Content for Your Facebook Business Page

I’ve previously blogged about the value of social media in marketing small businesses. Hopefully, your business has a Facebook fan page up and running. Most small businesses know to do this much. But after a while, many business owners start to post stale content - or worse - no content at all! If you're having trouble generating engaging updates, here are some suggestions to get your creative juices flowing and bring your Facebook fan page back to life.

Create exclusive offers just for your Facebook fans.
Creating an offer through Facebook is pretty easy and allows your fans to claim the offer via Facebook. This helps drive customers to your website and generate leads. It's also easy to measure the success of your offer, which allows you to try a few different offers and make adjustments to get the most out of an offer. 

Interact with your fans.
Social media is a social conversation with your friends and fans. Don’t focus on always trying to sell yourself or always trying to provide information. Sometimes it’s in your interest to ask questions of your fans, tell a joke, solicit and respond to feedback. This is an opportunity to really showcase the personality of your business.

Use external content.
Many Facebook page administrators think they need to come up with clever ideas or interesting information to post. When we’re focusing on the day-to-day operations of our business, it’s tough to devote time or brainpower to this. It’s okay to use content that you find from other sources…just don’t pass it off like you created it. Find relevant videos or educational articles, even jokes or tips from your industry and post those as your status updates.

Post links to your blogs.
If you have a blog on your site, every time you post a new blog, add a link to your Facebook page. This will help your Facebook fans become familiar with your blog if they aren’t already and also help generate leads from your blog (assuming you have an effective call to action in each of your blogs).

Run a contest.
Consider running a contest on your Facebook page. This can help generate new fans and engage your existing fans. Many businesses have a contest wherein they give away one of their own products, services or merchandise credit. They post information about the prize and request fans to “Like” their page or that specific post. Fans often “share” the post (especially if they are encouraged to do so or offered an incentive to do so) which then furthers the reach of the contest to other fans or prospective fans. Many small businesses have had great success in building a fan base strictly from a contest that offered a great prize and incentives for “sharing” their page. Just be careful to review Facebook’s rules on running a contest or promotion. No one wants to put a lot of energy into a Facebook contest only to have the business fan page suspended.

Whatever content you use, be sure to post to your page regularly. Most of your fans became fans to because they like your business and/or want to know what’s going on. While social media should be a key component of your overall marketing strategy and you should have a formal plan for it, don’t convince yourself that managing your Facebook page needs to be a time-consuming endeavor. It takes only a few seconds to post an update. If you don’t have the time to generate substantial content, just ask a question, acknowledge a particular customer, share in inspiring quote. The point is to be sociable, and hopefully it’s good for business!