Did you know that Facebook has more than 2.45 billion monthly active users? And while not all those people will be your target audience, you can bet that a portion of them will be looking for a product or service like yours. But how do you even begin to get to them? The answer to that lies in a great Facebook strategy. Amy Stenson, social media manager at digital marketing agency The Audit Lab is here to tell you everything you need to know.

1. Think about your goals

The first step to nailing any marketing strategy is to know why you’re doing it. What goals do you want to accomplish by using Facebook for business? You could want to boost brand awareness, increase sales or get new leads, increase traffic to your website, increase community engagement, or even distribute content you have produced. Have a think about the overall goals of your business and see how an informed Facebook strategy could help you achieve those.

Here’s a few common overarching business goals and how Facebook can tie into them:

Recruit better talent - One for the start-ups. 10 years ago, people wouldn’t have even thought about recruiting through social media, but now it’s becoming incredibly popular. Social can be a fantastic source of talent and can help you reach people that you wouldn’t normally have access to. Make sure your employees are sharing your posts and engaging with them to improve your own social reach and connect with more people. You never know where you might find your next perfect hire.
Higher quality of sales - One of the top goals of businesses, and the way Facebook slots in is by targeting better potential customers. Thanks to a well-thought out strategy, you will be able to reach your target audience more efficiently. With a better fishing pole and bait, you may catch less fish than casting out a huge net, but they’ll be more suited to you.
Add value - Facebook doesn’t just have to be a way to find new customers, it can also be a way to improve relationships with existing customers, too.

Of course, these are only three potential business goals. Each one can be different and unique to you.

2. Find and understand your audience

Your next important step is to determine two things. Firstly, who will you find on Facebook? And secondly, what does your current audience look like? Once you have those two things sorted, you can then figure out how to find your perfect potential customers amongst all the people using Facebook.

Once you know what your audience looks like, you can then use the like-for-like audience tool on Facebook to target new people who are most like those. It’s a handy little thing!

3. Engage with your audience

A lot of people out there think that if they post great content and a meme or two, then people will simply flock to their page and comment and like until their followers reach into the millions. In reality, it just doesn’t work like that. In your mission to grow your audience and achieve those goals, don’t forget what the basic purpose of social media is; to discuss and share content with one another. The art of conversation should never take a back seat.

Try to become a place where your audience can engage and speak with one another, almost like a community for your industry. Facebook is one of the perfect places to spark conversations with people who are interested in your field.

Talk back to your customers when they speak to you, whether their comment is positive or negative. If it’s positive, all it takes is a simple ‘thank you’ to let them know you appreciate and value them. If it’s negative, then working with the customer to right a wrong can do a world of good.

4. Post at the right time

Unfortunately, Facebook is one of the most difficult social media platforms when it comes to gaining genuine organic reach. Facebook is a business after all, and they are there to make money, which they do when other businesses like yours pay to do ads and sponsored posts. However, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. This handy chart from Sprout Social should help you out:

Obviously, you may not be able to hit that perfect spot. Which is what scheduling posts is for!

5. Think about ads

Like we said before, Facebook’s algorithm makes it difficult for businesses to grow and achieve their goals through organic alone. If you’re new to the world of business social media, then you’ll need to get your head around the hard to swallow pill of paying for brand exposure.

Coming up with a strong paid Facebook strategy is a whole other kettle of fish. So, your ad strategy should focus on two things:

Being cost effective
Being relevant

Staying within your monthly or weekly budget needs to be a top priority. Otherwise you risk wasting money on useless clicks from people who aren’t interested in your business. You also need to make sure that your targeting is correct - just like we talked about before. Relevancy is key, or you risk wasting your money even more. Casting a wide net may seem like the best approach, but trust us when we say that targeted awareness is much better for building up your brand.

6. Decide on your creative strategy

This is where you start to get into the fun side of things; what kind of content do you want to create and put out there for your audience? Here’s a few things to think about:

Your brand identity - Make sure your logos, fonts and colours are uniform across all your social media platforms and the rest of your website. Does any content you’re putting out on social media show off your products and services in the best possible way?
Tone - How do you want to come across to your audience? Are you serious and professional? Or a little more casual and quirky? Whatever you decide, make sure it matches across everything you post, not just across Facebook but all your social media platforms and your website
The audience - What do you want your audience to get out of your social media posts? Are you offering them a deal, or a promo code, a piece of content? Every post you put out needs to have a specific purpose
Goal - What action do you want the audience to take from your post? Make sure you include a clear and specific call to action

Coming up with a Facebook strategy for your business is no easy feat if you’re brand new to the scene, but it’s important that you get it right. Mistakes could result in poor engagement at the very least, or wasted money at the very worst. But with these steps under your belt, you’re well on your way to building a strong, loyal and most of all relevant Facebook following.

How to develop a Facebook strategy for your business