Facebook marketing, being the most popular one, has transformed how business is conducted. But for most businesses and service providers, it seems like the battle for online presence is never-ending. While all the tips you read can be overwhelming, there are several simple yet effective ways to market your brand on Facebook.

It’s time to take your business page to the next level. You can take a look at several social media packages online but here are some of the marketing experts tips on using Facebook for business:

Related: Top 5 Reasons to Use Social Media Marketing in Your Business

1. Your Facebook page should reflect the overall look and feel of your brand

• Make good use of your vanity URL – make your full business name as your Facebook page username so it will be easier for customers and search engines to find you (e.g. www.facebook.com/yourbusiness)
• About section — use keywords that are commonly used by your customers to search for your business and products. Include your website URL in your description
• Set the right category – if you’re a local business and you select it as your business type, Facebook users can “check in” at your business, giving you more exposure

• Cover and profile photo — professional quality of cover photo (851×315 pixels) and profile photo (160×160 pixels)

Jayson DeMers, Definitive Guide to Marketing Your Business on Facebook

2. Study your page viewers and post strategically

The best time of day to publish posts can vary from page to page and audience to audience.

Research shows: Posts from 1-4 pm have the highest clickthrough & share rates.
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HubSpot, Do’s and Don’ts: Facebook for Business

3.Attract more likes by using images

According to Facebook, 75% of content posted by brands are images. Show the human side of your business by featuring customers or clients. Images shared on Facebook tend to attract the most likes, shares and comments.
Marketing Donut, Checklist

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4. Brand awareness and positive word-of-mouth

The more you encourage people to click the ‘Like’ button on your Facebook page, the more you boost brand awareness. Friends and extended network of your followers will then get to see your products or services and learn about them too. Hire a VA and assign a task or two to handle your social media campaigns.

5. Always drive traffic to your website

Businesses can use an extra traffic from Facebook. Include a link to your website on your page. Visitors who already know something about your business are likely to be more receptive than the average visitor. Make sure customers who land on your Facebook page will see stronger marketing messages and will be motivated to click the website link.

Benefits of Facebook for business

Business owners and professionals:

6. Why more executives are now on Facebook Live

Facebook’s “Live” video feature, which launched last August are attracting more business execs, such as Loic Le Meur, a cofounder at LeWeb, and an entrepreneur and investor.

Initially, Le Meur created live videos randomly, but quickly noticed an impressive increase in views and audience engagement. He then started doing live videos for one hour each day. Now, his page already has over 160,000 followers and he said he is getting more than one thousand per day.

“My approach with Live was to try to do something original and share the way I am building my startup in an authentic and transparent way,” Le Meur said. “I wanted to come across as a founder telling his friends what I am doing and what I need.”

Le Meur, on PR Week

7. Take a shot with Facebook Ads

It’s important to write clear and concise ads that speak directly to your targeted audience.

Katy Dinner, a top San Francisco-based agent conducted a study of the impact of parking spaces and garages on home prices in San Francisco and used a graph of the data in a successful Facebook Ad campaign.

She recommends setting up Facebook ads to target not only your fans but also their friends — because those who are in your area of influence are more likely to become clients and be in your target demographic.

Also…

Be smart about the image you use. People want to see properties, not your smiling face.
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“They’ll also click on graphs if the information is focused, relevant and not available elsewhere, says Dinner. ”

Katy Dinner, Mashable – Facebook for real estate

Talking about Facebook ads, at VAT LLC, we try to attract more visitors by pinning our most popular ad post to the top of our page’s timeline.

Some Facebook success stories:

8. Write a compelling story with strong CTA’s

To guarantee effective creative ad content, craft a compelling copy with strong calls to action. Top-quality images are also a plus.

FabFurnish.com ran photo ads that showcased its most visually appealing products. Link ads in the News Feed and the right column also drove traffic directly to the company’s website.

“We’ve found Facebook to be one of the key drivers of our growth. While it continues to be great with its reach and targeting capability from a branding and visibility point of view, it has also delivered tangible results in terms of site visits, the number of orders and overall revenue.”

Vikram Chopra, co-founder, FabFurnish

9. Build a community through constant interaction

 “Facebook has played a huge role in turning me into a best-selling author. That fact of my life can’t be overstated. As my books started to take off in late 2011 and early 2012, I began to think about ways I could harness reader excitement about the books and build a community around my stories.

Today, I’m the proud owner of 33 Facebook groups with more than 16,000 members. I love my Facebook groups, and I love the personal interaction with my readers. Thank you, Facebook, for making it possible for me to be “down on the street” with my readers every day!”

Marie Force, How Facebook Helped Me Become A Best-Selling Author

10. Develop trust and loyalty with your fans

When you post status updates, don’t make 100% of your posts just about you and your business. Help out someone in need by providing insights, answering questions, giving advise. Be transparent and let your own stand shine through.

What trending media relate to your audience? Make a post based on that.
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Lori Peterson, an Ambit Energy consultant has a different approach. To gain more clients, she used Facebook’s influence by telling her story in subtle ways.

She once posted a status like: ‘Setting off on a new adventure. Going to be busier than ever.’ Almost immediately, someone contacted her to ask what the new adventure was.

Lori Peterson, How Consultants Can Get Clients on Facebook

Lastly, don’t ignore your page insights. This will help you learn more about the people who are most engaged in your business. Find out what’s working and not so you can maximize all of your efforts.  The key to a successful Facebook marketing for business is to first understand its unique opportunities and then tailor your posts and offers to meet your audience’s needs and interests.

If you have questions or if you need help setting up your Facebook page to market your business, please contact us at 1.866.596.9041 for a free phone consultation.

Learn how Facebook marketing can work for your business.
Download Facebook Marketing Blueprint for FREE!

What’s a hastag? – A hashtag is a pound sign (#), and is used on Twitter and other social media platform to categorize messages.

According to Twitter, hashtag is defined as the # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages.

How to use hashtags on your social media accounts:

1. On your Twitter and Facebook accounts, write the number sign (#) along with a topic or phrase like: #virtualassistant, #happy, #feeling grateful
2. On your Instagram account, write the number sign (#) along with the phrase or topic with the picture you are posted: I had a great time today! #feeling great, #happy, #excited.

On your social media accounts, when you see feed of posts with hashtags and clicked on a certain tag, you will be directed to topics related to that word. This made interaction a lot easier and is really beneficial to businesses, companies and entrepreneurs. . Hashtags turn topics and phrases into clickable links in your posts on your social media accounts. By using interesting hashtags, people can find posts about topics of their interest.

You can write as much hashtags as you want but be careful in choosing the right hashtags of your industry.

Choosing the right tags

1. Choose a tag that is easy to remember. Don’t complicate the tag or tags you want. Make it simple and easy to remember. With all the hasthtags proliferating in the social media, the ultimate thing a business wants to do is create a hashtag that is complicated, hard to spell or pronounce.
2. Create a unique hashtag. By creating a unique one, you are also creating your brand and tag other people of the same interest.
3. Search for the trending and most used hashtags before using it. Read and follow discussions taking place outside your circle of followers. From there, you will be able to find new potential customers and followers.
4. Use these hash tags on multiple social media channels. Use the same hashtags you have in one account to your other social media accounts, specially the unique one that you have created for your brand. Be consistent with your hashtags.

One of the other boundless things about hash tags is that you can get a glimpse on what people are speaking about a certain topic of interest, especially those that are relevant to your business, without the need to follow everyone.

In general, this is important for businesses as it allows you and your Social Media VA to monitor your brand, points of interest and be aware of what’s happening in the market and social media.