How to build a Facebook Page that brings you new business and creates a buzz about what you do.
Facebook is a global phenomenon with billions of users. For many, it has become an essential part of everyday life. If you’re a business and not leveraging the power of Facebook, there are an awful lot of potential customers and brand ambassadors who aren’t getting your message. Building an engaging Facebook Page is very much like baking a cake. Follow the recipe, use all of the right ingredients and cook for just the right amount of time to create something truly desirable.
Building an engaging Facebook page is very much like baking a cake.
We would like to share with you 2 examples of how local businesses have used Facebook to grow their community and how they’ve found the perfect recipe for their business.
Example 1
Turnips opened in March 2015, owner Zoe Turner-Shepherd had lived in the village of Binley Woods, for the majority of her life and after a shop became available on the local parade she saw the opportunity and decided to open a local fruit & veg shop. The shop is situated next door to the butchers and along from the chemist, post office and hairdressers.
We’ve worked with Zoe to put together a marketing strategy for the shop. Facebook marketing and community spirit have been vital to her success, she has just celebrated the shops 5th year in business.
Our list of essential ingredients:
- Who are we targeting?
- Where do they live? How old are they?
- What are they interested in?
We identified a target audience of people who live within a 1-2 mile radius of the shop. They are generally people who live in the village and ages range from early ’20s upwards. They’re interested in events in and around the village as well as special offers.
Our recipe and key actions:
- Ask customers who visit the shop to ‘Like’ the Facebook Page, ‘check-in’, ‘leave reviews’ and subsequently ‘share’ it with their Facebook friends.
- Collaborate with other local businesses to share information and spread the news about everyone’s businesses.
- Create original content, which is helpful, and not just a sales message. This could focus on the benefits of certain fruits and vegetables. Recipe hints and tips.
The RESULTS
- Zoe has built a Facebook Page with nearly 2000 likes and this is a great tool for sharing news and keys messages from the shop.
- Although Facebook has been vital there has still been a real need for traditional marketing to make sure that all of the community are targeted. This has been achieved through leaflets being posted through doors and Zoe’s great involvement in community events which has really raised the profile of the shop.
- A customer recently commented ‘It has evolved so much since you first opened. It has become the real hub of the village for my family.’
And evolve it certainly has, one of the most important lessons in business is to listen to your customers and embrace their comments and adapt as necessary. Turnips now have much more of a cafe element to it than was originally planned and also now hosts many events.
Check out Turnips here www.turnipsfruitandveg.co.uk
Be sure take stop by their Facebook Page and if you love what you see please ‘Like’ & Share
Example 2
We started to work with a Business Mum in Coventry. She was looking to raise her profile and invite parents and toddlers to sign up for her classes. The class focussed on speech, language and building self-confidence for preschool children. Her idea resembled other mother and toddler groups but crucially focused on preparing toddlers for Early Years education. We were looking to reach parents and carers within the area, in the hope of improving class numbers. When we started working with this Business Mum, she already had a Facebook Page set up with 44 ‘Likes’, but was hoping to use this particular social media platform to spread the word and increase that number significantly.
Our list of essential ingredients:
- Who are we targeting?
- Where do they live? How old are they?
- What are they interested in?
We identified a target audience of females, aged between the ages of 24 and 45 and based in and around her hometown of Coventry. We agreed to use her Facebook Page to target this audience and build a community of mums who would be interested in classes and parenting topics.
Our recipe and key actions:
- Ask existing class attendees to ‘Like’ the Facebook Page and subsequently ‘share’ it with their Facebook friends.
- If venues, where her classes are held, had Facebook Pages, ask for their support to promote them.
- Create original content, which is helpful, and not just a sales message. This could focus on the benefits of attending a group, photos of what happens in a group, parenting hints, tips and questions, birthday messages to the children, etc.
- Leverage local Facebook community groups where possible.
Baking the Facebook Page cake:
Create a series of Facebook adverts targeting females in Coventry who are aged between 24 and 45 years who are interested in Parenting. Thankfully, Facebook adverts allow you to set your target demographics when creating your advert. The options are endless and you can even target people on an existing email list or people that have recently visited your website.
- Create a competition with a relevant prize that will help drive engagement on the Facebook Page.
- Share relevant posts to local Facebook groups (being sure to follow the community and promotion guidelines in each group).
- Measure results from content and adverts to see which areas perform well and which times were the best to post.
The RESULTS
- Page Likes grew from 44 to over 500 in just 6 months. The page now has over 1,400 likes.
- Mums and venues are now key supporters of the Facebook Page, regularly liking, commenting and sharing posts.
- Content is fun, engaging and helpful.
- Mums share photos and key milestones on the Facebook Page so that other parents can celebrate with them.
- Facebook adverts were extremely cost-effective and they resulted in an increase in Likes, engagement and filled all existing classes. They were so successful another teacher was recruited to add more classes within the city.
- Competitions proved to be very popular. They helped to spread the word and generate excitement amongst Mums and other family members.
- Measuring results allowed us to pinpoint the posts that worked well and also the best times for content to go out. We identified that the audience was online after 7 pm in the evening and they respond well to photos and questions about their children and being a Mum.
These are just two examples of how a few simple steps, coupled with a little data analysis, made a huge difference to two local businesses. This can be repeated for your business to drive sales, create brand loyalty and foster a community of people who will readily promote your business across your region. With a recipe for success like this, developing your business never tasted so good.
Have you got a creative block? Do you need someone to help with content creation for your social media? Our social media content creation prices start from £99 per platform. Complete social media management services are available on request.
If you are looking to plan your social media more effectively and you would like more ideas. Take a look at our downloads and templates package.