Social Media How To: Facebook for Business

So you’ve created a separate business page from your personal Facebook page and you know you’ve got to follow the 80/20 rule. (See our previous social media for business article for helpful tips on that.) Now what? If you’re wondering what or when you should post, or how to use the “Insights” tab, read on for some help.

Shorter posts attract more attention. Facebook does not limit your word count, but posts that stay between 100 – 250 characters have about Sixty percent more likes, comments, and shares. Why? Shorter posts appeal to your busy Facebook fans who don’t have a lot of time to read a long message. Grabbing their attention requires short, easily readable posts.

Tell your fans what to do. Posts that ask people to:

• "Comment" receive 3.3 times more comments
• "Share" receive 7 times more shares
• "Like" receive 3 times more likes
• "Caption this photo" receive 5 times more responses
   

Keep your posts visual. We live in an increasingly visually focused world. The same is definitely true of social media.

• Photos and videos get about 120 percent more engagement than links and text-only posts. Photo tip: While you can post images that are 403x403 pixels, we recommend posting images that are 900x900 px for higher quality and more appeal. (The max upload size is 2048x2048 px)
   

Get into the habit of posting consistently. That isn’t to say you should post every hour of every day. Set a schedule at the outset where you post at least 3 times a week. As your fan-base grows, you can post more often and with better content as you learn what works.

Be involved with your fans. Respond quickly to comments on your posts to let fans know you’re listening to feedback. You are creating a community for your business with your page. People log in to Facebook to connect with others, not to be sold to. For example if you post a question respond to your fan’s comments.

Test out different kinds of posts. If you want to try something different with your content go ahead and put it together. This is where the analytics on that “Insights” tab come into play– you can compare how well your posts are doing by reviewing your page “Insights.” *Note: You can only access the Insights tab when you have 30 likes.

Have more insights? Let us know how Facebook is working for your business.