Hot Tips to Drive Visitors to your Facebook Page

Most brands still don’t understand the importance of a Facebook page despite the rising buzz about it. With 2.4 billion messages exchanged between people and businesses monthly, it is about time people make the most out of the channel.

53 percent of people who message your business say that they are more likely to shop with a business that they are able to message.

Over the next two years, 67 percent of people say that they are intent on increasing their messaging. Messages sent will appear on a user’s locked phone screen and your chances of sending a follow-up email to your client is greatly increased.

Marketing your business on Facebook is something that needs you to plan wisely and understand this marketing platform to ensure that your business page is very successful.

Here are some of the ways that you can use to run your page successfully:

Find the Answers

It is important to understand why your business should be on Facebook. Not every business is suited to be on Facebook as such it is important to focus on platforms that have the highest pay off for your business.

What goals are you trying to achieve with your Facebook page?

These goals may include:

• Creating a brand and product awareness

• Building new partnerships

• Providing customer service

• Increasing your sales

It is also important to have a clear idea of your target audience. Who do you want to reach on Facebook?  The more you know about your audience the better placed you are to target your message.

Finally, figure out the best strategy that helps you achieve each of your set goals. Strategies are meant to be reviewed and reset, they should not be set in stone.

Use The Space You Attain Wisely

Facebook gives you space that can leave a lasting impression on people who visit your page. As such make sure to pay close attention to your cover image, your profile image, and your ‘About’ section.

The kind of information that appears in the summary box is specific to your Page category.

The ‘About’ section, which is under your profile image, allows you to write around 155 characters and the characters are visible on your profile. If you can, ensure that you include your website address.

You should have a cover image whose size estimates 851 pixels by 315 pixels. Your cover image should not include more than 20 percent of your text.

Also, have a profile image whose size is of an uploaded image of 180 pixels by 180 pixels which shows at 160 by 160 pixels.

The Cover Of Your Facebook Page Should Talk

Your cover image is like prime real estate on your page and it is the first thing that your page visitors notice.

The cover image should express who you are as a business. Your page visitors should be able to understand what your business entails at a glance.

 Ensure You Post Regularly

Posting randomly or not regularly enough tends to leave a lasting impression on your page visitors and affect your reach. In turn, posting too frequently can have adverse effects on your page engagement.

Therefore, it is important that you find a rhythm by testing your frequency and keenly watching your numbers in order to optimize engagement.

Further creating a Content calendar can help you stay on track and make the page easier to manage.

Understand the Platform

Are you aware that not all your fans see your posts? In fact, probably less than 16 percent of your fans see your page posts. In comes Edge Rank. Edge rank determines what posts appear on a Facebook user’s newsfeed.

Facebook edge rank formula includes:

• Affinity: This measures the relationship between the viewing user and the Creator of the story. The closer the relationship the higher the score.

• Weight: Different types of posts of posts carry different weight s in terms of photos, videos status updates, and links. The higher the weight, the higher the score.

• Time decay: The older the post the lower the value.

Some of the ways to get more messages on Facebook are:

 Optimize Your Facebook Page For Messages

Having a Facebook page which encourages users to message your page is not just the first but also the easiest way to encourage visitors on your business page to message your brand.

It may seem overly simple but just optimizing your page to point users towards messaging you could have a huge impact on the number of messages you receive from interested or curious potential customers.

It is recommended that you try:

• Setting your default Facebook page CTA to message Us

• Prompting visitors to message your page with the copy in your business description.

Set Up Response Assistant

A response assistant is Facebook’s own version of a baby-bot. It can help you field incoming messages – even when you are not around to catch them personally.

Response assistance allows you to:

• Set instant replies

• Stay responsive when you can’t get to your computer or phone

• Set a messenger greeting

In each of these, you can greet those who message your page with a personalized message and use personalized tokens.

You are also able to include a link to your contact us page, FAQ or even to your phone number in these messages.

 Comment On Posts With Your Messenger Link

This is a new feature on Facebook that allows you to comment on posts with your brand’s messenger link.

if you run an ad on Facebook that people are asking questions about, ensure that you reply with this link to continue the conversation within messenger.

Run a “send to messenger ad”

Messenger ads are Facebook’s newest ad type.  They allow you to target audiences just like any other ad, but you can encourage them to message you directly from the Ad.

Note though that you will want to have your inbox modified to ensure it is money that is well spent. Since this is a new Facebook Ad type- the best time to experiment with these ads is now

 Commit To Using It Daily

The best way to make the most out of Facebook messenger is to monitor the channel just like you would monitor your own inbox or your favorite slack channel.

The nature of the channel of conversation encourages on-demand action, thus the more responsive you are, the better.

Finally, keep it light on the channel because after all it is conversational. Messenger is a great opportunity to showcase your brand’s personality by use of GIFs and emojis to make it more appealing to your audience.

Use Facebook Features

Some of these features include:

• Vanity URL

• Post Targeting

• Pinned posts

• Highlighted posts

• Featured Likes

• Custom tabs

• Events

• Offers

• Promoted posts

Respond To All Comments

Only around 30 percent of brands respond to comments. Ensure that you respond to all comments and make sure that your settings, found under ‘Manage Permissions’, allow for people to post on your page as your page has turned on messages so that people can send you private messages.

Cross Promote

In order to increase your page visibility, you need to tell people about it. Do not forget to link your personal profile to your page.

Also, ensure you promote your page on:

• Other social networks

• Your website

• Business Cards

• Marketing material

• Events

• Newsletters

 Invest in Your Page

Clearly, Facebook ads are no longer an option for most businesses. Be sure to include Facebook ads to your marketing budget as it helps increase your likes, engagements, visibility, promote events, and market your products and services.

 Provide Value

Apply the 80/20 rule. Try publishing around 80 percent original content that provides value to your followers and no more than 20 percent promotional content.

Promotional content includes selling your products or services, posting great customer feedback unless your client’s post is directly on your wall, showing your work or portfolio and promote your accomplishments.

There is a myth that once you create a Facebook fan page for your business, the first and most important thing to do is invite ALL of your Facebook friends using the “suggest to friends” feature.

However, this strategy does may not always be effective and often it backfires.

Facebook Terms of Service TOS

The breaking of Facebook rules may result in shutting down of your page without any notice. Ensure that you are familiar with the TOS.

Keep in mind however that TOS may change without notice as we recently saw with the cover image rules. It is important to visit https://www.facebook .com/policies to learn more on TOS.

Conclusion

Facebook captures a wide audience of various demographics and is a great marketing platform to include in your marketing strategy.

With Facebook Messenger, you have an is an effective way to quickly create visibility and promote your business wherever you are by responding to your audience in real time.

With the several tips discussed above, you are guaranteed to make inroads in your online marketing strategy which is a sure way to more visitors to your facebook page.