Do you have social media questions that stop you from being more active for your business?
Are you feeling overwhelmed by all the advice that is available?
After working in Social Media marketing for some time, I am asked many questions. However, some questions appear again and again so in this blog, I answer the top 10 Social Media questions that I hear regularly.
1) Do I Need A Facebook Business Page
Most Definitely YES!
Facebook is the largest Social Media platform with nearly 2.7 BILLION active monthly users. Regardless of your industry or business size, Facebook is the first platform to master. There are many benefits to owning a Facebook business page including:-
- Increased brand awareness and loyalty
- Increased traffic to your website
- Boost your website SEO
- Advertise promotions
If you’re still not convinced, read our blog ‘9 Reasons Your Small Business Needs a Facebook Business Page’
2) Do I Have To Be On Every Platform?
Not at all. Every platform has a different type of audience and your ideal customer will not be on all of them. Being active on all platforms would be very time consuming and cause your message to become very diluted. Concentrate on mastering just one or two platforms and really start to build relationships.
3) What Type Of Content Should I Post?
A great mix is a variety of engaging and trust building posts. Once you know who your ideal customer is, you begin to understand what they like, their struggles and their real pain points. Your posts can then talk directly to them and help them. Also use videos and images wherever possible and they gain far better organic reach than text only posts. Creating blogs and sharing them on your social media is also a great way to add personality to the content and show your expertise. However, keep sales posts to under 20% of your overall content.
4) How Often Should I Post?
It varies on your time available and platform. Finding and creating content can be very time consuming. Good quality content posted only once or twice a week is far better than posting 6 times per day with content that is of no interest to your audience. However, regardless of how often you post, ensure you are being consistent. It also varies depending on the platform. For example, a post on Twitter has a much shorter shelf life than it does on Facebook as Twitter doesn’t restrict the reach of your content. Therefore, it is often a good idea to post much more regular on Twitter and even duplicate your content several times throughout the week (original content only).
5) What Is The Best Time To Post?
Contrary to popular belief, there is no best time to post. Many articles will say that Facebook posts that are scheduled on weekdays 1-3pm achieve a higher reach and those on Fridays gain a better engagement. However, other articles will say that posting ‘off peak’ is best as there is less competition for space on the newsfeed. My advice would be to look at when your ideal customer is online. Are they in a different time zone? Are they 9-5 workers that would only be checking social media in the breaks. Create a schedule with varied times and days and then take a look at the results to see when you received the best engagement.
6) Should I Pay For Social Media Advertising?
Most likely. Platforms like Facebook have been making it consistently harder to reach your audience organically and Twitter & Instagram are set to follow suit. Therefore, if your budget allows, it’s worth spending a little to get your audience to a free download in exchange for their email address. That way, you can promote to them directly with paid offers for free in the future.
Offering a FREE product will achieve higher conversions than trying to sell a paid product directly. This is because your audience has to grow to know, like and trust you before handing over their hard-earned cash. Therefore, a FREE download is a great way to show your expertise and start to build that relationship with them.
7) What Is The Difference Between A Boosted Post And Facebook Ad?
There are several differences. To start with, boosted posts are posts that are showing on your business page. On a normal day, your posts will only reach 1-3% of your followers organically. Boosting a post allows your content to reach a much wider audience and you can set the demographics to really target who you want to see it. However, there are more demographics available with a Facebook Ad e.g. Interests and behaviours. You are not able to change any of the content with a Boosted Post and you simply set the daily budget and how long it should run for.
With Facebook Ads you need to have an Ad Manager account and your ad is created from scratch. This does, however, give you the option to create several images and a variety of placements, including Instagram. Your ads will then be shown to your chosen demographics but do NOT appear on your page.
8) How Do I Get More Followers?
By Providing good quality content that your audience wants to read and share. Businesses often think they measure their success with social media by how many followers they have and although the higher the following the further the reach (in physical numbers), a small number of engaged followers are far more valuable than having 50,000 followers that don’t connect in any way. Concentrate on providing content that is helpful to your target audience and ask them questions. When you receive comments, answer them and start a conversation to build that relationship and take it to the next step. If people find value, they will tell others who will want some of that too.
9) Should I Be Doing Facebook LIVE?
Absolutely! Video live streaming has become the fastest way to reach and connect with your audience and with Facebook giving up to 135% higher reach for video, it’s a great way to increase your brand awareness quickly. Your livestream gives your audience an opportunity to see you and connect with you in real time and see the personality behind the brand. They can include product launches, educational videos, a Q & A session or even introducing a team member.
If you want to make sure your live broadcasts are a success, check out our blog ’12 Secrets To Increase Results On Facebook LIVE’
10) How Do I Assess The Return On Investment On My Social Media Efforts?
Return On Investment (ROI) can be measured in many different ways depending on the goals you have set. Having clear goals that are specific and measurable is essential. For Facebook Advertising you need to assess your ad spend against your sales/leads. For example, if your cost per click is £1 and it takes 5 visits to your website to create a £10 sale then your ROI is 200%. (£10 sale / 5 x £1 CPC) But be sure to look at the lifetime value of that sale. Are there likely to be future sales from that customer? If so, your return on investment is even higher as you will not have to pay for each of their return visits.
When you are looking at your time spent posting content to your business page, the best measure of success is to take a look at the engagement of your audience and how far your posts are reaching. This can be found in Facebook Insights. You could also set a target for X number of clicks to your website.
There are hundreds of questions asked every day about social media marketing for your business and these are just the top 10 I hear on a regular basis. Is there a burning question you would like answered? Please leave a comment below and I will be happy to answer it for you.
Are you sitting in front of your computer wondering what to post on your Facebook business page?
Do you feel overwhelmed and need ideas to get you started?
Then why not join us in the Facebook Kick Starter Academy™. A membership programme with monthly content ideas, online training, weekly group coaching calls and a community that will help support you to get the most from your Facebook business page, enabling you to be more confident, consistent and effective?
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This is Suzii, signing out ’til next time. Have a great day everyone!I am
