Do You Use Facebook Correctly to Promote Your Business?
Here is an example of a typical incorrect usage of Facebook account to promote the business:
My wedding anniversary is getting close. This time I have the idea of buying him something that supposed to last forever (almost) and it’s super cool. It’s the Fisher Space Pen. It can write under water, over grease, upside down and even under extreme temperatures. As it’s getting close to the anniversary I am looking for an engraver who I can just pop in, get the pen engraved and pick up immediately. Finally, I found one in Tsim Sha Tsui.
The guy was very helpful and offered me the various choices. In 20 minutes, it was done and he has a happy customer. Before I left, he told me that his shop was on Facebook and requested me to have a look. He is hoping to build up his customer base.
As I was pleased with the whole experience, I stood in his workshop and use my phone to find his shop on Facebook. When I finally found it, my mind said, “Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!”. He had made a common mistake of using his personal Facebook account and changing the account name to the shop’s name. It isn’t a Facebook page that owns by his personal account.
Firstly, he had made a common mistake of using his personal Facebook account and changing the account name to the shop’s name. It isn’t a Facebook page that owns by his personal account. Your business should at least be a Facebook page owns by the owner’s Facebook personal account. Or if it’s a bigger organization, one should consider creating a business account (which owns by the owner) and have the business account owns the Facebook page.
Secondly, this guy mixes his personal life stuff with his work. On one post you see him attending friends’ wedding banquet but the next one he’s trying to show off his finished work from his shop. As an occasional customer, I don’t particularly want to see what he had for dinner in between his proud engraving works.
What should he do to promote his business on Facebook?
- Change his personal Facebook account back to his personal name.
- Keep his personal Facebook account for personal stuff for friends and family to see.
- As it’s a small business, creating a Facebook Page under his personal account is good enough.
- A mistake was a mistake. He could try to invite the customers who have kindly accepted the “friend request” to like his new Facebook page. When it was completed, he can mark these customers as “restricted” or even unfriend them.
- By now, he should have:
- a personal Facebook account to post his dinner dishes
- a Facebook page for his engraving shop
- Next is about promotion. It’s up to him just to post his quality work on the Facebook Page to show off from time to time. Or advertise on Facebook to get more attention.
If you think only small business makes mistakes like this, then I can tell you that I have seen a company of under 100 staff has made a similar silly mistake. It isn’t really the company’s fault. It’s one of their staff playing around with it and made a mess. I will write another post about it when I get around to.