Facebook mistakes. Your small business has made them. Whether it’s an unintentional post or an inappropriate comment, mistakes will happen.
Especially in an environment where content is being shared at lightning speed.
However, some of the worst Facebook mistakes are the ones that often go unnoticed. They’re the missed opportunities. The chance for increased engagement, interaction and shares.
While Facebook continues to change the rules, you must make the most of every opportunity. No matter if it’s missing content, a lack of strategy or an obsolete bio, mistakes are made and prospects lost.
So, what mistakes are you making and how can you fix them?
Here are some of the top Facebook mistakes small businesses make and what you should do instead.
Facebook Mistakes Small Businesses Make
1. Not Completing “About” Info
Don’t underestimate the power of the “About” section within your Facebook page.
Just like the “About” page on your blog, this area within your Facebook page is one of the top places fans will visit.
As they land on your page – eager to discover what you’re all about and what they can expect – ensure those details are front and center.
Tips to Help You Craft Your “About”
- Add your mission, vision and values along with any founding details that would matter to potential clients.
- You have a short amount of time to gain the attention of potential fans. Put the most relevant details at the top of your “About.”
- Answer questions any customer or fan would have. (e.g. how long have you been serving the community)
- Provide success stories and examples of how you’ve helped others. Was there a difficult situation you were able to work through? Highlight that story!
- Strike industry jargon from your your messaging and talk to consumers in a conversational way.
- Add keywords and phrases that are relevant to your business and would be used by any consumer looking for your small business.
2. Posting Only One Type of Content
Would you be able to tell your story through a simple status update? Probably not.
Graphics, video and links all play a huge role in describing what you do and how you help, so don’t forget to change things up.
And keep in mind, not everyone consumes content the same way. Using multiple media types allows you to reach a new audience and keep your fans excited to come back for more.
Marie Forleo actively uses video to engage her audience. Marie’s short videos are personable, funny, and always loaded with tips to improve your business.
Ever struggle with staying present while still planning for the future? Hit play now for my advice on how to find the balance. http://bit.ly/HoK5qk
Posted by Marie Forleo on Wednesday, April 22, 2015
3. Not Using Facebook Insights
If you have a Facebook Page and don’t check your stats, then you’re missing out on a lot of useful information.
Initially, what you’re looking for are audience statistics, such as age, gender and country of residence.
Now, take it a step further and look at total interactions and interactions per post.
Check what time is best to post and what type of content receives the most engagement.
4. Cover Photo
The Facebook cover photo works as an online billboard. You have the chance to immediately convey the details about your company to anyone landing on your page.
Let your Facebook cover photo make a strong visual impact. Use this space to tell your story, sharing details that allow potential clients to understand the what and why behind your business, not just the how.
Too often, the cover photo is mistaken as a spammy marketing tool. While Facebook has significantly relaxed their cover guidelines, you still want to steer clear of anything that reeks of over-promotional.
Look to Peg Fitzpatrick’s Facebook cover as an excellent example. She changes it out frequently, keeping it fresh, interesting and always on brand.
What to Do to Increase Facebook Engagement
1. Create a Memorable Brand
What sets you apart from your competition? Are you clear on who you help and how you help them? Do you know what problems your company solves?
In order to create a memorable brand and outshine your competition online, you must clearly articulate your value.
Your company has an amazing opportunity to translate what you do offline to online. Don’t fall flat by misunderstanding the medium.
Share your history, unique abilities and commitment to your community. Tell your story in a real and authentic way that resonates with anyone looking to connect and hire or purchase from you.
2. Share Consistent Content
Creating, curating and sharing consistent content within Facebook updates can be a challenge. In fact, one of the top questions I receive from companies across the country is content related.
Have you often wondered:
- Where to find top content?
- What you should be talking about?
- How long you should spend writing Facebook content?
If so, you’re not alone. But, there’s good news. I’m going to demystify how social media managers find content on a daily basis.
I’m also going to give you a few ideas on where you might have content hiding.
Where to Find Content
- Use an RSS reader such as Feedly to consolidate all of your favorite bloggers.
- Set up Google Alerts with queries such as “social media news” or “blogging tips.”
- Create a folder or use bookmarks to collect your favorite Facebook pages. Keep your finger on the pulse of what’s happening within your industry.
- Pay attention to what your competition is talking about. Is it a hot topic? Share that story and put your own unique spin on it.
- Share celebration, behind-the-scenes, convention or speaking photos.
- Post your “customer of the week” photo and offer a mini bio and background congratulating the team member on their excellent work.
- Share your latest blog post with a link back to your blog.
- Already shared your latest blog post? Pull a quote from that post and turn it into a graphic with a tool like Canva.
- Talk about an upcoming event you are promoting or a local charity that you support.
As you can see, you are only limited by your creativity.
Look at your past marketing collateral and determine what you can share that transfers your mission, values and vision to your Facebook fans.
3. Build a Strong Community Culture
Use your Facebook page to clearly express your company culture.
Share what makes you stand out and what matters most to you both internally as well as externally.
Post pictures and videos from local events, office parties and your charity work. People love to see behind-the-scenes.
Take Southwest Airlines for example.
Their company culture extends well beyond the typical airplane flight. You see it in everything they do and reflected in each of their employees.
From an empty gray concrete slab to an active, colorful community hub. This #EarthDay is about the Heart of the Community: http://social.southwest.com/qLI
Posted by Southwest Airlines on Wednesday, April 22, 2015
4. Have a Clear Call to Action
A call to action isn’t just for your marketing material. You need to use it within your Facebook posts as well. For example, you’re sharing your latest blog post titled, “5 Mistakes Every Blogger Makes and How to Avoid Them.”
Share your article on Facebook with copy such as, “Are you a new blogger?” or “Just getting your new blog started” and then tell them how you will solve their problem.
It might look something like this,
“Starting a new blog? How You Can Avoid Mistakes Every Blogger Makes!” Click here to see which ones we see more often than not and find out what you can do to avoid them.”
Other clear calls to action are: “find out more,” “click here for more details,” “don’t miss this tip,” or“watch this video for more details.”
The bottom line is this; you never want your fans to guess what the next step is. Be crystal clear in what you want them to do. Whether it’s click, share or comment; spell it out.
Final Thoughts
Take a moment to think about why your prospects or past clients use Facebook?
Do they want to connect and engage or are they looking to be heard? Do they need support or is it the answers to their most frequently asked questions they crave?
My guess is that it’s a mixture of all of the above.
Give your community a virtual water cooler where they can gather, interact and share stories on a daily basis.
Make your Facebook page the go-to location for your industry or niche!
Excellent talking point, this is really informative statistics and it’s an eye-opener for the online business marketers and it has must noted this educated words. Thank you, Rebekah! You are awesome writer.
Thanks Jerry! Glad you found it helpful.
Hi there! Thanks for all these tips! I’m in the process of getting a blog up and running, and I have some questions about the social media accounts, like Facebook and Twitter. Should the page title be my name or my blog’s name? Should the profile photos be my head shots or the blog’s logo? My blog is about veterinary school and medicine, and my name appears no where in the URL or title of the blog. Thanks so much!
Great post! I have currently be researching ways to build my online presence and get my new design business out there as well as figure out how to improve my marketing and this post answered a ton of questions I had! Love the tips thank you 🙂
Very informative post. I realized that my cover photo does not make sense after reading this since it has no call to action. Will have to edit it out!
Have fun making those edits Sarah!
This post is amazingly helpful. It’s clear, to-the-point and full of information I’ve been looking for. So much social media to figure out and this kind of post is welcome in my little part of the world wide web! Thank you very much!
Hey Rebekah,
I like posts very much because I can check myself if I am doing the same mistakes which I have done so many times. Although I don’t use my Facebook page as much, I’m planning to use it more often, and it would be beneficial to apply some of these tips you mentioned, like revamping the About page and cover photo. Thanks for sharing!
It a great post.
Thanks
Hello Rebekah , my name is Sara and I work for @Smetrica , this is a tool created by two Spanish computer engineer . Its functionality is that you can obtain measurements of any Facebook page for free. Here you can analyze the number of fans and their variations , interaction with users and many more details . For any question we would be at your disposal . Thanks in advance 🙂
Thank you for this post Rebekah. It’s really interesting many small businesses make mistakes on Facebook. I guess we can learn a lot from mistakes. I agree that businesses who have Facebook page should check the Insights. You can really analyze the trend your page and post are going. With the data you can gather you can plan for better SEO, Socia media marketing and content marketing.
We all make mistakes Leo…hopefully we learn from them. Facebook changes so often, it’s important to continue to test and pay attention to those insights.
Hey Rebekah,
I like posts like this because I can check myself if I’ve been making the same mistakes which I have of course. Although I don’t use my Facebook page as much, I’m still getting traffic coming to it, and it would be beneficial to apply some of these tips you mentioned, like revamping the About page. How could I forget that LOL! Yes there are some things I need to work on to give my audience a better experience! Thanks for sharing!
Confusion is being made more and more foggy where visibility is reduced up to millionth millimetre. Hope more microscopic measurement yardsticks are invented to clearly define state of confusion to fathom depth of it.
Hi Dharam – do you mean it’s getting harder to understand what’s working and what’s not or how to measure tactics on each of your social networks. There are ways (very effective ones) to do this – it depends on your goals and which tool will help you best track them.
I’m happy to see I’ve only dropped the ball on a few of these. Must. Look. At. Insights!
I ditched Facebook for over a year and am just now getting back into it. I hated it for how impersonal it felt on the biz side of things, but I’m realizing it was a vibe that started with how I was doing things. Totally my bad. So far the toe back in has been a great experience. It’s helped to learn how to foster community and make it a ‘we’ kinda place.
Great list of getting er done Facebook style resources and tips. As always, you ROCK, Rebekah!
That’s a really interesting take Andrea on Facebook. It can feel impersonal, especially if you’ve been really active from a personal level and then make a switch to a total business focus. I’m happy to hear you’re back on the horse and giving it another shot!
Hi Rebekah,
Really enjoyed the content and found this Blog insightful as it has been challenging finding content for our page. One can just keep at it to get there.
Thank you!
Sincerely,
Dawn
Hi Dawn! I’m glad to hear it was helpful!
Hey there Rebekah! I agree that a lot of businesses are making these mistakes on their pages and on other platforms as well.
On top of Google Alerts you can also use the alerts from Buzzsumo they are much more accurate then Google Alerts are these days. Buzzsumo just added a Trending Content feature which is great for curating hot topics or RSS feeds.
Thanks for the post Rebekah. Love the image!
I love everything about Buzzsumo Ileane. It’s such a great tool for tracking and researching. I use it daily and have really come to love the alerts.
This was a really useful read as someone who is just starting out. Though, I’m still a bit apprehensive about putting so much time into the creation and management of a page when my business is so new.
Hi Holly – you do have to find the right balance. Determine how much time you can reasonably give and then factor in what that means as far as content. Can you commit to one post a day and if so, how much time will it take to get it created and posted? Then put it in your calendar like any other appointment and check that box off as done each day.
Hi Rebekah maam,
This is a heap of information and guess what I got the first tip itself wrong on my facebook page. My facebook page has a different niche than what I have my blog on today. This needs to be changed.
Other tips on branding and all are so useful in fact this is a post which I am bookmarking because I have to follow every trick mentioned here.
Thanks a LOT for this info and tip treasure. 🙂
Clear, simple, powerful and practical – thanks Rebekah! Not only is this a great little resource to get us out of the starting blocks but also one to come back to periodically to help keep the main thing – the main thing 😉
Hello and Happy Monday Rebekah!
Thank you for including me in your article with Marie Forleo – one of my absolute faves!
Regardless of what other changes Facebook has made, the essential “how to be awesome” on Facebook for a Page has remained constant. Loved all your tips and examples!