A few years ago, while sitting in the waiting room for a dentist appointment, I noticed a chalkboard with the phrase ‘Like Us on Facebook!’ written in bold. Thinking it was ‘odd’ to follow my dentist’s Facebook Page, I thought little of it and returned to my magazine. A couple days later though, I saw the same phrase plastered in the drive-through window of a local coffee shop I frequent, this time with the incentive of a free pastry upon liking the page.
With the introduction of the iPhone in the last decade, Facebook has become more than a platform for social interaction between friends; it has become a way to communicate to customers. Every business is capable of launching a Facebook Page, but using it to gain customers requires utilizing all of the neat features and analytics it offers.
Here are four page features you may not have known Facebook provides:
Facebook Cards. Similar to business cards, Facebook has partnered with Moo.com, a printing service, to provide pages with a unique marketing tool. The Facebook Cards are designed to look like a profile with cover photos, profile pictures, and contact information. Printed on 16 pt stock paper, the cards can be made for business pages and personal profiles. Currently, Moo is offering 50 free cards on your first order.
Pages to Watch. Use this feature to keep track of your competitors’ pages. Currently, the analytics allow you to monitor up to five pages and see how many new likes each competitor receives on a weekly basis.
Invite Email Contacts. In your Admin Panel, Facebook gives you the option to invite email contacts to like your business page via services such as Mail Chimp, Constant Contact, iCloud, and all major email providers. You can also upload a file from your computer. The maximum number of invited contacts supported is 5,000 and this feature is found under the ‘Build Audience’ tab.
Detailed Analytics. Facebook Pages gives users the option to view very detailed analytics about their audience, posts, engagement, etc. One tool specifically valuable and straightforward though is the ‘Success of Post Types’ chart. In Insights, Facebook allows you to see the success of different types of posts (this can be found under the ‘Posts’ tab) and, as you can see in the image below, video post engagement for this particular business is much more successful than photos and status updates. Information like this is highly valuable because businesses can see which posts are successful and which ones are not.
A Facebook Page is a powerful tool and all businesses should utilize it. To learn more about how to set up a page or use analytics, visit: https://www.facebook.com/about/pages.