Quick Guide: Starting Your New Small Business on Facebook

There’s no reason to convince you to join Facebook. You already know that everyone is on it. It’s unlikely that you don’t have a personal profile.

When you want to bring your small business into the digital age, Facebook has become a “must-have,” but even if you recognize the value of Facebook, you might not be aware of these tried-and-true methods for using it.

I was testing a Facebook marketing campaign for one of my small business cleints (an eCommerce company from New York) and here are my tips about how to properly run a Facebook campaign:

Get More Traffic with a Vanity URL

Facebook has made it easier than ever to change your page URL to something that’s easy to remember. For example, if your company is “Smith and Son Plumbing,” your ideal URL might be “http://facebook.com/smithsonplumbing.”

Who wouldn’t remember that?

Don’t Forget to Promote

Once you’ve built your Facebook page, you have to let people know that your business has gone social. Send out links in your newsletters. Ad QR codes or URLs to business cards. Update your email signature and let people know when you see them in person that they can now find you on Facebook.

Let Customers Check In

Facebook’s Places feature is quite popular, and people might already be checking in to your floral shop or restaurant, even if you haven’t claimed it. After you claim your place on Facebook, you can advertise just like you would your business page. Additionally, you should add your address, phone number and business hours to the listing to help consumers get in contact with you. People who only frequent your business once may not look up your Facebook page, but if they check into your place, this is good information to have.

Get the Most of Your Status Updates

When posting on your Facebook Timeline, try to engage your customers. Ask questions. Work your products or services in naturally. Bring up recent and local events. Talk about the holiday season, and don’t be afraid to appear personable. Humor and inspiration are a breath of fresh air to Facebook users who are used to businesses talking at them instead of talking to them. This helps increase discussion, and you should absolutely reply. It builds your reputation as a company that consumers want to do business with.

Get Fans to Do What You Want

Of course, you do want your Facebook page to benefit your business, which is why you should include a call to action in your post. Ask people to click your links, share your photos or comment on your status updates. Just make sure that your fans can share your content. You can also use your profile as a place to ask readers to visit your site. For example, the “About” section to go to the relevant page on your website.

Increase Exposure with Ads

Facebook ads display on the right side of many pages, and they’re a quick way to increase your audience for a low fee. Purchasing Facebook ads is easier than going with Google, and it doesn’t cost as much as you might think. Even spending $50 per month advertising your Facebook page can seriously increase your exposure. Sponsored Stories are specifically recommended, because they get almost 50% clicks than standard ads on Facebook.

It’s easy to see whether Facebook is helping you meet your goal because of the default “Insights” panel. Pay attention when you log on to your page and make adjustments as needed.

About the Author

Ben Sawyer is Social Media Consultant for various clients. Here Ben gave helpful tips about how run properly Facebook marketing campaign for small business. Tips are based on his experience while he was working for www.vandkocandles.com , small business company from New York helping them to increase number of visitors to their website.

You can also follow Ben on Twitter for his future articles.