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As long as the web is alive and kicking new social media platforms will keep popping up like mushrooms after the rain. It’s a struggle to keep up with all the Twitters, Snapchats, Vines and Kiks. It can be difficult to know which platforms to engage with and which to ignore. Over the next few weeks I’m going to break down the six most popular social media platforms and what kind of business they benefit - starting with Facebook. Some of this might be basic for you, but I want to make sure you have a clear understanding of what each platform does and how it can be utilised for your online business.

Facebook 101

Facebook is the largest social media sharing platform with over 1 billion users worldwide. Facebook allows you to do three things - have your own personal profile, a fan page and a group. The differences between the three are distinctive - a profile is your own personal Facebook avatar, a fan page is public and geared towards businesses and community pages and groups are akin to forums where users don’t have to be friends to interact but can post content and engage in discussion.

Your personal profile is not accessible to everyone unless you want it to be. In order for someone to interact (like, comment or share) with your posts they must add you as a friend first. The accepted Facebook etiquette is that you don’t generally contact strangers or “friend” people you don’t know in real life. Your personal profile allows for varying degrees of privacy and security based on your preferences. Without a personal profile however, you don’t have the ability to set up a fan page or a group which are the most beneficial to businesses. Unless you are your own personal brand - but that’s a whole other article.

What you want for your business is a fan page which is essentially a website presence but on Facebook. You can add your logo, a cover image (with your most recent specials or sales) and write as much or as little as you would like about your business and what it does. Fan pages are designed to be an easy point of contact with your fans and customers. This is also the way to advertise your product to your target market. Frequent posts at key times during the day keep customers engaged in the brand and keep it at the fore front of their minds. You want to make sure whatever you are sharing makes them want to share it to - that gives the brand exposure and essentially free advertising. You can assign different moderators to your Facebook fan page, allowing staff access to make posts.

Facebook fan pages also allow you to pay for targeted advertising. You can be quite specific as to who will see your ad - what sex, age, location, interests.

There are several ways you can help your page and Google rank using Facebook. Backlinks direct traffic from Facebook posts to your website - the more links you have pointing to your website, the better your ranking and each post can be an opportunity to link back to the website. Using well researched keywords in your fan page title and URL, as well as in the About section can result in your Facebook page ranking and as long as you have a link back to your website, clients will be able to find you.

If you want to chat about whether Facebook is a good investment for your business, give us a call on 1300 123 500. In the meantime you can follow the TOTECS Facebook journey on the brand new fan page by clicking here.

Til next week,
Kasia