Although some of the younger demographics are passing upwards Facebook in favor of tools like Instagram and Snapchat, Facebook yet dominates the marketplace.

With 1.85 billion people logging in daily (a 16% increase yr-over-year), it'due south all the same the most popular social network around. Not to mention, Facebook owns 60% of all social logins.

If y'all want your business organization' content to achieve consumers, having a presence on Facebook is a given. But to make the most of your Facebook Folio -- to attract and engage visitors, drive them to your website, and catechumen them into leads (and, eventually, customers) -- you demand to optimize your Facebook presence. Free Resource: How to Reach & Engage Your Audience on Facebook

We know that learning all the nuances of various social networks tin can be a tricky and time-consuming feat, particularly considering how ofttimes they add, remove, and change features.

To help you stay alee of the curve, nosotros've put together a handy crook canvas that businesses can employ to brand the virtually of Facebook marketing. The listing is divided into 3 main categories depending on your goals for using Facebook:

  1. Tips for Your Facebook Business Folio
  2. Tips for News Feed Visibility
  3. Tips for Advertising on Facebook

How to Use Facebook for Business organisation

  1. Engage with your audience.
  2. Listen to your audience.
  3. Develop a contest and giveaway strategy.
  4. Promote your events.
  5. Use Facebook Ads.

Even with new social media platforms popping on the scene, Facebook is still the well-nigh pop social network. That's why information technology'southward important for your business to be on Facebook and apply it to connect with your audience. With over a billion people on Facebook every twenty-four hour period, your audience is probably on the site daily.

And so, how tin you lot use this tool to connect with your audience? Allow's dive in below.

How to Utilize Facebook for Marketing

ane. Appoint with your audience.

Social media is best known for its ability to assistance you connect with your audition. On Facebook, y'all can enter direct conversations with your target audition through comments, reactions, and even messages. Past engaging with your audience, you lot'll increase brand sensation and help tell your brand story.

You tin can learn more about engaging your Facebook audience with this free guide.

facebook for marketersDownload the Guide

2. Listen to your audience.

Now, when you're on social media, it'southward important that you don't just use the tool to talk at your audience without listening when they respond. To really leverage Facebook for marketing, yous should apply social media listening tools and track what people are saying. You can track mentions of your company and follow hashtags and so you always know what's trending and going on with your customers.

3. Develop a contest and giveaway strategy.

A slap-up mode to use Facebook for your marketing purposes is to run contests and giveaways. Now before yous dive in, make sure yous develop a strategy. What kinds of things will you giveaway? How will your audience participate? It'southward important to think this through and make sure your decision aligns with what your audience wants from you.

4. Promote your events.

Of course if you're running any online events, information technology's of import to market that. Facebook is a great place to do that because y'all tin can create an event and invite your followers. This is a keen manner to become the word out about your events.

5. Use Facebook Ads.

Facebook actually might be nearly pop among businesses for its advanced ads tool. If you lot're running online ads, Facebook is one of the best places to do information technology.

Now that you know how to employ Facebook for business concern, let'due south dive into some tips and tricks to assistance you succeed.

25 Tips and Tricks for Marketing on Facebook

Acquire Facebook Marketing in HubSpot Academy

Tips for Your Facebook Business organisation Page

one. Create a business Page, not a personal profile.

Outset matter'southward first: You need to create a business Page -- not a personal profile -- to correspond your brand. Pages look similar to personal profiles, but they include unique tools for businesses, brands, and organizations. Your fans can Like your Page to meet updates from you in their News Feeds, which is something they can't do for personal profiles.

Not merely will this maximize Facebook'due south business potential for you, but it's really against Facebook's Terms of Service to use a personal account to represent something other than that person, like a business. If you've already created a profile for your business, you'll want to convert it into a business Folio, which yous tin larn how to practice easily hither.

Setting upward a page is uncomplicated. Just visit this page and follow the pace-by-step setup instructions.

two. Merits your Page's vanity URL.

Once yous've created your business concern Page, it'll go a randomly assigned number and URL, similar facebook.com/pages/yourbusiness/123456789. To make your Page more shareable and easier to notice, you'll want to create a recognizable vanity URL (due east.m., http://world wide web.facebook.com/hubspot).

To create a vanity URL, visit this page, then follow the instructions.

3. Add a great embrace photograph.

Facebook's page design lets yous feature a 820 ten 312 pixel encompass photo at the top of your business Folio. You'll want to optimize that cover photo to capture the attending of new visitors, encourage them to explore and learn more, and provide an constructive mobile experience -- all the while ensuring y'all're following Facebook's Folio Guidelines.

Acquire all about do's and don'ts for your Facebook cover photograph in this blog post.

J Crew Facebook cover photo.

Here are some more awesome examples of business Page cover photos to get your creative juices flowing. Yous can also use these free Facebook cover photo templates to create your own.

facebook cover photo template Download Free Facebook Encompass Photo Templates

4. Add a recognizable profile picture.

Pick a profile picture that will be easy for visitors to recognize -- like your visitor logo, or a headshot of yourself if you're a solopreneur or consultant. Beingness recognizable is important for getting constitute and Liked, specially in Facebook Search. Your profile prototype is pictured at the top of your Facebook Page and is also the thumbnail image that gets displayed next to all your Facebook Page updates, and then choose wisely.

When choosing a photo, continue in mind that Facebook requires your profile picture dimensions to be 170 pixels by 170 pixels.

Makr Facebook profile picture.

5. Optimize your "About" section -- peculiarly the preview.

Your "Nigh" section is ane of the first places people will look when they arrive on your Page. A preview of it is located on the left-hand side of your page beneath your profile movie, and people can also navigate to the full section by clicking on the "Most" tab at the top of your folio.

Be sure to optimize the preview section on the left side of your page with brief notwithstanding descriptive copy to requite visitors a sense of what your Folio and your business is almost before they decide to Like you. This copy will get pulled from the "Short Description" yous provide inside your full "Virtually" tab.

Here'south an example video marketing software company Wistia:

Wistia Facebook about preview.

And another from a restaurant chosen Tahaza Hummus Kitchen:

Tahaza Hummus Kitchen about preview on Facebook.

To edit your own "Almost" tab, click on it, hover over the section you lot'd like to edit, and click the pencil icon.

6. Earn the "Very responsive to messages" bluecoat.

If y'all reply quickly to most users who ship you messages on Facebook, then you tin can earn what Facebook calls a "Very responsive to letters" badge. Yous'll earn a "Very responsive to messages" badge below your Page's cover photo if you lot have a response rate of 90% and a response time of 15 minutes over the terminal vii days.

If you're responsive to letters merely haven't quite earned the badge, Facebook will all the same bear witness off how responsive you are to visitors. Here's an example from Zappos' Page:

Zappos response rate on Facebook.

If you're not very responsive to messages, nothing will appear. So, while it'south not the end of the world if you don't respond, having that badge lets users know your business is listening and cares about their needs.

By the style, there'south a lot you can do with Facebook'due south "Messenger" tool for businesses. We recommend you lot explore and make the most out of Facebook as a communication and back up tool.

vii. Add milestones.

The "Milestones" feature lets you lot highlight some of your business' biggest accomplishments, similar award wins, product releases, major events, or other accolades. Contempo milestones volition exist posted to your Timeline, and users will exist able to find them later under your "Most" tab.

To add milestones, click on the "Timeline" section of your Page, and click the "Offering, Event +" option in the page update composer nigh the top of your folio.

9. Choose a phone call-to-activeness button.

Facebook's selection to place a elementary call-to-action button at the top of your Facebook Page is another handy feature. You can learn how to add a CTA button to your business' Facebook Page hither.

You can choose from seven pre-made push options ("Sign Upwardly," "Shop Now," "Contact Us," "Book Now," "Utilise App," Watch Video," and "Play Game") and link it to whatsoever website that aligns with your business' goals. It could link to your homepage, a landing folio, a contact sheet, a video, or somewhere else.

Dollar Shave Club Facebook CTA

10. Create custom page tabs.

By default, your page tabs are gear up as Timeline, Almost, Photos, Likes and More. Merely Facebook lets you create and leverage custom tabs -- which are basically like landing pages within your Facebook Page, or calls-to-action where you can feature anything from case studies to marketing offers to other promotions yous're running.

They're right at the top of your page and permit you requite visitors specific path to do what you want them to do on your Folio. For example, if y'all're hiring a lot of people, you might create a custom tab for "Jobs" that links to your jobs site, similar Zendesk does on their Page:

Zendesk Facebook jobs tab.

You lot tin can create custom tabs by signing in, visiting your Page, clicking the "More" tab and choosing "Manage Tabs" from the dropdown menu.

Tips for News Feed Visibility

11. Prioritize quality over quantity.

Here are two questions we hear a lot: How oft should I post to Facebook? Will posting more oft will help me reach more people?

In short, the answer is no. At the end of the day, how visible your posts are in people's News Feeds all comes down to the quality of your posts. These algorithms are meant to filter out the irrelevant and the poor quality posts then that the highest-quality stuff is what gets through and gets shown to users.

And so don't overwhelm your customers with content on Facebook, and exist selective about what y'all're publishing. Spend more than fourth dimension crafting amend Facebook posts, and less time crafting a lot of Facebook posts. Remember: It's a marketer's job to post content to social that's interesting, entertaining, helpful, and/or relevant to the audience. This means picking relevant topics, writing delightful copy, and posting compelling images and videos.

12. Post at the best times for your audience.

Another mutual question: When's the best time to mail service to Facebook? Unfortunately, there's no perfect answer -- unlike businesses may notice different days and times work best for them. Timing often depends on what your target audience uses Facebook for, the region(s) you lot're targeting, the content of your postal service (e.g. funny or serious), and your goals (east.g. clicks versus shares), and so on.

That beingness said, there is data out there on optimal times to post on Facebook:

  • The best fourth dimension to post on Facebook is Wednesday, 11 a.m. and 1–2 p.yard. Other optimal times include Tuesday through Th, eight a.m.–3 p.m.
  • The worst times to mail service on Facebook on Sundays, or every solar day either before 7 a.m. or after 5 p.m.

Retrieve of this data as a general guideline, and use it to help you find the optimal posting times for your business.

thirteen. Post your best blog content.

For businesses, social media continues to be driven by content. It's a marketer's job to post content to social that'southward interesting, entertaining, helpful, and/or relevant to our audience. Start populating your Page's timeline with content by handpicking your all-time, most helpful blog posts.

If you're strapped for resources merely maintain a business blog, yous can try connecting your blog to machine-post links to new web log content you publish. Many blogging platforms (similar HubSpot) automatically offering this characteristic within the software -- y'all'll just need to turn it on and sync it with your Page. You don't want to put besides much emphasis on automation, though. It'due south OK to auto-publish some content, simply make certain a real human is posting and engaging with your fans, too.

fourteen. Brand sure your web log posts' meta descriptions are consummate.

Accept yous noticed that when you mail a link to Facebook, information technology pulls in a cursory description as well as an prototype?

The description gets pulled from the page'southward meta description, which refers to the HTML attribute that explains the contents of a given web folio. Information technology's the curt description you lot run across on a search engine results page to "preview" what the page is about, and information technology's likewise the copy Facebook will automatically pull in the populate the description of a postal service.

Without a meta clarification, Facebook may pull in the first text they can find, which doesn't make for a very adept user experience. Plus, meta descriptions are your chance to sell your visitors on what you take to offer: informative, valuable content.

Your meta description should be compelling enough to get people to click, and information technology should be 155 characters or fewer in length. Read this blog post to learn more about writing effective meta descriptions.

15. Remove links from your mail service re-create.

Keep your copy succinct by removing the horrendously long URL yous're sharing from the text in your mail service.

Your post real manor is precious, and you want to ensure whatsoever characters employed are purely for the sake of sparking a reader's attention. Plus, whatsoever user can click on the generated thumbnail or title for that URL to navigate to the blog post, web folio, or whatever URL y'all're linking to -- so no need to include information technology in the copy of your postal service as well.

16. Post your most compelling visual content.

Facebook'southward timeline page pattern places more than of an accent on visual content similar images and videos. After all, Facebook posts with images see ii.3X more appointment than posts without images. One report found that Facebook posts with photos saw the most appointment over whatever other type of post, accounting for a whopping 87% of total interactions.

That'south why posting compelling visual content is 1 of the near important things you can do to improve your Facebook strategy. Utilise this to your advantage posting your best visual content to your Facebook Page, or making more of an effort to make the content you already create more than visual. (Click hither to download 50 social media image templates for free.)

A successful social strategy will often include photos, videos, and screenshots of infographics or other graphs. In addition to being fun to await at, it's important that your visual content exist compelling and relevant to your audience.

Some other reason to mail lots of visual content? Information technology'll help auto-populate the "Photos" and "Videos" tabs, which are automatically added to every Facebook Page. You want those to exist rife with visual content when people click on them.

Cisco Facebook photos tab.

17. Brand certain your images are properly formatted.

Don't just mail service images for the sake of posting images. To give your users the all-time experience possible, yous demand to optimize your images for Facebook so that they're the right sizes and dimensions. (Click here to download pre-sized cover photograph templates for Facebook and other social networks for free.)

Below are a few of the about common Facebook image sizes, but you tin discover a more detailed guide here.

  • Embrace photograph: 820 px wide by 312 px tall
  • Profile prototype: 170 px wide by 170 px tall
  • Shared image: 1200 px wide by 630 px tall
  • Shared link thumbnail image: 1200 px broad by 627 px alpine

18. Post videos, especially live videos.

The folks at Facebook know that people like watching videos on Facebook. The number of people watching video content is quickly increasing. In fact, in that location are more than than 4 billion video views on Facebook every day.

Facebook is continuing to tweak how the algorithm measures people's interest in video content on Facebook, but the main takeaway is to brand your videos as visually engaging as possible -- especially in the kickoff few seconds.

Why? Considering although all videos on Facebook autoplay in people's News Feeds, they're on mute until the viewer manually turns the volume on. The more visually engaging your video, the more y'all can entice people to stick around. Getting people to spend more time watching your video volition help your video rank college in the News Feed because to Facebook, signs of user date with a video include spending time watching the video, turning on the audio, switching to total-screen mode, or enabling loftier definition.

In their continued endeavor to promote video content in the News Feed, Facebook launched Facebook Live, a live video streaming service that lets anyone circulate live videos from their mobile device straight to their Facebook News Feed.

xix. Employ Facebook Insights.

Facebook Insights is Facebook's internal analytics tool right that helps you measure and analyze your Facebook presence. The tool provides Facebook page administrators with analytics data about Page visits and appointment, which can help you lot understand which content is and isn't engaging to your fans.

Access your page's Insights here, or past clicking into the 'Admin Console' on your Folio. Nosotros've also published an informative web log post and video that walk you through how to clarify Facebook Insights to improve your content strategy.

twenty. Schedule posts in accelerate.

Scrambling for Facebook content is not a new miracle. Nosotros have meetings. We run late. Things come up. That'due south why you'll desire to employ a third-political party Facebook awarding like HubSpot'southward social media publishing tool to schedule your Facebook posts (and other social media posts) in advance.

First, download our costless social media content calendar template to help program your posts in advance. You can fill information technology in at the aforementioned day and time every unmarried week to prep for the following week's social media content. Then, utilize that third-party Facebook application to actually schedule out your posts.

Notwithstanding, just equally we advised confronting too much Facebook automation with weblog machine-posting, the aforementioned holds true for scheduling. Don't become defenseless in the trap of turning your folio into a robot, and make sure you're actively engaging with your fans, too.

21. Add Facebook social media buttons to your weblog and website.

Adding Facebook social media buttons will help encourage visitors who are on your website to also connect and interact with you on Facebook, every bit well every bit spread your content and expand its reach.

The Facebook Follow Button lets y'all expand your Facebook reach by making it easy for your site visitors to Like your business' Facebook Folio with only one click. It displays your page'southward number of Likes, equally well as faces of people who already similar your folio, using social proof to amplify its effectiveness.

The Facebook Like Box lets you promote your business' Facebook Page on your website and blog, highlight other users who have already Liked your page, brandish your follower count, and feature recent posts on your page. With only i click, people can Like your business organisation Folio -- without leaving your site.

The Facebook Like Button lets people easily Like your content. When a user Likes a piece of content, information technology may bear witness upward in your friends' News Feeds because the algorithm takes it every bit a indicate your friends will find it relevant.

(Note: This button doesn't allow them to add personalized messages to links before sharing them. To permit users to add together a personalized message, use the Facebook Share Button, explained below.)

To customize your Facebook Like Push, visit this page and follow the instructions.

Facebook Share Buttons act similarly to the Like Button past sharing your content on their Timeline and in friends' News Feeds, except they too let people add a comment or message to the link when sharing it.

To generate a Facebook Share Push, visit this page and follow the instructions.

22. Subscribe to Facebook'south Official Weblog for future announcements from Facebook.

Give yourself a competitive edge by staying on acme of the latest announcements from Facebook such equally new features and tools past subscribing to the official Facebook Blog.

Tips For Advertising on Facebook

23. Choose the right advertizement tool.

Facebook offers users the Ads Director. Facebook's Ads Manager works keen for almost companies. Figure out which is best for your business concern based on your company size and the number of ads you plan to run at once.

24. Apply Audience Insights to acquire about your audience.

The best Facebook ads are high-quality, relevant ads that fit seamlessly into the user's environment on Facebook. Learn more than about your customers and prospects using Audition Insights, which you can find inside the Facebook Ad Manager in the left-manus navigation.

The tool will aid you lot target your ads more effectively and learn almost your audience -- even if y'all are not advertisement to them. How? The data can help you build stronger heir-apparent personas, create more than compelling content, and uncover some gems for your competitive enquiry.

25. Test multiple versions of a unmarried ad.

Running a single campaign won't give you much to work with in terms of finding your audience, optimizing your ads, and determining if Facebook advertising works for your business. You demand to be able and willing to run multiple campaigns to test and experiment with different parts of a single campaign.

Test your targeting first, using a simple advertisement and basic epitome. In order to achieve and test on a wider audition, y'all're going to take to invest a reasonable corporeality of money on your entrada. The folks at BuzzSumo suggest that number exist in the thousands. The reason for this? Facebook ads reward yous for testing more ads and targets. Whereas price-per-click doesn't modify much when you're advertising on Google or LinkedIn, Facebook ads price a lot less if you're diligently testing them.

Then, you tin test the artistic side of the advertising, including images, headlines, and body text. Endeavour testing 20–25 variations on your proven targets.

Facebook is still a slap-up tool for your business organisation and it's important to figure out how it tin can piece of work for your visitor.

Want to learn more? Read this blog post to learn more about creating, optimizing, and analyzing your Facebook ads.

generate leads with facebook

Free Resource: How to Reach & Engage Your Audience on Facebook

Originally published Mar 17, 2021 7:00:00 AM, updated June sixteen 2021