With all the negative press Facebook has received over the last few years, it feels like a lot of people are leaving the platform. If you’re a small business owner, you might be wondering if it is necessary, or even worth your time, to set up a Facebook page. In this article, we’re going to dive into some of the reasons why a Facebook page is still important for any business.
What is a Facebook Page?
A Facebook page is a public Facebook account that can be used by brands, organizations, non-profits, artists and public figures. In order to create a Facebook page, you have to have a personal Facebook profile (even if you’re never active on it) because Facebook wants to make sure there is a real person associated with the brand. Facebook pages have specific features that are designed for business use including analytics, advertising and post scheduling that you don’t get with a personal profile.
Can’t You Just Use a Personal Profile Instead?
You might already have a personal profile set up on Facebook where you have hundreds of friends and where you share your business updates. Is this enough? It can be super tempting to think so, especially if you are the brand. The ability to get your posts in front of more people organically is easier when you’re sharing that content with your friends versus creating posts on a page, where you’ll usually have to pay for ads to get in front of a large audience.
Before you get too excited about promoting your business on your personal profile, keep in mind that it’s actually against Facebook’s Terms of Service to use a personal account solely for business. And your personal profile isn’t a great place to showcase business content. Things like client stories, blog previews, promotions, business tips, and Q&As are best shared on a Facebook page (especially since you can later turn some of your most popular posts into ads and reach even more potential customers).
You can (and should) use your personal profile to showcase some of the totally cool and awesome things your brand is doing but not necessarily all the time (or even most of the time). You don’t want to risk people defriending you because they feel like you’re constantly selling to them. Mixing business content with pictures from your latest vacations, high school reunion and child’s piano recital is more of an art than a science. The most important thing to keep in mind is finding the right balance that works with your friends.
Should Your Business Have a Facebook Page?
As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, you might have heard some rumblings that Facebook is done, finished, kaput. Or that the reach is so low it’s not even worth bothering posting content unless you pay to boost those posts. With all this negative news, should your business even bother creating and maintaining a Facebook page?
The answer, like all things in marketing, is that it depends on what is best for your business. That being said, we believe creating a Facebook page is critical for a small business owner. And there are a few simple reasons why.
Reason #1 – Improve Your SEO
Your Facebook page is indexed by Google. This means that the text you include or your profile can help you rank in global and local search engine results. Making it easier for Google to find you, which in turns makes it easier for your customers to find you, is a win-win for everyone. Just make sure you include some of your target keywords in your About tab (if you need help getting started with your keywords strategy, check out our post about Baseline Keywords here).
Reason #2 – Facebook Has the Biggest Audience Out There
There are currently over 2.8 billion users on Facebook and more coming online every day. That’s a lot of potential new customers that you could connect with. And while you might not be planning to spend any money with Facebook (especially in the beginning), you might change your mind at some point. Facebook makes it really easy to create target audiences for your ads – meaning you can get your ads in front of your ideal clients (a lot of your ideal clients) for a lot less money than you could with traditional marketing channels.
Reason #3 – A Facebook Page Shows Your Brand is Relevant
While it can feel like you’re talking to an empty room (especially in the beginning when you don’t have a lot of fans following your page), keeping your Facebook page up to date shows potential customers that your brand is active and engaged. If you make a point to post content that is relative and engaging to your target audience, people are more likely to like and comment. Having an active Facebook page helps customers know, like and trust your brand (and that’s an important part of getting them to buy from you).
Reason #4 – Getting Started Costs Nothing
It’s free to set up a Facebook page and fill it with relevant information about your business. You can show things like your hours, a link to your website, your physical location, and more. If nothing else, think of your Facebook page as a digital business card that gives people the important highlights about your business. It costs you nothing to set up, which makes it a super budget friendly option.
The Final Decision
There are a lot of other social media marketing sites out there, but Facebook still has the greatest reach. No matter what your marketing goals are, we believe that Facebook needs to be a part of your online strategy. It’s free to set up, it helps you get noticed by Google, it gives you the opportunity to market your products and services to millions of people who might otherwise never hear about you, and it can show your relevance to potential customers. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t explore other social media platforms (because you absolutely should), but don’t ignore Facebook. Your business can’t afford not to.
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