I’m sure you’ve heard of the Pareto principle, also known at the 80/20 rule. 20% of your activities create 80% of your income, also that 20% of your customers bring in 80% of your revenue right?
Well, when it comes to Facebook, that’s just wrong!
Don’t worry, I’m not going to make you re-evaluate everything and start trying to focus on the 80%….
No when it comes to Facebook marketing, another similar principle comes in to play. It’s the 90/10 principle.
This time, the 90% doesn’t refer to people, it is about the amount of content, updates or things you post before you even consider trying to sell something to anyone. In fact, in the early days you may even be 95% provision of content….Although I prefer “Value” rather than content and only 1 in 20 messages should be promotional.
It’s noisy out there. Vouchers, updates, promotions, videos, blogs, photos, etc., etc. and your potential customers are starting to become immune to marketing messages. Imagine people scrolling down Facebook pages faster than your Sky Plus box at 30 times. Combine this with the amount of Facebook users, who don’t actually visit Facebook.com any more, but access it on their phones or tablets and it’s no wonder your Facebook page likes aren’t growing as fast as you’d like.
So here are 5 tips to ensure you connect and engage with your Facebook audience and encourage new people to like your page:
1) Be the expert in your field. If you are a fitness instructor, make sure you are giving great articles on fitness in general
2) Do some research. What are the biggest pain points for your intended audience? If you are a marketing company specialising in restaurants, maybe it’s filling the covers on a Tuesday night.
3) Do some planning. In preparation for Social Snowflakes new online program for Small businesses who want to use Facebook to grow their business, we identified over 100 topics that people need & want. Taking time early also makes it easier to sit down and write for your audience
4) Be a master curator: The hardest part about getting started is “What to write”. Subscribe to blogs, newsletters and consider using a free aggregator such as Feedly (www.Feedly.com) then share a topic adding your own twist and commentary on, you’ll be an expert in no time. (Tip: Please make sure you give credit to the original article, no one likes their stuff being used without it!)
5) Keep the faith (Apologies to Bon Jovi!): This may not be your first time at the rodeo! Chances are you set up a page in the past, played at it for a while, didn’t see any noticeable uplift so decided to leave it. Imagine you did the same thing with your lawn. Mowed it every week for a month and then stopped for 3 months. It would be full of weeds, look unloved and certainly undesirable. The same is true of your Facebook page. If you don’t tend to it regularly, then people will not want to engage with the page.
Bonus Tip) Engage, Engage, Engage!
Whenever someone writes on your page, make sure you like it as a minimum (assuming it’s appropriate). If you can, make sure you respond. Over the past week, I’ve actually bought some Yorkshire GIN, Booked a meal at a restaurant and picked up a client for our business, all because of simple engagement
If you’ve enjoyed this article or have any questions, please be sure to comment below and share too if it takes your fancy!
Cheers
Lee Kenny
When Pareto’s 80/20 rule is just plain wrong…