Ok – your medical practice or business has come to the conclusion that yes, it is no longer optional to be engaged and involved in the dominant form of communication known as Facebook. You are ready to take that long-dormant Facebook page you created years ago and turn it into a marketing and communication engine, or it is time to establish a FB page for your business. What are some ways to grow the number of followers that will actually turn into advocates, online friends, leads, and clients?
Below are some quick tips and best practices to make sure your Facebook presence is generating positive engagement and growth for your brand:
- Optimize your Facebook page. Be sure the About section of your Facebook page is fully completed, optimized, and up-to-date. Not only does this information help with search engines, it also allows people to quickly learn about your business as they glance as your page. In addition, the Facebook algorithm favors pages with completed About sections, so this will boost your prominence on the feeds of your followers. Since so much of our world is focuses on visuals, you also need to be sure that your cover and profile images are interesting, high quality, creative, and fits into your brand profile. For many businesses, your logo can serve as a suitable profile image, as long as your logo is clean, consistent, and recognizable. The cover photo can be selected and cropped to create an interesting and compelling image, and yet, this photo should still fit into your brand scheme and tell some story about your business.
- Engage! It is no secret that the Facebook algorithm favors those posts that show higher levels of engagement – Likes, Comments, and Shares. So it is essential that your posts encourage two-way communication with others on Facebook. You should make a point to respond to comments, engage in conversations, and ask follow-up questions with those that have commented on your posts. Tag other Facebook users and respond in a way that will continue or encourage further conversation. Facebook also allows you to invite users who Liked a post on your page to follow you. Just click on the number of reactions to your post and you will be able to scroll through and invite those to follow you (if they do not already).
- Post content that is interesting and informative. According to Facebook, they would like all posts on their social network to be “short, fun-to-read, and include eye catching images in order to gain attention” from other users. Knowing that the vast majority of peole are quickly scrolling through their Facebook feed multiple times each day, it is important to utilize outstanding and interesting images, captivating videos, powerful headlines, and content that is valuable to the user in order to get them to stop and engage with your posts.
- Have a Plan! The days of posting in Facebook when you have time or whenever it is convenient are over! Now it is imperative to strategize and include your social media posts as part of an integrated marketing/communication plan. Facebook has very powerful analytics to help you plan when the best days/times are to send you posts. In addition, a Facebook strategy enables you to post consistently, and this is best achieved with a content calendar for each month.
Need help with your Facebook page? Contact the social media experts at Reach Beyond Marketing today!