Where most businesses get hung up and fail on Facebook is they come into it with the old marketing mentality and most of their posts are about marketing their services, announcing sales and asking people to check out their site. That mentality will kill your efforts quickly. Remember that Facebook is a social media platform. Therefore, you want to remain social. The popular rule of thumb is to keep at least 80% of your posts social, 10% marketing and information about your business and 10% announcing sales or other promotions.

One way to look at how to create content for your Facebook Timeline page is to think about going to a social networking party. If all you did was walk around and talk about your products and services, few people would ask you for your business card. Or, if you showed up, but just sat in the corner not talking to anyone, no one would learn about your products and services. The truly successful networking will be schmoozing, making small talk, bringing up compelling and interesting information and everyone will want his or her business card. Facebook is the same way, only you have to be successful at creating that personality by using words, images and videos.

So while you know the 80-10-10 rule, you also want to be very active in posting content. Three to four posts spread out throughout each day would be ideal, one a day would be minimally successful, and too many would irritate people. When people get irritated, they will “Un-Like” your page fast and possibly even complain about your business which is the last thing you want to have happen. Even with three to four a day, spread out throughout the day, if they are not thoroughly interesting, compelling and/or entertaining risk causing people to “Un-Like” your page. It would be best to just stick to one a day to avoid irritating your followers.

Knowing what to post everyday can be challenging when you know that your business needs to stay 80% social. The best thing to do is consider what your target market would be most interested in hearing about. If your business caters to moms, posting recipes or ideas for the home and garden are always well received. For further engagement, you can ask them to share their favorite recipes, or ask them questions about what their favorite meals are for the weekdays or weekend. If you are a service oriented industry, it may be trickier to know what to post every day, but there is sure to be some relative information that your target market would find interesting. Avoid trite and cliché posts such as “Happy Monday Everyone”, while a few Facebook users may enjoy that, the majority of them will see it as a pathetic attempt of your business to get their attention.

You can post comments with links to blog posts you create at your business blog, or other news or information that your target market would enjoy hearing about without coming across as “marketing” if you are conversational about it. Mentioning personal tidbits about yourself or your staff members will help followers know you better. Obviously, you do not want to go overboard on personal information, but comments such as “Mary won Employee of the Month and gets to leave early on Friday” with a picture of Mary grinning ear to ear with a thumbs up sign is whimsical and people will feel good about congratulating her which will bring some great interaction on your business’s Facebook page.

Videos are popular and choosing fun, yet appropriate, videos to post and share with your followers is always content that is well received. Quotes and sayings are popular too, but go lightly with those because they are overdone and people get tired of seeing them unless they are truly unique and captivating. When you find a great one, you will be amazed at how many of your followers will share it with their friends.
Any time your content is shared by your followers at your business Facebook page, a link will show up on their page, back to your page. You will be able to get additional exposure and followers to your page. People will also be more likely to comment on your content when it is posted if it is interesting to them. That will bring more popularity for your business Facebook page as well. Keeping this in mind, go for content that you think will be thrilling for your followers.
Along with consistent posting of content, responding to other’s comments of your posts, or posts on your business Facebook page by followers is critical. People want to know they are worth your time and responding quickly will allow them to feel that way. It will also help keep the conversation going, and show up on their page as well as your business Facebook page.

You can organize content in the admin panel to show up in your Timeline. Many posts you may want to hide after they have run their course, so six to eight weeks. Other posts you might want to change the posting date on to include them in more relevant parts of the Timeline history, and others you will want to highlight and keep up for a long time even if they are not directly relevant to your business history. For example, if a Follower posts a glowing testimony, mouse over the upper right hand area of the post. You will see a star. Click on that star and it will highlight the post, making it bigger, so it becomes more noticeable.

When you post consistently using the 80-10-10 rule, followers will get used to seeing your brand on their page. When they share it with their friends, their friends will get used to seeing your brand on their page as well. Your conversion rates will begin to improve and your business reputation will start to sky rocket.

Cheers!

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