6 Genius Ways to Use Facebook in Your Small Business

Are you seeing a decline in your Facebook fan page interaction and reach? 

We all are these days and instead of sulking in your tea let’s see if we can stir up some online fun to get your followers off of dead center.

If your page has fewer than 100 followers (or if you have never made an effort to actively engage with your followers) it might take some time.  Don’t give up if you feel like your social media strategies for engagement feel more like yelling into a black hole.

Try these Facebook tips to increase engagement on your Facebook page

1. Fans love seeing behind the scenes type posts and images.

Try posting a picture of a closed box, cabinet, car, drawer, etc. Ask followers to GUESS what is inside.  For each 5 guesses you give an additional clue.  You can put anything inside: be creative! Use a product, something seasonal, inanimate, alive, etc.

At the end of the guessing period announce the “winner” and post the picture of the open box, cabinet, car, drawer, etc. The item inside could be totally random; last month’s hostess, your best seller, a cat… have FUN with it!  Having a prize is totally up to you.  Truth be told, in the beginning prizes can be a good incentive to get people interacting.

2. Encourage the selfie. Have them post directly to your fan page or within a thread that you start specifically for the selfie posts.

• Where are you right now?
• What’s the weather?
• What’s for dinner?
• Strange but true…
• 4 legged friends
• Desk selfie
• “A day in the life”
• Outfit of the day

Be sure to continue the engagement by commenting to EACH picture that is posted. Ask another question to keep the conversation going.

3. If you hold virtual events or Facebook parties pre-schedule a post to pop up on your fan page during the event.

Let them know to “like” your page, but also to look for this post and comment to it to go into a drawing.  The prize might be a gift certificate for your products/services (to be used within 24 hours), free shipping, free consultation, etc.

I use Post My Party for all my pre-posting as well as managing events, groups and everyday social media posts to my various fan pages.  If you aren’t already using them I can’t encourage you enough.

4. Give personal shout outs to customers via video.

You could thank them for their business, compliment them on their sense of style or their fabulous cooking.  Heck, just saying something nice about someone would really make their day.

5. Ask an energetic customer or client to give you a 30 second video demo or endorsement of their favorite product.

VideoAsk is perfect for this! It can be embedded on your website, sent in an email and once you have the video, post it to Facebook for incredible reach and engagement!  Or simply ask them to record it on their phone. Surprise them with a thank you gift in the mail after posting it.  Make it a “contest” amongst followers, use a random picker to choose the winner from comments on Facebook..  Don’t be stingy on the prize, these videos are GOLD for your business!

6. Send your followers on a scavenger hunt to your favorite websites or fan pages.

Give them clues or have the page admin play along with you to make it even MORE fun!  This is also a GREAT way to network with like minded businesses.  I promise they won’t turn down an increase in traffic to their fan page.  AND, more importantly, your followers will love you for introducing them to other pages that they’ll love!

What fun ways do you use social media in your business?  Post them in the comments!