1.Your audience is on Facebook
First things first. A lot of business owners still wonder if their audience is on Facebook. Despite all the negative press about Facebook, it is still the biggest social media platform. 2 billion and counting users are on Facebook every month. They are your audience, your potential clients. If you don’t utilize the platform, your competitors will.

2. People log in to Facebook daily.
Do you check your Facebook account first thing in the morning? So do millions of people around the world. About 75 % of adults check Facebook log in to Facebook daily. Half of these log into Facebook multiple times a day.

3.Organic reach is dead.
As the platform grew, the content shared on Facebook has grown as well. Therefore there is a huge competition between every piece of content shared on Facebook. Last year, Mark Zuckerberg, announced that they want “meaningful content” from friends, family, and groups to be at the core of Facebook. This means that Facebook  is favoring posts from family and friends over public content. This was emphasized in F8 earlier this month. Just posting to Facebook is not enough to grow your business as most of your content will not reach your followers. Therefore businesses owners need to consider Facebook ads if they want to grow their sales through Facebook.

4.Facebook advertising can work wonders if you use it strategically.
Facebook is an amazing advertising platform. The targeting opportunities it offers are simply mind blowing. However, boosting a few posts here and there just doesn’t cut it. You need to be strategic. Facebook ads are also integrated across social media platforms. When you advertise on  Facebook, depending on where you create your ad and the type of ad you create, you can choose to show your ads on Instagram, Messenger and Audience Network.

5.Facebook offers many different targeting options.
You can advertise to people by age, interests, behavior, and location. If you know who you want to reach, then Facebook can help you find those people so that you can drive them to your website, increase brand awareness and sales.

6.You can measure your success in real time.
The beauty of Facebook ads is that you can always  see what impact your ad is creating. If it’s not working well, you can switch it off. If it’s working well, you can scale it.

7.Retargeting options help you reach wider audiences.
You can retarget your website visitors, email list, people who abandon their carts, your Facebook page followers… There are so many options. You can also create custom audiences and lookalike audiences which lets you target people similar to the people who already engage with your business.

Currently Facebook is the most cost-effective advertising investment any business owner can make. The beauty of Facebook advertising is that you are always in control. Unlike traditional advertising mediums, you don’t have to spend thousands of pounds, only to find two months later no one has bought from you. You can target exactly the type of people who will be interested to buy from you.

​Here is the thing though. Facebook ads work but they are not magic. We don't hang out on Facebook with our wallets open. So business owners need to use Facebook ads strategically to nurture and grow an audience that will buy from them.

Have you used Facebook ads? What was your experience?

If you need support running your ads, then please get in touch. You can hire me for monthly management of your ads or for hourly sessions. More info here.
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Having a Facebook page is no longer a luxury! In today's world, if you have a business, it is almost inevitable that you will have a Facebook page. But how do you optimise it so that you can get the best possible results from it?

1. Start off with your page name. Choose a name that is possibly the same across all your social media platforms. Usually this will be your business name or if that is not available you can use some variations but usually people will search by the business name so make sure you find a search-friendly user name. Don't choose a name thinking that you can easily change it later as changing page names can be tricky.

2. Another way to make your Facebook Page more discoverable is with a vanity URL. For example mine is www.facebook.com/socialthyme Once your Page has 25 Likes, you can set a custom URL. 

3.Choose a cover photo that reflects your brand or business. If there is text on the cover photo, when viewed on mobile, it is likely that the text will get cut off so be careful with that. Alternatively choose a cover photo without text. It is a good practice to change the cover photo every couple of weeks as it creates interest.

3. Fill in the about section of your business. Make sure you add your business website and depending on your business, you might want to add a customer response time and address etc. Think about what kind of information your clients might need and make it easy for them to contact you. People love contacting businesses via their Facebook pages whether it's about a problem they are having or when they are happy about your products/services and they want to share it with the wider world.

4. You can add a call-to-action button such as "learn more" as seen above. Depending on your business, you can choose "Download the app", "book services" etc. You might want to try different buttons and see what resonates best with your audience.

5. There are different type of templates which you can choose according to your business. You can find this option under edit page. For example if you have a restaurant there is a special template and if you are a service based entrepreneur, there is a different template that will serve you better. You can find the edit page option under the settings.

6. Choose your audience so that Facebook shows your page to more relevant people. You can access this option from the settings. You can choose the demographics of your audience and their interest and language. This will help Facebook to put your page in front of the people who I am targeting. As a social media manager,I prefer to engage with people in the UK who are entrepreneurs and business owners. I can potentially target any country in the world or any English speaking country and I might get people following and engaging but the I am not doing this because I'd rather reach to people who are more likely to buy from me.

These are just a few easy steps to use Facebook strategically for your business. Facebook constantly changes things around, adds new features etc. So every now and then, go to the settings of your page and check if there is anything that's new  and if relevant for you, use it!

If you need more ideas to improve your page, read this: 7 tips to improve your Facebook page 
7 social media tips that you can start implementing straight away
If you need more help, please get in touch.