Facebook is such an awesome marketing tool, and it’s really one of our favorites here at Ranch House Designs. We offer Facebook management services for clients and also maintain our own Facebook page with over 100K followers. We specialize in growing Facebook pages, providing great content, and getting higher engagement rates.
When we begin helping clients with their Facebook pages, often we see the same common mistakes. Here are a few of our most common Facebook mistakes and how to avoid or fix them.
1. Not filling in all the blanks on your Facebook page.
Setting up a Facebook page is very easy. Just go to www.facebook.com/business and follow their easy-to-use steps. But surprisingly, many people don’t even do this! To get the most out of your facebook page, fill in all the blanks on your “Page Info” section:
-Your name
-Your “about us” or services section
-Your hours of operation
-Your address
-Your description
This helps Facebook better understand your business and match you up to possible fans.
2. Not having professional cover photo graphics and profile graphics.
Similar to setting up your page info, it’s very important to have a professional thumbnail logo and cover photo. Typically you can upload your logo into the thumbnail area, as long as you have it in a square format. For your cover photo, you’ll want to select a more landscape / wider format image. Professionally done graphics can greatly improve the overall look of your page. You can also use your cover photo area to promote special events like upcoming sales.
3. Pinning something to the top of your page, but forgetting to “unpin” it.
We see this one a lot, usually promoting cattle sales. People will make a post about their sale and then “pin to the top” of the page. But, they forget to go back and “unpin” it, so that means that there is out-dated information at the top of your page for every viewer who visits. I like to use the “Pin to Top” feature for no longer than 1 week. I’ve also found that you have to go to a laptop or desktop to do the “un-pin” and I think that’s sometimes why people forget to do it. But, definitely make a reminder to use this feature sparingly.
4. Having Out Dated Graphics
Similar to an outdated “pin to top,” make sure your cover photo is time appropriate. It’s a great tool to frequently update these to feature special promotions, events, or sales. Just remember that when the event is over, to change the cover photo back to something non-dated.
5. Spending Ad Dollars Willy Nilly
Everyone has been tempted to just click the “Boost Now” to get more exposure. And we are huge believers in paid advertising. However, you need to have a plan in place for this. Make sure you are using target audiences, target budgets, and monitoring your campaign. You can get great results by using the Facebook Pixel. This is an amazing feature of Facebook if you use their full spectrum of advertising tools.
6. Updating Like Crazy for The 5 Days Before Your Sale….Then Crickets.
People notice when you have literally no Facebook presence, then post 3 times a day right before your sale, then go back to ignoring Facebook. It’s not cool. People want to see and hear from your brand. Make a goal to publish at least once a week. If you have a larger fan base, most more often, up to once a day even. Remember that being part of the Facebook community is all about participating and sharing relevant information others would like.
7. Should You Connect Your Facebook and Instagram?
Facebook and Instagram are owned by the same entity, and it’s super easy to connect the two. So most definitely do this. You can link your account in Facebook under Page Settings > Page Info > General > Instagram.
Just because you have the accounts linked does not mean they automatically cross-post. This is a setting you can choose to enable or disable. But, simply having them linked opens up a wide array of new tools like boosting posts on Instagram, or connecting your audiences. So definitely link the two!
8. Posting Randomness Without a Strategy
How do you develop your Facebook content? Does it just hit you randomly during the day and you think “Oh, I need to post something on Facebook…” and then you scurry around trying to think what to post? It happens more than you think. These days, people have gotten so obsessed with the feeling that they “must” post something on social media every day that they are more about checking off a box rather than providing quality content.
Make a plan for your Facebook content. And, make sure that plan coincides with your overall marketing strategy. If you have special events or promotions, time your Facebook posts so that you are announcing or featuring these at the best time. If you’re going to be at a trade show, plan your social media content posts around that event. The frequency of your plan depends on your style. For some of our clients, we plan social calendars months in advance. Others, we do on the fly from day to day depending on what’s going on. You may find it best to develop a weekly plan. Find your comfort zone and implement it.
9. Ignoring Facebook Messages
We get it. It can be hard to manage all the ways people can connect with you: email, text, phone, Facebook messenger, WhatsApp….the list goes on and on. Facebook messaging is a great tool and makes it very easy for people to find out more about your brand. Make sure you are promptly responding to your Facebook messages.
We hope you found these little tips useful! If you would like more on social media, we offer a great online course about social media for agriculturalists that’s $99 for lifetime access. And, we are happy to give you a quote to do a Facebook assessment or start managing your Facebook page for you.