Facebook is not only one of the most popular social media platforms, but it also offers a variety of great tools for businesses to capitalize on social media opportunities. Let’s look at some of the reasons why you absolutely need Facebook for your business. 

1) Facebook has 2.8 Billion Monthly Active Users 

That’s right. 2.8 billion active monthly users! On top of that, 1.8 billion of those users are visiting Facebook every single day. At 59%, Facebook is the only social media platform to reach more than half of all social media users. Facebook has such a massive reach and active userbase that is simply cannot be ignored by any business. This userbase is only going to grow and it is predicted that Facebook will surpass 3 billion monthly active users in 2021. With such an incredible number of users, there is no better site to stay in front of your target audience than Facebook.

2) 2/3 of Facebook Users Visit a Local Business Page At least Once Per Week 

Perhaps you thought that those 2.8 billion Facebook users were only looking at pages of friends and family. This could not be further from the truth. Two thirds of all active Facebook users are visiting a local business page at least once per week. 80% of people reported that they discovered new products through Facebook and 18% made a purchase through the site. There are over 200 million businesses on Facebook, most of which are small local businesses. If you are not on Facebook, these users are going to be visiting your competitors pages.  

3) Facebook Is Great for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 

Search engines look for the most relevant results to a user’s search. One thing that search engines love is fresh, rich content. If you are actively posting on your Facebook business page, you will be giving your brand a significant SEO boost.  

Having an updated Facebook profile with your website helps search engines link your pages. Having social media links on your website is equally as important. Making sure your website and all of your social media pages are tied together in this manner will boost SEO. 

4) Target Your Best Customers Through Facebook Ads 

Facebook offers many valuable tools for targeting your ads to ideal customer groups. When someone signs up for Facebook, they are asked to provide various information about themselves such as age, interests, gender, etc. Facebook also analyzes, clicks, posts, shares, clicks, and more to identify what someone likes or dislikes. 

When creating ads, this information can be used to target clients in a specific area, by their interests, by their age, or a combination that allows you to focus on your exact target audience. When on a limited budget, this allows you to spend your money on the audience that counts.  

 5) Facebook Humanizes Your Business 

Your website may ultimately be the place where your audience can learn the most about your business, but there is likely no interaction there. Social media is all about connecting people. A Facebook page allows you to connect with individuals through likes, comments, shares, private messages, and more. This interaction allows customers to attach a face, and a personality to your brand. 

These human-to-human interactions go a long way in building trust and confidence with your customers as well. Customers have far more trust in a business that responds to questions and interacts with them than one that is unresponsive. 

Social media is here to stay and if you are a small business owner, you need to be taking advantage of as many as you can. Facebook is free to use for businesses and is one of the most valuable tools you have for connecting to your target audience and potential customers. 

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Over the years, social media has evolved from simply a place for individuals to connect with friends and family, to one of the best opportunities for businesses looking to generate leads and drive traffic to their websites. While social media platforms themselves have changed drastically over time, there are many businesses that have not kept up and that are missing out on the opportunities social media offers. If you’re in that boat, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Here are some tips to get you back on track and help you start taking advantage of your social media platforms to drive traffic and business to your website.

1) Build and Optimize Your Social Media Profiles

Let’s start right from the beginning. Hopefully you have already created profiles on the major social media platforms including Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. If you haven’t done so yet, this should be a top priority for your business.

 

Once your profiles are created, optimization is crucial. Your profile is the essentially SEO for your social media pages. This is the information used to identify your business and connect you with potential customers. Take your time to go through each individual field and complete it as thoroughly as possible. Use keywords in fields where they are applicable such as your business description. Not only does a complete profile make it easier for customers to find you, but it will also instill confidence. An empty profile can raise questions and concerns about the legitimacy of a business.

Your profile is part of your online brand. Be sure to maintain consistency with your website when it comes to logos, color schemes, and various marketing materials. When you update your website, remember to update all your profiles.

2) Post Often and Consistently

Now that you’ve optimized your profiles, it is time to start accumulating followers and likes. One of the best ways to do this is one of the easiest. Simply start making regular posts on your social media pages. Depending on the platform, you will want to be posting anywhere from a few times per week to a few times per day.

 

Facebook: One or two posts per day.

 

LinkedIn: One post per day.

 

Instagram: Two or three posts per week.

 

Start developing a consistent posting schedule for each of these platforms and do your best to time them around peak hours. If you can’t do this, just be sure to get your posts in at some point during the day. You can find our detailed breakdown of the best times of day to post on popular social media platforms here. Be sure to always be providing links back to your website where appropriate. Remember, one of the goals is driving traffic back to your website where clients can find more detailed product information.

3) Engage with Your Followers and Target Audience

Social media is built around making connections with others. This not only means building a list of followers but interacting and engaging with them as well. If you develop a consistent posting strategy and accumulate a large group of followers, you are surely going to get comments on those posts. Take time out of the day to answer questions that may be asked or simply reply to comments so that customers see you engaging.

 

You might not have time to respond to every comment, but even a like here and there will go a long way. Also be sure to dedicate some time to answering private messages on these platforms. Not all interactions will be on your public page, but they are all equally as important. Engaging with others on social media is another great way to build confidence with your followers and potential customers.

4) Create Shareable Content

Posting at the perfect time of day and on the recommended schedule is great, but if you aren’t producing interesting content, your posts will go unnoticed. Even though you are a business, not all of your content has to be business-related. More often than not, it will be something that is completely unrelated to your business that will go viral and gain you a ton of followers and likes. Some ideas of things you can post on your social media pages include:

• Industry News and Information
• Product Information
• Infographics
• Tips and Advice
• Memes
• Holiday Posts
• Recipes
• Contest and Promotion Information
• Inspirational Quotes and Images
• Company Event Pictures
• Company News
• Customer Reviews
• Sharing Blog Posts

A great social media posting strategy will include a mix of these types of posts and others as well. Be creative and don’t be afraid to think a little outside the box when it comes to the things you post. Just be careful to avoid sensitive topics that may offend others.

5) Join and Participate in Industry-Related Social Groups

Social media platforms are full of groups related to your business. When building your follower-base, these social groups can be a great place to meet individuals and other industry professionals to connect with. Think of your target audience and demographic and start searching for groups that meet the criteria. Once you’ve found a few to join, be active and participate in conversations.

 

Many potential customers will join these groups looking for information. If you can be a resource for that information, you can build trust and confidence with customers and with the group as a whole. These groups will also attract other industry professionals like yourself. This opens up opportunities for potential referral partnerships as well.

 

Social media marketing can be one of the best sources of leads and traffic back to your website. Take some time to work on your profile and developing a sound posting strategy. The results will surely be worth the effort.

The post 5 Tips for Using Social Media to Drive Traffic to Your Website appeared first on 220 Social.

Activity and engagement on social media sites will peak at certain times throughout the day and week. These peak hours are when you want to be making your own posts to maximize the chance they are seen by your target audience. Posting during off-peak hours will likely result in your post being missed. By the time most of your audience is back on social media sites, the post will be buried in the never-ending wave of content from other businesses and users. 

So when is the ideal time to post on social media sites? SproutSocial has analyzed the content engagement of over 20,000 companies to provide us with the times of day when clients are most active and engaging on popular social media sites. Based on their findings, these are our recommendations on when you should be posting to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

When to Post on Facebook 

Facebook tends to have the most engagement throughout the middle of the week and falls off on the weekends. Wednesday has the most overall engagement and would be the best day to post if you were only able to make one per week. Tuesday through Thursday is a fairly forgiving safe zone with strong activity as well. Outside of these optimal periods, you should simply do your best to avoid early morning and late evening hours if possible. We recommend posting at least once every day so while engagement may be less than ideal on the weekends, posting on these off-peak days is still better than not posting. 

Recommended Posting Times: Tuesday through Thursday, 8 a.m. through 3 p.m. 

Worst Posting Times: Evenings after 6 p.m., early mornings before 7 a.m. and weekends. 

When to Post on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a unique social media network given its focus on a professional audience. Engagement on the platform is very high on the weekdays during typical work hours. Wednesday and Thursday are the two days with the most interaction while days at the beginning and end of the week show less engagement. Weekends tend to have limited interaction as users spend more time on the more personal social media sites. It is recommended to post once a day on the platform. Try to get weekend posts done but if you can’t, make sure you at least post once per day during the work week within normal work hours.

Recommended Posting Times:  Tuesday through Friday, 9 a.m. through 2 p.m. 

Worst Posting Times: Hours outside of the typical work week. 

When to Post on Instagram 

Instagram is one of the most popular social media sites and is only growing in popularity. The simplistic visual-based platform makes it easy for users to quickly view and interact with posts. This may be why Instagram is one of the few platforms with better than average weekend and evening interaction. Wednesday and Friday around 10 and 11 a.m. are the times with strongest engagement. As with most other social media sites, engagement still tends to be strongest mid-week while tapering off as the work week starts to come to an end. 

Recommended Posting Times:  Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Worst Posting Times: Early mornings before 8 a.m., late evenings after 8 p.m. and Sunday. 

Fine Tuning Your Posting Schedule 

Even if you follow recommended posting schedules, you may find that engagement is low at peak times or that it spikes for you at times that may not be considered ideal. Your social media posting habits will constantly be changing based on your own discoveries. Do not feel forced into a specific schedule if it does not work for you. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to social media marketing. Experiment within the recommended posting windows and find out exactly when your particular clients are most active. From there you can pinpoint exactly when to post to get the most interaction. These windows may constantly be evolving, and you must do the same. If you can do that, your social media marketing will be far more successful. 

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