Most of us use Facebook to share dank memes or catch up on your friend’s latest baby pictures. But have you thought about using it to tell your company’s story?
While many people visit a company’s website for basic information, or peruse Yelp for latest reviews, most of your current and future customers today are looking for you on Facebook. For years, businesses have been making great strides in leveraging the “social” component of social media to connect with their communities. Tools such as Pages, Groups, and even Messenger are becoming essential tools for marketing and storytelling.
That’s why Facebook created a Publisher and Media Resources site. They want to work with publishers and content creators to develop resources for them to be more efficient and effective in their messaging. Here are a few of our favorite Facebook tips, tricks and tools from the site, and let us know some of your own methods in the comments below!
Page or Profile?
First thing’s first: make a page or a profile for your business. If you’re not sure which to use, Facebook lines out the differences between the two on its support page. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. But generally, Pages are meant to be a little less personal, while profiles give you the option to connect more closely with your community. Here are a few highlights:
- Profiles only allow you to add 5,000 “friends,” but you can have as many “followers” as you’d like.
- Pages allow you to have an unlimited number of “likes” or follows.
- Profiles allow you to send and receive personal messages, but Pages do not.
- Pages provide Insights, valuable metrics around growing your fan count, engagement and reach.
- Profiles can admin multiple Pages
- Pages can boost posts through paid advertising
Most businesses create Pages as opposed to profiles simply for the ability to create advertisements and gain access to Insights. However, you will have to decide which is best for your brand or company.
Use Instant Articles
Have you ever noticed a tiny lighting bolt in the corner of news articles or links on Facebook? If not, you’ll probably start seeing them everywhere. These are Instant Articles, and they allow your posts to upload to your users at lighting speed. As a Page admin, you can custom-design each article with 19 elements, including font selection, colors and layout preferences. You can even create interactive features such as:
- Autoplay Video
- Tap to Expand, Tilt to Explore
- Fullscreen Snap-to-Frame
- 3D Rotating Maps
- Geotagging
- Slideshows
- Embeds
Instant Articles are a must-have for any business seeking to make a splash on Facebook, and they truly streamline your overall user experience. Plus, they’re free.
Discover
As a brand or business, you need to be updated on the latest news, trends and, yes, even the dank memes. Thankfully, Facebook has a wide variety of discovery tools for publishers, content creators and profiles. Start by checking recent trending topics. Facebook provides a simple window on the right side of your screen where users can toggle between categories such as entertainment, politics or top trends. On a regular basis, you should also perform regular searches for your business name, just to hear what people are saying about you or your company.
To go deeper, use Signal. At the present, you must apply as a journalist (that’s a subjective term, right?) to use this powerful tool. But Signal allows you to “surface relevant trends, photos, videos and posts from Facebook and Instagram for use in their storytelling and reporting.” It will generate a comprehensive list of trends and happenings on Facebook, unranked and chronologically. Users can even search Instagram by hashtag, location, or filter by video.
Tell A Story
At its core, Facebook is all about storytelling. The site is built on helping users tell their stories in a multi-platform environment, so it’s important for businesses, journalists, publishers and content creators to do the same. Sometimes that requires you to upload a photos. Other times, you need to be posting a video. But regardless which media you choose to use, be sure to show, rather than tell. You have firsthand knowledge of your business or story, so think about the most effective methods for doing so. Here are a few pointers:
- Experiment with content types and see what resonates with your followers. For example, go live for behind-the-scenes coverage of events, or expert Q&A’s. Users will love the immediacy and interactivity.
- Be Consistent. Post Frequently but not too often. There is no magic number, so dive into your Insights data to find out what’s working for your audience. And don’t go silent. Because Facebook runs on an algorithm, the longer you are quiet, the more you are not making connections with your audiences, and other brands are.
- Add To the Conversation. Be an active participant in your users’ lives. For example, when you share an article, don’t just click “share” button. Actually pull out a quote, a character or a fun fact from the article. People are following you for a reason, so add your two cents to personalize it.
- Visuals. An eye-catching image or video goes a long way in the Facebook algorithm and can be essential for your users finding your story. Think of your posts as 3-second audition your users and make a good impression!
Facebook offers literally hundreds of resources to help you tell your story, including free curriculum for journalists, training modules for advertisers, and much more. Check out their Getting Started and Best Practices pages to help you be more effective as a Facebook storyteller.