Small Businesses Owners - Do You Make These Mistakes on Facebook?

Due to its popularity, more and more small businesses are joining Facebook, and although this isn't necessarily a bad thing, you will need to think about some things if you are one of those business owners. It is a fact that Facebook can bring you a lot of attention and business, but if  you don't handle it properly, it can mean disaster to your business's image. To prevent this, you will want to make sure you avoid some common mistakes that business owners make with their Facebook page.

Don't Just "Set It and Forget It"

While it may seem that you could just set up Facebook and leave it to its own devices, this is far from being true. The whole idea of Facebook is for people to interact and connect with each other. When a person is looking on Facebook for a business to work with, they will expect interaction.

Many people think that as long as they offer a good service or product, visitors will be able to "Find" their page and "Like" it. You wouldn't expect a brick and mortar business to have people love you just because you are in business, so you can't expect people to love you just because you have a Facebook page. You will need to spend time updating your page and respond to messages.

Keep Things Interesting

Another mistake that business owners make is thinking their product or service is so great that as long as people see it they will become loyal followers. Being predictable is okay to a small degree, but you do not want to be boring. On top of being engaged with your visitors, you need to shake things up a bit. You will need to keep people interested -  respond in a timely manner, but make additions and changes to your page to keep it current.

More Dosen't Necessarily Mean Better

You should also avoid automating your Facebook updates. There are some systems that allow  you to schedule updates, and they can also set up auto-updates from other social media sites like Twitter. But, this can actually hurt your campaign in a few ways.

Although your audience wants you to be engaging, they don't want to be bombarded with updates from your page every day. This is also true for any social media site - if more than a quarter of their page is taken up by your updates, they will stop following you and your business. Be careful, because it is easy to have many updates going out each day if you are linking your marketing sites.

Learn What Tools are Available

This can be a big one, since so many business owners think they are too busy to learn all the different options and tools that Facebook has to offer. There can be a lot of traffic you will miss out on by ignoring what is available to you on your page. Take the time to learn all about the ins and outs of how your Facebook page functions and what you can do to make it as unique and great as possible. Chances are that you will gain a lot more followers to your page than most of your competitors.

Don't Violate Facebook’s Terms

You must take the time to understand the things you can and cannot do on Facebook. The last thing you want to do is create a network of 2,000 followers and then have Facebook ban your page for not following their terms.

With a little planning, you should be able to avoid the above mistakes. When it comes to using Facebook, remember that balance is the key - be engaging, interesting, a bit unpredictable and not annoying.

By taking the time to set-up your Facebook page properly and keep your followers happy, you will be ahead of most of your competitors. And, once you see positive responses from those who visit your page, you will realize this is time well spent.