What once seemed like a good idea is now required to have a fighting chance at helping your business’ success. The majority of consumers, if not all of them, flock to the web to learn about local businesses. People have gone from strictly using search engines and have since branched out to relying on social media. This strategy just makes sense. There’s no reason not to take full advantage of the medium in which people spend most of their time. Over the last few years, more and more businesses were finally catching on and creating pages. The problem that people are faced with now is posting on the page and gathering a following that is going to be useful to the success of their business.

First and foremost, you have to be sure your page is appropriate. This may seem a bit obvious, but you should check to make sure that you’re a Facebook business page and not a regular profile. A page is used in a similar fashion as the profile, but it is designed specifically for businesses. Because you will be using this page to interact with potential consumers, it should reflect your brand entirely. This means using your business logo for the profile photo and picking an appealing cover photo. You can use a photo that matches the colors of your business logo to maintain consistency. Some businesses even use photos highlighting specials or promoting an upcoming event.

So these two examples may not be within the same industry as you, but you get the picture. Once you have set up the page right, you need to focus your attention on the content itself. Just having the page and never using it is not going to benefit you. You need to get your business’ brand out there so that people will start following you. For starters, put a link to all your social media platforms on your website. This way, loyal consumers will be encouraged to like your page. Some businesses even promote it in person by adding their Facebook url to their flyers or business cards.

Other ways to gain more followers in addition to keeping interest of your current ones is by posting quality content. This means you should be concerned with useful, relevant, and engaging information. If you have a blog on your site, post links to it on your Facebook page and introducing it with a quick and witty summary regarding the blog. This will gain attention to your page in addition to your site. You can even post articles, photos or videos from other outlets just as long as you give your opinion on it. For example, a real estate agent could use a link from a major newspaper regarding the trend in the economy and give his or her take on how it will affect the housing market. People that find your content interesting will then share it causing your profile to be seen by an even larger audience.

Finally, you’ll want to engage with your followers. If you are overwhelmingly successful at the previous task then people will likely leave comments on the posts. You’ll build trust in your audience by responding to questions and keeping a dialogue. This means using a conversational tone and posting on a fairly regular basis. If you find that posting alone isn’t doing enough, you can always pay a small fee to “boost” certain posts to expand the audience even more. Gradually you will grow in popularity and gain loyal customers in the process.

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