Growing your business on Facebook is pretty much on every virtual entrepreneur’s to-do list, but are you using Facebook the “right” way? 

Do you feel you’re showing up and gaining visibility to grow your business?

This is part two of a  three-part series on gaining visibility, growing an engaged community, and turning followers into clients on Social Media. (If you missed the first post on Instagram, click here!)

In today’s world, it doesn’t matter if your business is 100% virtual or if you have a physical location, social media is a must.

Buyers today research before purchasing and one of the first places they look is Social Media. This is called “social proof.” 

As I have admitted before, social media hasn’t been a strong point for me in the past. I have asked three experts to come on The Wednesday Wrap-Up and chat about building an engaged following on social media.  

Heather Heuman, a social media speaker and strategist came on to chat about how to use relationship marketing to explode your business on Facebook.  

She is the CEO of Sweet Tea Social Marketing, host of the ‘Business, Jesus and Sweet Tea’ podcast and founder of Social Thrive Business Academy.

Below are highlights from our interview, to watch the full interview click here.

Out of all the social media platforms is Facebook your go-to for marketing your business? 

Heather shares how she received her initial success using Facebook when she launched her first business.  She is a strong believer if building strong relationships is key to growing your business, Facebook is the best platform. 

Relationship marketing will help you explode your business if you are using social media the right way! You know, being social! Heather is going to share what it means to be “social” during our chat. 

Let’s jump into the different parts of Facebook and how you can use them to grow your business. 

When it comes to your personal Facebook page, I was under the impression you should not be using it as a business page, that it is actually a TOS (terms of service) violation.

Heather breaks it down nicely for us by using Bill Gates as an example.

“If Bill Gates was on Facebook and he never once mentioned anything he was doing in his business life, it would feel a little disingenuous to the person he is. Because his work is a big part of what makes up Bill Gates.”  

The best way to go about sharing information on your personal page is by identifying awesome things that are happening in both your personal life and business. It is NOT offering your group package with a link to purchase. 

You should be “sprinkling” your personal page with business wins, such as, “I just submitted my manuscript to my editor.” This is celebrating a small win for you and also letting the people close to you know, you have a book coming out. 

It is also important to add your business info to your personal profile. If you are in a Facebook Group and comment on a post. Someone within that group may identify with what you are saying and click on you profile to find your business. Not a lot of people will search around until they find your business, make it easy for them and add your FB business pages and website to your personal profile.

If a business owner only has ONE hour to devote to social media per week, what strategy should they use to grow their business on Facebook? 

1- Identity who your audience is and exactly the things they like and think about when they are not thinking about their business. (If you are struggling with this, grab my Customer Attraction formula to make content creation a breeze!) 

2- Where does your audience hang out on social media the most? If you find it is a toss-up between Facebook and Instagram, chose the platform you will perform your best on. 

3- Make that platform your number one go-to and spend 80% of your time developing content, posting, commenting, and liking. 

When it comes to content strategy think about how you can add value and make your followers smarter.

A few different ideas:

Showcasing testimonials of people who have paid you money and gotten results. 

If you were just hired for a speaking engagement, make a small video and share where it will be, your level of excitement, etc. 

The key is to put content out there that is making your audience smarter, adding value, and giving people a directive of what they can do if they want to take that next step and hire you.

Using Facebook Groups to grow your business…

One easy way to beat the algorithms is to have an engaged community and one of the best ways to do this is to have an engaged Facebook group.

Groups are powerful and smart. If you want what Facebook likes, groups are the way to go!

But groups are a lot of work and time!

If you are starting a Facebook group form ground zero you much have a strategy for your plan to grow your group.

Do you have a podcast to funnel people into your free group?

What is in it your for your audience? You can’t just post the same things on your business page and in your group. 

If you’re like me, and launching, maintaining and growing a Facebook group isn’t on your list.

Pick three Facebook Groups relevant to your business and focus on growing as an expert in them.

If you are in too many groups, you can’t jump in and add value and build relationships.

Schedule time either daily or weekly to go into each one of the groups.

Use the search bar on the left, search for topics you can answer. It is better to spend limited time looking like a rockstar by answering questions on several posts.

This allows you to shine at what you are excellent at. 

Strategic engagement helps you grow your business on Facebook by allowing you to show up as the expert within your niche.

People will think of you as helpful and the go-to.

This drives people to your business page and if you have an opt-in, they then become an email subscriber.

When it comes to organically grow your Facebook followers, where should you start?

1- Show up with the intention of helping and solving problems.

2- Understand your ultimate goal of why you want clients? Is it to sell a book you are releasing? Or grow your 1:1 coaching? To obtain new members for your membership site?

3- Plan, you will need to think backward, how do you get people who don’t know you to become a customer? By laying out a plan, this allows you to use limited time to grow your business on Facebook strategically.

4- Whatever your freebie is, share it often not just once.

If you have multiple freebies, when you launch a new one, email your list.
This adds value and shows you are trying to help them.

Make a video and post it on Facebook showing your audience what you offer and how they can go the next step with you.

5- Use 80% of your time on one platform and 20% on the others. Make sure you are sharing your lead magnet on all platforms.

“Use social media to organically maximize your efforts to get people to go further in the journey with you. It seems like that is so simple but I see people getting caught up in the tech parts with click funnels and landing pages. And they have a freebie but if you go on social media they are not talking about it.” 

6- Leverage your relationships both online and offline and display it on social media. If you are at a conference or networking event, share photos. Highlight other business owners and tag them on your Facebook page. They may share your info and Facebook business page and this puts you in front of a new audience.

If you have a fear of showing up or just not comfortable with social media.

What we have discussed thus far, helps make you feel more human, more real and someone a potential client and relate to.

Sharing work items is great, but when you share your personal life in your business it helps them have more connection and touch points with you.

Keep in mind to be successful at growing your business on Facebook, it is all about being social.

Before media is the word “social”. When you are social it allows your connections to be stronger and your potential clients can relate to you.

Pro-tip, if you have a post that receives a lot of engagement. Say your running a marathon and you post about it and it gets a ton of engagement (comments, likes, and shares)

Facebook will think, “people are liking what Jessica is saying, we should push out more of her post.” The algorithm will push out your next post (the one about your Opt-In) to more people because of your previous posts engagement! 

To connect or follow Heather Heuman you can find her at:

LinkedIn

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

and to grab her FREE 31 day Social Media Content Calendar click here!

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