26 Aug Game Design Lessons #4: 7 vital steps to engage People with Your Business on Facebook

Kerri Ellis is an Independent Marketing and Promotion Consultant, specialising in Facebook marketing. Three years ago, after a massive career shift, Kerri decided to start using her marketing, PR and promotional skills to help businesses involved with her passions – dance, music and creative writing. She has learnt a huge amount in that time, and this article is some of that distilled, hard-won wisdom. She graciously agreed to share it with me on the Immersion Studios blog… so enjoy! How many of these points are you using?

1. Ask the Right Questions

Many small businesses and organizations know that questions can get fans involved, but remember it’s a certain kind of question that your customers will want to respond to. Focus on questions that directly engage what you know your audience is interested in—your industry.

2. Be Conversational

Put some conversation into your postings. Remember, Facebook isn’t necessarily a business environment. You want to keep things conversational and inspiring. That doesn’t mean you need to throw eight exclamation points at the end of every post, just be positive and try not to sound like a robot.

3. Post Images

Post images rather than crowd your page with a bunch of text – it tends to get boring. So use your Smart phone, iPad or digital camera to take photos or create images to go with your text.

4. Don’t Try to Sell

Don’t try to sell… use your Face book page to increase fans, increase the public relations (PR) value of your product or service and to increase familiarity. There are other ways to increase your sales. But, use face book for branding and to increase your PR value.

5. Share the Right Content

Make sure you share the right content with your audience! Since fans are passionate about your industry, you can bet that they expect news, tips, and photos that are from that industry. The idea is to start becoming a great community and, most importantly, a resource. A really good example of this is Lorna Jane (I recently shared a story about Lorna Jane, I hope you read it). Let’s say your business is a gym. You can share exercises and routines, but what else is your audience interested in? Well, it’s probably safe to assume that they wouldn’t mind healthy recipes, beauty advice, or posts that help them get to know their trainers a little better.

6. Respond!

Respond! Acknowledge and thank people for LIKING your page. Engage in conversation with those that leave comments, get involved with their feedback. Make sure your comments or replies are appropriate; even if you don’t like what they wrote, keep your manners in and use what they wrote to engage further. You want to know how your fans feel toward your product or service as that gives you feedback to change or improve or strengthen your activity.

7. Always, Always Persist

Always, always persist. Every day is a new day and if you create every day, you will reap the benefits. Your goal should be to establish a personality and establish what exactly people will find when they come to your Page. The rest should follow naturally.

So what do you think? I’ve learnt a lot from this just putting it up on the blog! Particularly the point about being conversational and not selling… you want to be a resources, not a catalogue. So now here’s a question for you… what do you think? Are you following these points, and have they worked for you?

You can visit Kerri’s Facebook Page here.

~Oliver R. Shead