So you came across a professional looking Facebook profile of a small business. The thought came to your mind immediately, „Why don't I have such a neat looking page for my small business? Oh they probably hired a social media team or something.“ Instead of coming to conclusions and instantly giving up, let me tell you something. You can have an awesome Facebook (or any social media) page with just a little bit of research. As long as you grasp the basis of communication, there is no doubt in my mind you can start a good foundation for your social media game. You don't have to understand communication strategy, content strategy, timelines, content plans and so on. But the basic social media skeleton shouldn't be outside your reach, here's how you start it!
1. Change your profile picture and cover photo
You probably changed your profile picture more than a handful of times so the process itself shouldn't be too hard to understand. But here's why it's important even though it seems trivial. Visual identity is one of the fundamentals in what makes brand a „brand“. The way your Facebook page looks will directly correspond with how your existing or potential followers will look at you. Since most of the times brand is not a person, it's something impalpable, the public has to gather and store all the little pieces of information about the brand and glue them all together to create the image that a specific brand has in their head. And you guessed it right, your profile and cover photos are some of those little pieces. Take your time, do your research or if you're really serious, hire that friend of yours who dabbles in graphic design and see if he can make a quick image for you. There are a lot of tools online which let you design and edit pictures for free (e.g. Canva). It doesn't have to be breathtaking but if you let your creative juices flow you can create a great profile or cover photo with just one or two free online tools. Just make sure that the resolution is optimal, there's nothing worse than a fuzzy, makes your eyes squint profile picture. A decent, quality profile or cover picture will immediately let the public know you take this seriously and are willing to dedicate your time into it. It makes you more legitimate.
2. The About Section
Another easy to do step is filling out your „About me“ section with absolutely all the information that you can gather. Fill in everything! The abundance of information lets the public know that you're not hiding anything. You literally put all the information (no business secrets of course) about your business online and made it easy to access by your potential customers. It shows that you are ready to communicate, not just ready but eager. People are more likely to contact your business if they see your Facebook page is up to date. They are also more likely to click on your business first if they see that you actually take your time and update your page.
3. Photos
Random selfies, private photos or terrible quality photos shouldn't be posted on a business page, ever. Even if you are a small one man business, uploading random private photos which have nothing to do with your business shouldn't be posted on your page. It just makes you look unprofessional. Be picky about the photos you post, make sure that they look like someone actually took more than 5 seconds to take and edit the photo. Not all your photos need to be world class pictures, but around 30 seconds of getting the right frame/setting and another 30 seconds of editing isn't a lot of time but it shows that you care.
4. Repetition, repetition and repetition
Consistency is key. The more you post, more people will see your content and if your content is decent, you will gain more followers and interactions. People just can't ignore it, by being consistent and posting regularly you become a part of they're day. If you take your time and make quality posts that actually trigger some sort of emotional reaction out of your followers, even better! You will gain interactions just by being regular. Not all your posts need to be this strategically written and edited concoctions but just a little bit of care behind each post does wonders.
5. Communication style
It's important early on to take a step back and see what kind of business/avenue you are in. Are you an old family run business, a formal accounting firm or a young up and coming pop up shop? Your communication style needs to reflect your business. If you are a serious accounting firm, using hip and trendy terms in your reports doesn't really do you justice. Do some research, look up similar and more established businesses and see how they communicate. Do not copy them! Just use them to see the general direction of the communication and tailor it to your own business. I know that this last part is kind of hard and it would certainly do you wonders to team up with an agency. But if you're just starting your social media presence you can at least begin the foundations of your communication. Make sure to edit the communication based on the platform you're using (communication style of Facebook and Instagram differ in many ways).
I hope by now you realize that there are some steps you can take to have a good foundation for your social media presence. You can do it by yourself, it just takes some time, effort and research. This doesn't just resonate with Facebook, a lot of these tips are useful for other social media platforms which might be more popular in your neck of the woods. Just be sure that you are genuine in your communication, users can notice when someone is being phony and they will brush you off instantly. These steps are easy to do and can help you out if you are on the edge of creating your own social media page. They should help you out until you reach a certain point, when you do we are here to help you out on your future endeavors!