiences and run Google Analytics.
-
3. Blog Regularly on Your Site
- Use the website you created in step 3 to blog on a regular basis for at least 3 months. Your goal should be at least 50 posts during this time frame. This step will prove that you publish content consistently and have enough knowledge to not run out of legitimate things to say. Make sure to install the Facebook comments plug-in and Facebook domain insights on your blog to help you build connections to Facebook. You should also consider putting your user profile on the site. You may want to start your Facebook page by using social graph plugins. If this seems too technical of a task, the experts at Josieque Designs would be happy to help you get started. One last thing in this step is to collect emails on your site. Manage your list by using a marketing automation vendor.
-
4. Establish a Public Figure or Business Page
- It is time to set up a business page. Make sure that you are not creating a user profile. Many people decide to use a different profile picture for their public figure page than they use for their personal profile. Insert landing tabs that allow people to sign up for your email list. To simplify this process, use Heyo or Tabsite to connect your Facebook page with your email program. Make sure to talk about your blog on this page. You can also backdate posts and include key business milestones.
-
5. Promote Your Page
- Build your Facebook fan base by using the GCT (goals, content, targeting) strategy. If you don’t have time to read the linked article, that means to invite your email list, website visitors, and friends and family to like your business page. Fans=engagement. Plain and simple. When people visit your site, more fans will make your look legit. Setting up a Facebook page without these first 5 steps, is like leaving the house for a road trip without filling up the car with gas. A good, well-traveled site takes planning and care.
-
6. Promote Your Posts
- When you are first starting out, you can either wait a very long time to establish an audience or you can pay to promote your content. Boosting posts to your custom audiences works best and is most effective if you have taken the time to build your audiences. You should have started creating these audiences in the prior steps through your email list and website traffic.
-
7. Enlist Your Converts
- As you start out, about half your posts will be content that you reframe and recycle from things you shared in other channels. The other half will most likely come from people in your network who feel the same about the topic you are covering. Once your channels all align (web, email, social) life will become much easier. Your brand traffic in search engines will increase, which in turn causes Facebook traffic to grow. Facebook traffic will cause your website and email traffic to grow. Like an egret and a cow in a field, your channels have evolved into a symbiotic relationship. By setting your goals and mission you are able to track your progress in Google Analytics and measure your ROI. Value can now be assigned to emails being collected, new leads that are brought in, and sales that are made.
Doing things in the right sequence is important. In baking, not following the recipe can lead to a culinary disaster and with Facebook it could lead to a deserted and forgotten business page.
Your personal brand should be developed before anything else. On Facebook, people connect most with personal stories. Michael Jordan has more engagement than Nike Golf, and Nike Golf is more popular than Nike in general. Your Facebook page allows you to connect at a human level- H2H (human to human). Your page should be a destination for fans to engage with you and become inspired by your mission and goals.