I often have business people ask me if their business should be on Facebook. My answer is almost always “It depends.”
First and foremost, it depends on whether or not your potential clients (and current ones) are even on Facebook. There are some industries where it just doesn’t make sense to market their products or services on Facebook. Don’t waste your time just because “everyone else” is on Facebook. Social media may make sense for you, but it may be that it’s a site other than Facebook.
Second—and this may be the most important factor—you have to commit the time and effort to using Facebook effectively. You don’t have to develop a fancy Page with extra tabs and applications, but you do have to post more than every once in a blue moon! If you’re not going to commit to posting regularly, then don’t bother. Harsh, but realistic. Just dabbling, posting every once in a while to see what happens will not work.
I’ve lost track of the number of times a business person has told me that Facebook didn’t “work” for them. This makes me sad—and frustrated—especially when I go to their Page and see that they post very infrequently. One person who complained hadn’t posted in a YEAR! Because of how rapidly things proceed on Facebook, not posting often is the equivalent of updating your website just once every 10 years.
How often you should post is debatable. A study by Dan Zarrella, a leading social media expert, showed that posting every other day gets the most “Likes” for a Page. However, another study, done by Momentus Media, showed that posting up to 12 times a day leads to the most interaction.
Adding to this is what Facebook calls “EdgeRank.” Without getting into a lot of technical detail, EdgeRank is an algorithm that Facebook uses to determine what shows up in someone’s “Top News” feed. Basically, the more popular Pages, with more interaction, show up more often in the feed. (If you really want to know what EdgeRank is and how to improve it, Social Media Examiner has a great post.)
What’s important is for you to figure out what works best for you…and your followers. Personally, I think that a Page should have a new post at least once every other day. I’ve increased the number of times I post on my Page to around three times per day and I’ve definitely noticed more interaction.
It’s important when posting not to be too “sales oriented.” What is important is to be a resource—show your followers that you’re a great source of information on your industry. I realize that this can be a scary concept: where do you come up with that much information? More than likely you have great sources of information for your industry, but one that I use is by SmartBrief. You can sign up for daily emails that contain links to industry-specific news. To say they have many industries and sources is an understatement! The emails contain a bit of advertising, but it’s worth it to make this a free service.
I’ll post more information about how to be successful on Facebook, but for now, I’d love to hear your comments about what you think makes a Page successful, especially as it pertains to frequency of posting. Post your comments below!
