Sunday 14 August 2016

Facebook and working to 100 page likes


This week I have been putting into practice what I preach.  I opened The Small Seller Facebook page, and began to put some of the hints and tips in place.  What I wanted to do for this post was research further tips to getting your page to the 100 likes and above.  In all honesty there is very little out there on just starting out.  

There are loads of blogs and videos on getting to 1000, 10000, or 100000 likes but social media is like a wave, it starts small but without the right energy it will just crash and die on the rocks, but if you get the right flow it builds quicker, so getting 1000 to 2000 likes is easier than getting the first 100. 

I have discovered a couple of tips which have helped though.

What I have done


This week I have been going through niche groups, joining about 15 different groups.  I have then gone through the membership (where I can) and then friend requested between 50-150 people a day.  You have to space this out as Facebook does start blocking you if you do too many as it alerts spam warnings.  If you cannot get onto the membership page then I have gone through the posts and checked out people who have liked the posts and then requested them.

I have also posted where allowed my header url onto the group.

If you are on Facebook more than me, which to be honest I am not fan of it in general, then you could get many more followers, but I use it solely for business and don't go on it as habit.

I have done this for 5 days, and now I am getting the friendship feed off Facebook that shows I have mutual friends, anyone I have 5 or more with or if they have self employed in their interests box then I simply friend request direct from the page.  Saves a lot of time and you can do a few more before warnings start to appear.

Just once a day, first thing, I invite all people not invited before to like my page.  This is Monday to Friday and it has picked up 70 likes in 1 week.  For a first week this is not bad. On Saturday and Sunday I will be friending people but leaving the invites till Monday morning.

The inviting takes 5 minutes, while friending can be as long as you like, try a few minutes each time you go onto Facebook.

I do try to allow a minimum of 24 hours before a new friend gets an invite to any page.

Tip: What I found made a good impression and gets you loads of exposure, is if someone likes your page, or a post then go to their timeline and give a quick thank you, don’t put a link there but use the page name.  Most like the comment and this also shares your page name to all their followers as well.  This is the buzzword engagement and putting the Social into media. 

Getting the ball rolling;


As I said last post I got family and close friends to like the page first, some may have loads of friends on there Facebook status, more the merrier.  Get them to like the page and posts you have scheduled, and also share them to their friends.  The more likes you get the more Facebook shows your post to others not in your closest circle.

Like ladders:

There are pages called Like Ladders, however the jury is still out.  Some people think they are brilliant, others say they do nothing.  I haven’t seen a great deal either way.  Gotten a few likes from them, I have only really used one called Like Ladders for UK small business.  I have gone to pages, liked them and put a message on their page about liking from The Small Seller.  Wether they lead to more engagement I really don’t know, I think try them but don’t go crazy, like who are relevant and may engage, but keep an eye on empty likes.

This week just an update on facebook, however I am going to keep at it.  It’s like success only comes before work in the dictionary and no more true than building up your Facebook connections.  But it is too big to be ignored.  Don’t get disheartened with it, once you get going and post everyday and get your likes up it will really build.  You are climbing the mountain, and it takes time and effort, but you can get to the top, 



I will do another Facebook update in a few weeks, see how well it is going.

Saturday 6 August 2016

Your Business & facebook the early weeks


Your Business and Facebook
The Early Weeks


Why use Facebook;

It is simple really, it is the biggest social media network out there.  An average of 6 billion posts a day, and as a business no one can really afford to ignore it.  From the car boot part time sellers to huge business all should have a social media strategy involving Facebook.
While you join Facebook under your email, you do need to keep things separate on there between business and personal.  
That is why Facebook pages are a must.

Facebook Pages.

Originally and still known by many as fan pages, Facebook realised early on they could make a lot of ground by allowing business pages on there.  About the hardest thing on starting a page is finding the category it needs to go into.  Everything is laid out and simple.  This for many small business is their starting point to online promotion. 

On the left hand side of your home page is the groups menu and right in their is a selection link to create group.

I do suggest before you start get your header picture ready and work out what you want to say on the page itself, don’t worry it is very easy to change once published but good to get a start.  If you have gone with the ebid store get a tab ready so that you can copy the url. as you can put your website in.  This works for all websites you want to redirect someone too.

Also there is a button menu, you can select things like learn more or shop etc. and clicking on it will send potential customers to your site.  Facebook encourage this as it shows up well on their analytics.

Put together a long description of what you want the site to do, promote your blog, site or just pass info on, it’s there for you to input.

Trial and error will work on your page, and good news due to the ever changing progression of Facebook mistakes are not remembered and wont be held against you in the future.

Last part is the posts, no good having a page that is empty or one post a week etc.  Unlike other media sites putting hundreds of posts on there is not always advisable, you can and there is a programme called FPtraffic that lets you put a set number of posts onto your page everyday at certain times.  You do have to pay for it, some swear by it, others like myself don’t see too much value in it, but like all things social media what might work well for me, may not for you and vice versa.

What many marketers, online and real world, look for is the optimum time, hell if I had that answer I would be in New York earning millions.  But on a small scale you can have a think when best to schedule posts you put on.  
My social media page I post about 4 things during workers lunch breaks, every half hour or so, and mostly blogs about people getting away from the rat race to do their own thins.  This was the time in the office when you just had a bite and felt god do I have to go back!  Give people a dream.

Then I post just after 3, the afternoon tea break.  Then around half 5, people have left work and are on public transport and going home, so a little uplifting note or blog about making things better.  Then I post a link at 7 to this blog or to similar type.  However on my comics page I post at different times.  Different audience wanting different things.

What all Facebook gurus do recommend that the best times to post is between 9am and 7pm.  Schedule your posts so that these times are covered, then if you have a post that gets more likes notices etc, focus a bit more to that same time.

One thing however don’t expect the earth to shake in the first few weeks of this, just set your posts and keep at it.




Engagement

This is the Facebook buzzword.

Without engagement it is impossible for your posts to be seen and thus marketed to your audience.  Facebook does keep on changing the rules on this and to be honest the first few weeks you will feel like you are banging your head against a brick wall.  Many people give up on Facebook as they focus tons of energy into it and to doesn’t yield as much as you hope.

It is hard to get the engagement you need, and you need to work at it.  But once it works you will see a massive boost to your social media engagement.

4 starting tips on boosting your posts

1/ Join other niche groups:  the one thing Facebook does have is that due to its’ size there will more than likely be a group covering the niche, no matter how unusual it is, and in most cases more than 1.  Get onto these groups, sign up and join, but also check out there rules.
If you are selling or blogging also check out those groups as well, also look for relevant groups that are based in your area.  

2/ Check out the members of the group and simply friend request, however don’t go insane and add everyone, stick to about 5 to 10 from each group you are in per day.  Once you have done a few you will also get recommended people as well.  Be patient with this, space it out through the day or Facebook could even hold or suspend you. 
2.1/ On your page make sure you invite all your family and friends so that they will be the first boost.  Lets face it would you be the first to like a page if you don't know the person.
2.2/ Then you can invite your friends you have made through the niche groups.  It doesn’t really matter the relevance, if they are not interested they simply wont accept.  

3/ Share others posts.  From your timeline or from the group pages get used to sharing relevant posts to your page as well as like them, in fact like more than you share but in the beginning you should look to share others posts around maybe 5-1 of your own.  Doing this will get your page name on popular posts which all helps.


4/ Share posts from your page not your timeline.  Simple really it appears with your page name on the group board, this will get people to notice your post, and also far more likely to be shared which leads to far more views than you could get just from your own followers.  




Network Linking

As mentioned in the last post, you can link your facebook posts to appear on twitter.

Open tab with your twitter feed so logged in.

Really simple to do, on your facebook page, timeline etc. just take out all the url after facebook/ then input twitter instead.

You will get asked to authorise the app, which you do then you can choose which facebook feeds or posts you want to appear on your twitter feed, and it's done.



Following these tips you should find that your page gets quite quickly to the 100 likes mark.

please check out my The Small Seller Facebook page and give it a like to get loads of hints and tips from bloggers and marketers

This should keep you busy for a couple of weeks as you find time to do it all.  However once you find the best way of working it, scheduling for a week should only take you an hour and try to spend no longer than 10 minutes a day liking and following, however if you are like my misses whose thumbs think they have been cut off when she is not on facebook, use the time, do a bit while you enjoy your usual facebooking.