Facebook is a Social Media platform that was launched on February 4, 2004 (initially as “thefacebook.com”) now in the year 2020 has been rated the most used Social network globally. As of December 31, 2019, Facebook recorded statistics of over 2.50 Billion Monthly active users according to the Q4 2019 data, a reference to it.
Facebook initially was created to connect with people (friends and family) but now has evolved into something greater than just a platform of communication.
Today, visit Facebook for information, education, entertainment even for business. Facebook is not restricted to a specific set of people, anybody can use Facebook but what you use it for depends on you.
Features of Facebook
Timeline
The Facebook timeline contains a stream of activities done on your Facebook account. Your status updates, uploaded videos and photos and posts where you were tagged or mentioned will be displayed on your timeline.
Post/Status
A Facebook post or status is anything you think is important and worth sharing at a particular time. Through your status, you can share how you are feeling, your present activity, present location, share videos and photos, favorite articles, link to a website, etc. But your Facebook posts should not be boring.
Newsfeed
Your newsfeed is where you get to monitor the activities of your friends. Having friends is one thing, keeping them is another thing. The best way to keep your friends on Facebook is staying updated about them, follow (read) the information they share like their photos, videos, articles, occurrences and other things pertaining to and engaging them. Your newsfeed might not be arranged in the order by which it was posted but in the order of importance.
Why Use Facebook in 2021?
Answering this question is very cardinal. Why should I use Facebook in 2021? As discussed before, Facebook has become a social network we can’t do without because of its versatility and sophistication, yet easy to manage.
Easy Setup and management
Setting up account and campaign on Facebook will only take little to no time and requires less expertise. Anybody with some knowledge of the internet can sign up on Facebook, set up a business page and get a campaign published in few minutes.
Reaching targeted audience
With a Facebook ad, you can reach your ideal audience as Facebook provides different ways by which you can reach people based on their interest, interaction with your Facebook page and other demographics like age, gender, location, etc.
Because there are 2.5 billion Facebook monthly active users (Feb 2020), it doesn’t mean they all need to like your fanpage. Indeed, I wouldn’t need every one of them to like my page – in light of the fact that just a little level of them would really draw in with my posts.
In case you’re a nearby business, direct your advertisements to target clients inside a 10-15 mile range. The advertisements may cost you more, however, the Likes and potential clients are lasers focused on. With Facebook promotions, you can be sure – on the off chance that you focus on the advertisement effectively.
Expanded Exposure to Potential Customers
Over 2 billion users. That’s all there is to it? In the event that your business can’t discover new clients on Facebook, perhaps you should reconsider your profession 🙂
Accumulate More Leads
Email-marketing. Just having individuals Like your page isn’t sufficient to furnish yourself with a long haul, supportable business. Beyond any doubt, you can bring home the bacon present moment off simply utilizing your Facebook page.
Be that as it may, consider the possibility that Facebook does really vanish one day. On the off chance that you haven’t made an association with your followers outside of Facebook, at that point you’ll be in a bad position. That is the reason keen organizations accumulate leads as email addresses so they can contact their customers outside of Facebook.
Most do this through challenges, giveaways, and bulletins – and it’s a demonstrated framework. Be that as it may, you likewise should be cautious how you utilize your leads. For instance, don’t pound fans with everyday messages hawking partner items and other garbage, except if that is the thing that they agreed to accept. Email them reliably on more than one occasion per week with accommodating data that likewise drives them to your site – where they ideally will progress toward becoming clients.
Lower Your Marketing Expenses
Beginning a Facebook business page costs you precisely $0. Of course, you may pay a visual craftsman to structure a profile picture and spread photograph – however that is not a need. Just utilizing photos you take of your business will work – and sometimes that is superior to an inventive picture from a creator.
My point is that kicking it into high gear with a page costs you nothing until you begin paying for advertisements to get page Likes, boosting posts and running Sponsored Stories – all of which you ought to do with your page. Facebook promotions are moderately cheap when contrasted with customary print, radio or TV advertisements and are 1,000x more focused on.
Use Facebook Insights
I’ve conceded on many occasions that I’m not a numbers fellow – I simply don’t get my jollies by burrowing through details. In any case, I cherish the new Facebook Insights given on Facebook business pages.
Why? Since they’re straightforward – notwithstanding for non-specialized individuals like me. Furthermore, they give extraordinary data to entrepreneurs. Investigating the bits of knowledge of my new Bigfoot page, I see what number of page likes I have, the reach of my posts and page, engagement of the page, post-performance… and the sky is the limit from there.
You can uncover around and discover how explicit posts are playing out, the socioeconomics of your fans, and so forth. You can download your bits of knowledge to truly make a plunge profound. In any case, you don’t need to – and a large portion of you don’t have to stress over that. Contrast this with running a promotion in your neighborhood paper. Is it true that you are given any such details about what number of individuals visited your store/site dependent on the promotion? No!
Build Brand Loyalty
Other than being a spot to fabricate a client base and sell items, a Facebook business page can do wonders for helping you manufacture brand unwaveringness. What precisely does that mean? All things considered, on the off chance that you reliably give profitable and engaging substance, your adherents will remain faithful, notwithstanding when you commit errors.
Nowadays, people look online to discover organizations to purchase from, and they predominately seek internet-based life. In the event that your dedicated followers see you being dynamic and responsive, they’re substantially more liable to work with you than an organization with no Facebook nearness or an inadequately run page.
Increased Web Traffic
Brilliant Facebook page owners utilize their pages to direct people to their sites. On the off chance that everything you’re doing on Facebook is getting engagement on your posts, at that point, you’re actually only a performer, not an advertiser. So begin utilizing your Facebook page to direct people to your site.
The extraordinary thing about connection posts is Facebook now creates a full-width thumbnail picture if your site makes one accessible. Since they draw more attention, these more extensive pictures are bound to get clicked. Presenting links on your site is a fundamental piece of any Facebook content technique.
The Likes, comments, and offers are lower on the connection posts – and that is fine – in light of the fact that we will likely drive traffic with those posts, not really get a commitment on Facebook. I ought to likewise call attention to that our pamphlet drives nearly as much traffic – indicating why you should assemble messages! Main concern; having a Facebook page will extraordinarily expand your web traffic in the event that you utilize the correct posting techniques.
Boosts SEO for Your Website
The subject of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Facebook gets discussed a considerable amount. Some contend that the data in the “about” segment of a business page is scratched and in this way accessible by Google. It’s difficult to precisely confirm or debate this case. I believe it’s better if there are diverse ways people can find you.
Be Mobile Ready
By far most of Facebook clients are getting to the site through their cell phones – a considerable lot of them just with a cell phone. As this pattern develops – it turns out to be increasingly more significant for your business to have a nearness on Facebook. The incredible thing about a Facebook page is Facebook does the truly difficult work for you! Advancing your page for both work area and cell phones.
The special cases are the custom applications (tabs) on your page that are seen on the work area yet not on cell phones (except if you supply the portable well-disposed connection made by an application supplier like ShortStack).
At the point when individuals see your Facebook page on a cell phone it indicates clients: Long periods of activity, address, surveys and telephone number to call straightforwardly from the Facebook portable application.
Keep an eye on Your Competition!
A fascinating new component on Facebook pages gives organizations a chance to keep an eye on contenders. Presently this doesn’t mean you can investigate over their shoulders and look at deals or results from their advertisements – yet it’s an extraordinary method to perceive how others in your general vicinity and specialty are developing on Facebook.
How to use Facebook to get sales organically
Reaching people organically on Facebook means reaching people with unpaid posts. “Reach” simply means the number of users that saw or viewed your posts. Using Facebook to get sales organically means getting sales on Facebook without paying a dime to Facebook. Do you think it is not possible? Sure it is. In this section, we’ll see how to make sales organically.
In this section, I’ll be focusing on how to reach your audience because of the higher your number of reach, the higher the possibility of sales. So what you want is for the targeted (right) audience to see the contents you post. There are two different types of reach; post reach and paid reach. Post reach is the number of people (Facebook users) that saw a specific post of yours. While page reach or overall reach or total reach is the number of users that viewed any of your content at a given period of time.
As a business starter, you might not have enough money to run paid campaigns as they might be expensive and unaffordable for you. You can still post on Facebook and reach your target audience without paying. These days, with the rapidly increasing number of contents that are posted on Facebook, it’s getting more and more difficult to reach audience organically. This should not be a discouragement, as we will discuss a few tips on how to reach your audience organically in a very efficient way.
Before we discuss these tips, I would like to explain how Facebook reach works. The way Facebook’s algorithm is written, the organic reach of your post is dependent on some factors which are:
• Users’ interaction with a page
If a user likes your post, comment or shares your posts regularly, Facebook will deduce that the user likes your page and loves reading your posts. So with consideration like this, Facebook will consider your content is worth seeing.
• Interaction of users’ with content type
The reaction and interaction of a user with a specific content type will determine the type of page contents that the particular user will see. If users interact very well with your picture posts, then your picture posts will have more reach than other content types.
• The reaction of users whom the post reached
When new content is posted on your page, it will reach a few groups at first. The reaction of those that see the post will determine how far your post will go. If you have many likes and shares, then Facebook will expose your post to more audience. Be sure to post things that will interest your audience rather than bore them. If you get a negative response from that same content, your reach will be limited to the initial number. This feature is an advantage, study the type of content your audience like and stay on such content.
• Time of post
When content is a new post, that will give it a higher chance of being among the posts that will be seen. The post finds its way down the list over time.
Tips on How to Reach Your Audience Organically
• Consistency
If there is consistency in your content upload, it will help you engage and interact with your audience which in turn helps you grow your audience. Your consistency should not just be in your posting of contents, it should also be in your replying of feedbacks and reviews.
• Transparency
You can post personal and interesting to show transparency to your audience. Transparency helps you build trust which is the bedrock for a good relationship with your audience. People use search engines to search for certain owners of companies and organization, don’t let your audience go through such stress, bring what they want to them. Show yourself to your audience because they want to know the person behind that brand.
• Encourage engagement and interaction on your posts
The higher the amount of engagement on your posts, the higher the number of reaches. People like it when they know that their voices are being heard, some don’t bother to talk because they think nobody cares about what they have to say. Show your audience that you care, reply to their comments. Once you do this, your overall post will have more likes, comments, shares, and clicks (where links are available). With this, your organic reach will be increased. By not responding to comments, you are trying to tell your audience that “you are not worth my time”. That is a bad way of relating to your fans, they will see you like the “don’t care” type. Any time and chance you get, reply comments.
• Use the right tool
Facebook has tools that are quite useful when it comes to improving your organic reach, an example is the Organic Post Targeting. Organic post targeting makes it look like you are running a paid advertising, you are not showing the post to people who do not have interest in the post or the topic, so you set preferences for the type of audience you want the post to reach.
• Make use of Visual Contents
The role of images and videos is undisputed when it comes to attracting the audiences’ attention. Images are quite common but infographics are less common among image posts. Use nice infographics, make sure it is of good quality and you’ll see the magic it will perform on your engagement. It drives in more likes and shares. Videos catch even more attention than images, the reason for this is because they are the rarest type of content of all. The rare content type attracts more attention because it is distinct from others, it catches the attention easily. Posting visual contents will increase your engagement, thereby, boosting your organic reach.
• Live Videos
This is an incredibly useful feature of Facebook, where you get to go live on air. The live video encourages interaction more than any other method. During the video, you can tell your audience to ask questions in the comment box and you answer right in the video. Videos are the best way to teach people complicated things or topics, when it is even interactive (which is how live videos work), the audience are free to ask questions and you get to respond by addressing their questions in the same video. Facebook said live videos get six times as the interaction of a regular video. This interaction will definitely shove up your reach organically. You don’t have to do this all the time, but try to include it in your posts.
• Posting time
The time you post is very important, that is something you can’t but consider. You need to monitor the time your audience is most active. If you post your content 2 o’clock in the morning, most of your audience is asleep, by the time they wake up, your posts will be lost in the flood of posts on their timeline, leaving only the recent posts. You have to be tactical when posting your content. Your Facebook analytics is the right tool to use here, as it shows you the days and time your fans are most active, this is time is called the “Peak hour”. The analytics can be found in your Page Insights.
Naturally, you will think the best time to post is during the peak hour since that is the time your audience is active. When they are online already, they might not check timeline updates as they will need to refresh the timeline page to see the latest posts, many people will just continue down the timeline. So when is the best time to post? Off-peak hours are the best time to post, just a short period of time before the peak hour, so once your audience logs in your posts will be among the top on the list because they are the most recent ones. Posting at peak hours also opens you up to more competitions of getting your posts seen as there will be many other users posting at the same time too.
• Get a Facebook Verification Badge
A Facebook verification badge is the blue badge that shows up right next to the page name. This badge is an indication to users that the page is officially representing your brand. This is good because it helps you to be distinct from copycats and even fan pages. With Facebook verification, you get a vantage of appearing at the top of the listing when the name of your page is searched. The badge also makes it easy to reach you as it will save your fans the trouble of engaging the unofficial pages of yours before actually getting through to you on your original page.
To get your page verified, Profile picture and cover photo are a must, other necessary features are; up-to-date company information, necessary links (especially website) and accurate details (including phone numbers, company overview, address, mission statement, etc.). You can apply for the verification in your page settings, you can either verify with a phone number or uploading documents.
Using a Facebook Messenger Bot
What is a Messenger Bot? A Facebook Messenger Bot is like any other chatbots. Chatbots are automated messaging software that mimics conversation with the means of Artificial Intelligence. Chatbots are programmed to understand and answer questions, perform specific tasks and other functions. Chatbots are considered to be very good innovation today because they save customers from the trouble of calling, rooting out solutions from search engines, loading webpages for answers, etc. All they have to do is just message like they would message their folks with instant messaging apps, and they get solutions or answers to their question.
The idea of Chatbot is a very interesting innovation as it has been presented in different forms over the years in the form of desktop and mobile apps and embedded in webpages. But now chatbot is taking a new form as it is on Social Media, an example is Facebook Messenger Bot. And the Facebook Bot is embedded in the Facebook Messenger.
Why use Messenger Bot?
It is only logical that the question pops up. Why should I use a Messenger Bot? What is the advantage over some other options? These are what we will discuss in this section.
• Saves time and money
Customers like when a company has a 24/7 customer support (Like FastFaceLikes.com) and do not like to be kept waiting. You will undoubtedly spend a lot of time processing and delivering sales in your company and have employees that carry out specific tasks. A chatbot will save you a lot of time you’ll spend replying customers and will also save the cost of employing customer care.
• Easy Interaction
It is an easy way to ensure interaction between your business and your audience. They can easily get answers to query, get direction to your business location, get information about your business, etc.
• Easy engagement with an audience
Bots have the capability to retain users’ information, this is an advantage as the bot can engage the user by proffering relevant content based on the customer’s information in its database.
Tools for building Facebook Messenger Bots
If you want to build a Messenger Bot for your business, here are few tools that can help you. Most of these tools require no knowledge of programming, don’t let that put you off.
Chatfuel
Chatfuel is the most used platform for building messenger bots. It has an interface for non-programmers and also options for front-end developers.
ManyChat
ManyChat is regarded as a tool with one of the friendliest user interface. It is easy to use and has a lot of tools that can help you promote bot and evaluate analytics. It has a free and paid plan, normally you start with a free plan and upgrade when you have a certain number of subscribers. ManyChat however, is used to create simple message management bot as it has a limit of the complexity of conversations.
MobileMonkey
MobileMonkey is a popular platform that let you build Facebook Messenger Bot. Chatbots built via MobileMonkey can be programmed to create an appointment, track purchases for e-commerce platforms, answer questions and a lot more.
TARS
This platform can be used to create chatbots on Facebook Messenger. Chatbot created with TARS can be used for conducting surveys, support automation, feedback collection and collation, booking and order, etc.
Botsify
Botsify lets you build your chatbots on Facebook Messenger, and is very easy to use as it has a simple drag and drop interface that you can use to build your bot with less stress.