Facebook has become something that no business can deny having a strong presence on.  Just as how having an actual website was optional for a business 10 years ago but is now mandatory, we are quickly reaching the tipping point where having a Facebook page for your business will no longer be optional.

Many businesses have recognized this need and have rushed to put something up on Facebook for their business, but this often produces hastily thrown together pages that might be better off not existing at all.  Today I want to look at a few things that we see many businesses doing wrong on Facebook.

1.  Losing ‘Likes’ by Sending Visitors to Your Wall Instead of a Custom Page

When someone hits your FaceBook page for the first time, your one and only goal should be to get them to click ‘Like’.  Worrying about anything else is trivial, and (for the most part) everything will fall into place if you focus on getting the ‘Like’ first. Once they click Like, you’ll be able to communicate with the new fan via posts and status updates that will hit their personal newsfeed.

We’ve seen various studies stating that 85-98% of people who visit your FB Page will never actually visit it again.  This means that you must obtain the like on their first visit if you ever hope to communicate with that person again.  They likely aren’t ever going to visit your wall or checkout any of your fancy applications if they haven’t already become a fan of your business page so first get the like, then invite them to your fancy applications.

So then, why do so many businesses send people directly to their wall when a new visitor finds their page?  The wall is set as the default page by Facebook, and it does an awful, terrible job at getting people to click the ‘Like’ button on the page.  There is no call to action nor a clear message of what visitors are suppose to do.  Contrast that with a Custom Facebook Page geared towards a clear message and a call to action to click the ‘Like’ button.

Here is an example from Coca-Cola, who sends first time visitors to a custom Facebook page. Look at the difference between their custom page and the default wall.  The custom page probably obtains 5-10 times as many likes as the Wall would.

If you don’t know how to design and create a Custom Facebook Page that will compel people to click ‘Like’, just shoot us an email or give us a call – we’ve done a bunch of these.

2.  Killing Your Visibility by Being Too Boring

I mentioned above that once you get a person to “Like” your page, your status updates and posts will show in their newsfeed.  This statement is true, to an extent.  The catch is that Facebook has an algorithm called ‘EdgeRank’ that controls which updates exactly will show up in the newsfeed and which are hidden, and its different for everyone.

Why is EdgeRank necessary?  Lets look at an example.  Say you have 350 friends on Facebook and you’ve ‘Liked’ 50 or so pages (these add up quickly: books, TV shows, brands, non-profits, etc).  Facebook has decided that it is probably too overwhelming if they show in your newsfeed every activity from all of these friends, brands, movies, etc.  So their algorithm uses signals such as what you click on, what updates you like, what you are commenting on, etc to determine if it shows you updates from a certain person or page in the future – this is EdgeRank.

Can you see how being boring on Facebook kills your visibility? If you put out long paragraphs of boring text or ugly images, or (God-Forbid) auto-post stuff from your blog – you are being boring!

And if you are being boring, nobody will interact with your updates on Facebook.

And if nobody interacts with your stuff on Facebook, your updates will no longer show up for anybody.

And if your updates no longer show up for anybody…. whats the point of being on Facebook?

So don’t be boring, be interesting and do things that will illicit interactions.  You may find yourself asking “How Can I be Interactive?”

Here are a few quick ideas to get you started:

• Ask questions that people will want to answer.  The easier it is for someone to answer, the better!  For example, “What’s Better:  Snickers or Butterfinger?”  A simple question like that can illicit a lot of responses – so think of a similar simple question that is related to your brand/industry and get your Facebook Fans interacting with your Facebook Page.
• Post something controversial.  Is there a controversial topic in your industry?  If so, post an image or graph about it, and ask for 1 sentence opinions.
• Post an interesting/funny picture and ask for a caption.
• Write a powerful statement, and ask people to click “Like” if they agree.  Easy, right?

3.  Disconnecting With Your Audience by Speaking The Wrong Language

Social media is very casual and comfortable.  People get on Facebook to relax, decompress, and have fun.  You need to meet them in this place.  That means that you want your brand’s Facebook page to be a more fun version of its real-world self… Think “Your brand at Happy Hour”.

All too often brand’s treat their Facebook page like an extension of their professional websites.  The thing is:  Websites aren’t social, Facebook is.  And people on Facebook want to engage and interact with things they view as fun, not stiff.

One easy way to be natural and connect with your audience is through the words and language you choose.

The language you use on Facebook is very dependent on your target audience.  Whatever you have identified that audience to be – use words that to speak directly to them.

Lets say you target men and women ages 22 to 30.  For this age group, I’d use a lot of slang and hipster language.  Think more words like “woot”, “omg”, and “awesomesauce” and less “neat”, “great”, and “fantastic”.

For an older audience, I’d be more inclined to invoke a feeling of nostalgia.  I’d use quotes and references from popular older tv shoes, ask more about children (and possibly grandchildren), and talk about how much things have changed. Again, relate to your audience as best as possible – don’t be stiff or use boring/generic language and clichés that nobody can relate to.

Final Thoughts

The theme around all of this is to be interesting and engaging on Facebook.  Use a custom Facebok Page as the default page to get people to instantly Like you.  Then post interesting content and updates using casual and relatable language to get people to engage with you.  Doing this will mean a healthy, growing Facebook fan base that will keep your brand top-of-mind and will buy your products and services when they are in the market.