Facebook is a place to engage clients and prospects in a personable way. It’s a lighthearted platform, characterised by discussion, interaction, and personality.
If your strategy for reaching clients and prospects is to be easily accessible, Facebook may be a good medium to pursue. Use Facebook to reach clients and prospects where they already spend time, giving them an opportunity to engage with you—and you an opportunity to add value to your network.
Here are few tips, suggested in a white paper published by LPL Financial, USA, to get acquainted with the mood and purpose of Facebook:
- Determine your strategy: You can approach Facebook in several ways:
- Create a page you use to post engaging content
This option is appropriate when your primary audience is on Facebook and you have the time and resources to dedicate to engaging them. You also have value to add to your network.
- Create a landing page and use ads to drive people to it and/or your website
This approach may be beneficial if you don’t have the time to invest in engagement efforts, and you also have the financial resources to commit to ads.
- Identify the value
For most people, Facebook is a way to connect with others and engage with interesting and/or relevant information. Tactics you may consider:
Share links to articles, write commentary on current events, provide tips or other educational content, use humour or provide other entertainment.
2. Step 2: Set up your page
Setting up a business page on Facebook is a straightforward, guided process. Before you start, it’s useful to have the following ready and available:
- Your value proposition
- Two photos/images you’d like to use to represent your business—one for the main picture that will appear throughout the site and one for the background/header image
- Facebook provides guidance on the best sizes (height and width, by pixel) for each
3. Step 3: Engage your audience
If you are planning to use an engagement or ad strategy, you will need to plan and prepare content. Establish guidelines for what and when you’ll post, then take a more ad hoc approach. Consider the following:
- How frequently you want to post?
- What tone/approach will you use (commentator, educator, entertainer, etc.)?
- Will you link to outside sources, and how will you determine whether a source is credible?
- What topics would interest to your audience?
