How to Market Your Business on Facebook…
...without being sucked into the blackhole of being on Facebook.
In the words of the great musical profits, The Foo Fighters, I’ve got another confession to make… I bloody hate social media and most of all I hate Facebook. This is potentially no surprise for many people that are also feeling jaded from constant angry rants, shouty posts that are pro (apparently there are some) or anti Trump, and don’t get my started on various government responses to COVID. It’s such a potential time and energy suck.
However, it is hard to get around the fact that there are a LOT of your potential customers on facebook. As of last year, 1.56 billion people on average log onto Facebook daily and are considered daily active users. Your target market is amongst that massive figure. So it makes sense to focus on Facebook as a marketing tool. But how do you make it work for you instead of you get dragged into hours of endless unproductive scrolling? Here’s a few tips.
7 Top Tips to Optimize Your Marketing on Facebook Whilst Reducing Your Time on the Platform
1. Use a Third-Party Scheduler
I use buffer but Sprout Social, Hootsuite and Later are also popular options. This basically means I can plan out and schedule content for over 25 Facebook pages without going near Facebook. It also means I have a strategic overview of the content and can easily move it around, re-share across different platforms and reschedule to use again. The result can be several week’s worth of posts scheduled in a short space of time - and no going down a black hole of thumbing through feeds and posts!
There is no proven loss of exposure or engagement from using a third party scheduler to post to Facebook, so really no reason not to and most schedulers have a free trial or really low cost option that you can select.
2. Plan your posts in advance and batch
The combination of pre-planning and a third-party scheduler can transform your relationship with Facebook.
If you are constantly floundering around trying to figure out what content to post then that is going to drain your time and your enthusiasm. Make it easy on yourself and follow my free social media content planner to plan out your content in advance. This works especially well if you batch your time too. That means to spend a solid two hours (for example) mapping out a full month of posts for Facebook. Incidentally this would work just as well on other platforms too.
The other thing to remember is to check in regularly with your schedule to ensure it's all still relevant and up to date. Major events can render your posts a bit tone deaf if you don't remember to pause or update in this unusual instance.
You may also find, over time, you don't need the prompts from the content planner as you become more confident and gain additional sources of content that you can share and use. But it will certainly help you get started and save you a bucket of time and brain space.
3. Get Some Help
A simple and rather empowering solution. Step away entirely and get someone else to post for you. This can be someone in your team, an agency (this is what I do for some clients as part of their wider marketing strategy) or get a virtual assistant to start taking this role off you.
Using a third-party scheduler will help here too. You can share access, approve posts and keep your eye on things whilst delegating and freeing up your time.
OK, there is a cost associated with this option but oh my word… the amount of time and headspace this frees up is liberating. You are worth so much more to your business!
4. Schedule 15 Mins a Day to Work Facebook
To really get Facebook working for your business you do need to rub shoulders with people that engage with your content. That means liking other pages, responding to messages, replying to comments and sharing other pages content too. You need to be part of the community to maximise the benefits of it.
However, this really doesn’t take that long. Set aside a MAX of 15 minutes a day or 2 x 10 minute slots at each end of the day for this - there is no need to constantly check your page throughout the day.
5. Turn Off Notifications
Go to the settings of your Facebook page and turn OFF all notifications - it stops those annoying little pings nagging at you to check out the activity on Facebook, which as we all know is then another two hours of your life you will never get back.
Worried you are going to miss something? Don’t be. When you try my very next suggestion (below) you will quickly see that all of your notifications are waiting for you when you open up the app and you can work your 15 minute daily magic on your terms.
6. Use the Pages Manager App
In combination with the time above, install the Pages Manager App (Android version here) on your phone and use that to ‘work your Facebook engagement’ instead of the main Facebook app, which will too easily lead you to your newsfeed and personal profile. This is simply too distracting as its filled with the activities of friends and family and whilst that is a pleasant distraction - the very nature of this alluring feed is to draw you in. We don’t want that - we are taming this beast to be our work mule!
7. Hide Social Media Apps on your Phone
I recently started creating folders on my phone and put all of my social media apps (including the Pages Manager App) into folders that sit on the second home screen - this means I have to scroll and then click at least twice to open these apps. This stops that allure of quickly opening and checking feeds, likes and engagement in between doing other things. They are all there for me to use when I decide it’s my scheduled 15 mins to work them.
I’m not here to fix any social media addiction problems you may have, and I think we are all struggling a bit with that to be honest. I am a firm believer that Facebook is a powerful tool for marketing a small business and offers numerous benefits. But you cannot let it steal your time - dicking around on facebook is NOT the equivalent of any sort of strategic marketing activity. Use it as one of your marketing tools but make it work for you on your terms.