Back in March 2017, Facebook reported 1.94 billion monthly active users (1.28 billion daily active users). Obviously, it’s the marketing channel no business can ignore. Yet, too many small businesses do not understand how to utilize the platform properly: In May 2017, a study of over 4,700 US small businesses found that only 24 percent were seeing positive ROI on Facebook.
The problem is that there’s no simple answer as to how to translate Facebook likes into ROI. It all comes down to months (and years) of building up your social media presence using a solid strategy. But before you start working on that strategy and start investing in ads, there’s some groundwork to be done. You need to optimize your Facebook page to translate those efforts into actual clicks and conversions. You need to set up your page to help your new followers quickly understand what your business is about and how it can help them.
Here are eight steps to walk you through the Facebook page optimization process.
A study of over 4.7K small businesses found that only 24% were seeing positive ROI on Facebook
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1. Work on Your Page Details, a Checklist
Add a profile picture. It’s much more important than your cover image because it will accompany every page update, even when it’s shared to someone else’s timeline.
- The profile picture should be at least 180 x 180 pixels (and square).
- The profile picture should be readable when viewed at 40 x 40 pixels (which is what it looks like in the newsfeed).
Add a cover photo. A cover photo is a nice way to make your page more eye-catching.
- Try changing your cover photo seasonally or when your business has important news.
- Instead of a cover photo, you can now use a video. It can be 20 to 90 seconds and should be at least 820 x 312 pixels.
Enable a custom URL or “username” for your page. A username helps people find and remember your page. When you create a username, it appears in a customized web address (for example, http://ift.tt/2wa80nr) for your page which makes it easy for people to type in the URL. It also helps a page rank higher for that username. Your username should match the name of your page as much as possible
Always complete your “Description” field, making sure you use all the allowed 250 characters for original content. Original content helps your page rank higher.
Add your website. This is self-explanatory; we always want Facebook users to get to your site easily.
Bonus tip: Link to your page from your website, too. This will get that page rank higher for your business name, helping you in your reputation management efforts. (Here’s a great collection of icons to choose from.)
Apart from the major components listed above, there is more information you can (and should) add:
- Your business contact details (phone number and email).
- Your other social media accounts (Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Youtube, Pinterest, etc.).
- A brief list of your products.
- Your professional awards.
- Your business story.
Let me elaborate on that last thing on the list in more detail. While the main description field will limit you to 250 characters, the business story section will let you tell more about your business. This is very useful because the more original text you have here, the more opportunities you get to rank your page for business-related search queries. You can use this field to:
- Add legal disclaimers.
- Add a short business FAQ.
- Describe your processes and services.
- Tell your founder’s story.
Facebook offers pre-made page templates to help you optimize your page for the types of the business you are running, including:
- Services
- Shopping (This one has the built-in Shopping tab which allows you to feature products on Facebook.)
- Business
- Venues
- Non-profits
- Politicians
- Restaurants and Cafés
The template simply dictates the layout of buttons and tabs that have been found most efficient for specific business types. You can edit and customize them as much as you like after you pick one.
3. Select the Page CTAYou page’s call-to-action is located below your cover photo. You can choose a CTA from four main sections, so look for one that’s most relevant to your business:
- Book services
- Get in touch
- Learn more
- Make a purchase or donation
To customize your CTA button, click it and select “Edit Button.” There plenty of CTA options you can choose from. Some examples of Facebook CTAs include:
- Book now
- Start order
- Call now
- Email now
For each CTA, you’ll need to add the most appropriate landing page where the user will perform the suggested action.
4. Add Page Tabs to Promote Your Products or ServicesTabs are sections of your page’s content that appear below its name:
Standard tabs are Home, Posts, Videos, Groups, etc. However, you can also add more tabs that better match whatever your business is about. For example, you can opt to add the following buttons:
- Offers, to highlight your current offers
- Shop, to list the products you want to feature
- Services, to highlight your services
To change the tabs, go to “Sections,” then to “Edit” and scroll to the bottom of the page to view the list of current tabs and the option to add a tab.
5. Upload Your (Hot, Seasonal, etc.) ProductsSpeaking of tabs, you can set up a Shopping section and add your products, one by one, by specifying their names and prices and uploading their photos.
The huge advantage of doing that (apart from giving your Facebook audience a separate shopping section where they can access seasonal offers and hot deals) is that you will be able tag your products in your page photos and videos. This way, if your video goes viral on Facebook, people will be able to click through to the product listing right from within the video.
6. Enable ReviewsNearly all potential customers consult online ratings and reviews before making a purchase. I am one of those customers, and I’ve noticed that Facebook reviews tend to be more positive than those on other platforms. This may be due to the fact that Facebook is a very personal platform—people don’t go there first to vent their frustration at companies. On the contrary, they are there to talk to family and friends.
That being said, Facebook is perfect for publicizing your customers’ reviews. To do that, go to “Settings,” and click “Edit” next to “Review” to allow visitors to review your page. If things go wrong (and that may happen to the best of us), you’ll be able to switch those reviews back off going forward.
7. Update and EngageNo optimization tactic can save your Facebook page unless you update it often and engage with your audience. There are a few audience-building hacks you can try:
- Ask questions to engage your followers in discussions.
- Post curated content (with the help of tools like DrumUp which saves tons of time).
- Upload short, well-annotated videos.
- Stream live videos from (virtual) events.
- Tag other business pages you (industry tools and non-profits).
- Upload images (Collages, quotes, team photos, etc.).
You can use visuals to further market your business, without being to “salesy” or intrusive. I use Bannersnack to create visual content for my social media accounts. You can create visuals in several sizes at a time and brand those images using your logo. Bulk editing is a lifesaver!
Furthermore, you need to reply to your customers within minutes on Facebook, even if it’s just a polite boilerplate message to let them know you are on it. Your Facebook followers will see how fast you tend to reply on Facebook:
You can get great insight into how your competitors are growing their Facebook presence by using these two tools.
SerpstatSerpstat will let you see which search queries drive traffic to your competitors’ Facebook pages. Unlike other similar solutions, Facebook shows ranking data on a page level (instead of a domain), which means you can simply type in your competitor’s page URL to see where it ranks for popular keywords.
Knowing which phrases your competitor’s page ranks for in Google will help you understand the kind of content yours needs.
BuzzSumoBuzzSumo has a helpful “Facebook Analyzer” feature that crawls popular Facebook pages and lets you see which updates got the most likes, comments, and shares. You can use its filters to find particular types of updates your competitor is using. For example, type in your competitor’s Facebook username, and then restrict results to “Questions” to see how your competitor is engaging fans in relevant discussions.
This analysis will give you a ton more ideas on how you need to optimize your Facebook page to build followers and engagement.
Which Facebook optimization steps are you taking to generate more traffic and conversions? Please share your tips in the comments!
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