You’ve had your Facebook page up and running for over a year, and still have almost no followers, likes, shares or any interest at all. What are you doing wrong?
Surprisingly, many businesses overlook the “social” part of social media, creating a Facebook page that garners no enthusiasm. Here’s why your Facebook page stinks and ways to make it sweet instead.
8 Reasons Why Your Facebook Page Stinks
1. You Haven’t Set a Clear Goal
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Unfortunately, the goal is not simply “set up a Facebook page.” There actually has to be some thought and a clear goal behind it. What is the ultimate goal of the page? Do you want to find new customers? Build better relationships with your existing customer base? Inform people of exciting developments?
State your goal clearly before attempting to design your Facebook page. If you can’t tell what your goal is, don’t bet on your visitors figuring it out either.
2. You’re Not Updating Frequently Enough
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If someone comes to your Facebook page and your last update was in May 2012, there’s obviously no reason for them to stick around. After all, they’re there to engage with you and find out something new.
Daily updates are a good idea, but at least shoot for one update per week. Let visitors know you’re still out there somewhere.
3. Your Page is Boring
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When you look at your page, what interests you? What would cause visitors to want to come by and stick around awhile? Give them information, offer them tips and do something to get them interested.
People love to engage in polls, give their response to intriguing questions and learn ‘behind the scenes insider info’ and generally get to know you socially – that’s why it’s called social media. Boring your visitors is one of the 7 deadly sins of social media.
4. Your Page Doesn’t Answer the Customer’s Obvious Questions
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You own Zoopapooha Corporation. But this isn’t very informative for the casual visitor who knows absolutely nothing about your company or what you do.
When someone comes to your Facebook page, give them immediate access to who you are, what you’re about and why you’re different from your competitors. Never assume a visitor knows anything about your company.
5. Your Page Isn’t Visual Enough
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Pictures, graphics, videos – all these things make the page more interesting and inviting. If you want to engage visitors, make it visually appealing so they’ll stick around and give you a follow.
Bland text doesn’t really inspire much social media action.
6. You’re Rehashing the Same Stuff Over and Over
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Are your updates and posts redundant? You’ll need to create some fresh, new material to garner interest in your page.
Post relevant news, new technologies or put a new spin on your ordinary business communications.
7. You’re Not Responding to Comments
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Nothing says, “We don’t care about our customers,” like unanswered Facebook comments.
However negative or meaningless, take the time for a polite response and, when necessary, follow up with an email.
8. Your Updates Are Too Wordy
Long posts look exhausting to online readers and most get skipped entirely. If you’ve got information to share, keep it brief and interesting. If it’s a complex subject requiring further explanation, include a link to your website where the whole story is available.
This is why your Facebook page stinks. But at least you can fix it. Remember, it takes a long time to build a social media presence and most Facebook pages take a year or more to fully mature.
I’ve been trying to help my parents with their Facebook presence (for their business) but I seem to have the most trouble with #2 & #7. They have good things to say and interesting material, but they just can’t seem to get enough of it.
Marion Leadbetter
I find this a lot with clients who don’t know just how to use their FB page but with all the Facebook changes its more important than ever that your page follows all these rules especially in terms of interaction and updates as these are now more important than ever!