FACEBOOK ETIQUETTE FOR BUSINESS

Your personal Facebook and Facebook Business Page should remain relatively separate in order to keep your business branding professional. There are different etiquette standards for each, of course, there will be times when you have a Facebook friend who is also a Facebook fan.

Many business owners (the same business owners who initially only considered Facebook to be a social media site that they forbid their employees from using during work hours) have discovered its potential for extremely effective selling and business relationship building.

Your content in the two different types of Facebook accounts should be different and the language of communication should be different when speaking to your fans (people who have 'liked' your business page) when compared to the style of communication with your personal friends.

The benefits of a Facebook BUSINESS PAGE.

If you publish content on your Facebook Business Page, you have a good chance that it will be included in search engine results, which may, in turn, strengthen your chances of good search engine optimization (SEO).

Facebook Insights ( analytics ) which Facebook sends out to all Page Admins and Page Owners once a week, allows you to measure and monitor your effectiveness on Facebook.

If a person wants to become your fan on a Facebook business page, he or she does not have to display his or her personal profile to be able to connect with your business. This eliminates the privacy concerns that many people have.

There are many things that you should do when you have a Facebook business page to generate more business. There are also things that you should NOT do when you have a professional page because it may not be appropriate and will not produce any positive results.

Do's

Promote your upcoming events: If you are holding an event (in a physical location), make sure that you let your professional Facebook connections know about it. Give them as many details as possible to encourage them to attend the event. Chances are very good, if your professional connections are situated locally that they will be able to attend your event. They may well in turn also encourage some of their business connections to attend. You have a good chance of continuing the relationships with those business connections if you have been able to interact with them at your event first. You will see that they will keep coming back to you to do business.

Offer online coupons OR special offers: A powerful way to entice people to buy what you are selling is to post “online only” coupons on your Business Page wall for your products/services. The coupons should offer some appealing discount or bonus offer and the incentive will be that anyone who orders from your business’s Facebook page will be able to take advantage of the promotion. This will go a long way toward turning regular customers into loyal customers. You are expressing gratitude toward them for going above and beyond when it comes to following you. The strategy will strengthen the bond in your relationship.

Product research: The customers who target your business and become your fan on Facebook are probably much more interested in your business than average customers. Those people will be more than happy to provide you with feedback for your business that is valuable for your business. This will give you very valuable insight into what your customers are thinking and what they would like your business to offer and it will also clearly communicate to them that their opinions, feelings and ideas are valued by you and your business.

Don’ts

There are certain etiquette rules that you must follow no matter which type of Business Page you choose.

Don’t post on your wall numerous times a day: No matter what you are trying to market, don’t post numerous times on your wall. This will definitely annoy people more than intrigue them. (ie: you want to avoid coming across as SPAM)

Friend requests: You shouldn’t send out a friend request accompanied by information on your business. Build the relationship 1^st and then share your Business with them once trust and credibility is established.

Don’t ignore your fans: It is essential that people feel that you and your business are approachable and that feedback is welcomed and will be taken seriously. However, you need to be discriminating when it comes to responding to feedback. There is definitely a balance that you need to achieve when it comes to feedback response. You don’t want to ignore the comments that you receive. If you do that, before very long, people will stop paying attention to you and your business. You should consider which type of comments will help you to strengthen your reputation and exposure as a business owner. Your responses to feedback will generate content (through discussions) and in turn may generate other people responding to you in turn. The more discussions that occur, results in more exposure for your Business.

Conclusion for Personal and Business Facebook Accounts

Whether you are more comfortable interacting through your personal Facebook account or your Facebook business page, it is very important to follow the appropriate rules of etiquette. You should state, up front, what your intentions are when you approach someone about connecting with them. In this world of social media, it doesn’t take a very long time or a great deal of effort for people to get annoyed by your interacting with them if you do it too frequently or too aggressively. Always respect boundaries and be sensitive to those you interact with on social media.

You need to make sure that you are always sensitive and that you are providing people with helpful and informative information that gives them exactly what they need and want in the quantity that is good and comfortable for them.

A good suggestion is to write a blog article no less than once a month. Post to either Facebook or Twitter a max of once daily and a minimum of twice weekly. Please note that minimal flow of information will stump your Page growth, therefore its essential to allow for a consistant flow of information on your social media sites. If there is no flow of information- there will be no growth of your followers and fan base ;-)

For any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact Chanel by simply clicking HERE to email her. We are always happy to advise and help our fellow business owners and entrepreneurs. Please also like us on Facebook to stay in touch by simply clicking HERE to see our Page.