Facebook Cheat Sheet

“Social media is not just an activity; it is an investment of valuable time and resources.”

– Sean Gardner

Before talking about how to use Facebook, here’s what Facebook is not:

• It’s not a fad. 1.3 billion people check it everyday and it’s not going anywhere.
• It’s a professional tool. Don’t ask the teenage girl on your staff to manage your page because “she’s always on it.” It’s a complex, powerful marketing tool and needs to be treated as such.
• It’s not to be ignored. Facebook is no longer optional. If you have a customer base interested in your product, you need to be on it in some form.

Here’s my “Top-9 List” navigating the Facebook jungle:

1) Embrace the Stats

Facebook is a science, with entire conferences and companies devoted to learning it fully. It’s confusing at first, but learn a few key terms and you’ll have a step up on your competition.

Click on “Insight” on the top. This is your most important page. Go there to see how many people are seeing you (“Reach” on left), who your audience is and where they live (“People” on left), and what day/time people are engaging with you (“Posts” on left). It will be overwhelming at first, but pour some coffee, dig in and it will become old habit soon.

2) Algorithms are a #%$&* (and get used to it)

Think of your Facebook page as an ocean harbour, and every post is a ship. The tide is your organic reach (ie. how many people you reach without paying for ads). When you publish a post, Facebook send it to some of your most engaging fans as a test. The more they engage with it, the more fans you’ll reach.

If a post falls flat, Facebook will assume that you’re not posting fresh content and will make future posts harder for fans to see. Vice versa, if your posts are well engaged with it will make future posts easier for people to see and you may reach fans who haven’t seen you in a while.

Adding visuals to your posts is the best way to keep them from falling flat. Even if it’s as simple as a snap from your smartphone, nothing should go up without a picture. Nothing.

3) STOP Talking About Yourself

When I check out a business page and all I see is “30% off this”, “Special Offer on that,” I can tell exactly how many people have seen those posts: 0. Why? Because no one engages with that, they just blank over and keep scrolling.

If you put bad ads in a newspaper, they’re still there week after week no matter who cares about them. If you put bad ads on Facebook, you begin to disappear. When someone doesn’t engage, they’re less likely to see you next time. After a few ignored posts, you become invisible and your page starts to become a zombie.

80% of your posts should be non-promotional. Post your content (blogs, etc), share other engaging content (great way to lift the tide), or engage directly with your audience.

20% of your posts can be promotional, a warning: if you make them announce about sales, no one will see them. They make be sales pitches, but there are ways to make them engaging, too.

At Salisbury, I got past the toxicity of FB promotions by creating “Online Wednesdays”, which were deep flash sales that have become a product in themselves. People have to click through to my site to see what it is, and they’re often our largest sale of the week.
 

4) Think Dialogue, Not Monologue

Social media is about a conversation. If you never invite discussion, your engagement will fizzle and your page will become a zombie. Ask questions, post quizzes, invite them to caption photos, anything.

If they think your post is awesome, but don’t engage with it, Facebook assumes they don’t like it. Ask them to like, share, or better yet make them click through to your website for the juiciest content (“The 5 Top Fall Looks for Preschoolers are… click for more”)

“Like-baiting” is when a post asks explicitly for you to like, comment, or share. It’s a bad idea, and Facebook will penalize your reach by assuming that your posts are lower quality. If you ask people to take an action, the slightly higher engagement will slowly erode your organic reach over time.

5) Spend Some Money

Facebook is one of the most profitable companies on the planet, and they didn’t do that by giving businesses a free ride. I meet a lot of business owners with the “if I post it, they will see it” mentality are usually left standing at the doors of their Big Sale with no one coming.

Spend some time with the ads and target your audience by geography, age, and interest. It’s not as hard as you think as long as you stop assuming it’s hard. The ROI on Facebook ads is far higher for Small businesses than on Google.

6) Strategize

Facebook isn’t a fun, on-the-side option anymore. It’s a marketing staple that 70% of North Americans over the age of 13 are plugged in to. You wouldn’t post random, unconnected thoughts in the newspaper, so don’t post them on Facebook.

Look up at your Core Experience (it’s posted right over your computer, remember). Is every post connected to your core experience in some way? Even if you’re posting about a sale, you can still put a picture, quote, or something up there to connect it. Train your audience to connect with your Core Experience and they will engage.

7) Don’t Lose Your Personality

Infuse your page with the spirit you want your customers to feel in your store. You’re not Nike, so don’t make every post polished and perfect. You’re also not a 15 year old, so don’t post about the latest “Game of Thrones.”

Find the balance between professional and fun that best reflects your brand. If you have graphic designers making posts in advance, take a moment now and then to take a picture of your store, your staff, or the local pet tortoise who someone brought in.

8) Make it Local

One of the most viral posts I ever posted at Salisbury Greenhouse was a picture of torrential rain coming down during a storm that ended a months long drought in the Edmonton area. Never think that you can’t post about local happenings on your page; Facebook is the perfect medium for that.

If you can speak to a local issue that resonates with your audience, then doing so will generate loyalty. Just choose your posts wisely and be prepared for negative feedback from some.

Two rules for local or personal posting, however: avoid politics and religion and make sure it’s connected to your core experience. “Newsjacking” is when you inject your brand into a current news story. It’s usually humorous, tends to be widely shared, and demand a quick wit.

9) Timing Matters

Posts don’t hang around long before being shunted to the bottom of the pile, so consider your timing. The peak times for Facebook is during lunch breaks, during the post-lunch hangover (remember, Facebook is what people check when they aren’t engaged with work), and after dinner.

Thursday and Friday are the best weekdays to post, with Saturday being the weakest day (everyone is busy). Sunday is more relaxed; I always post my blogs Sunday morning when people have time to read.

Avoid the 9am weekday post. It may be when you, as poster, are fresh as a daisy but it’s also when your audience is engaged in their work so they’re less likely to be slacking off.