According to a recent 2024 report by Statista, around 2.9 billion people are active users of Facebook, making it the most popular social media platform.
With a strong Facebook page, a small business can build a platform for its customers where they connect with one another. It fosters a sense of loyalty with both new and existing customers. Further, an active Facebook page is an excellent way to grow your brand and business.
In this post, you’ll learn six useful tactics on how to promote your Facebook page to get more followers without having to pay for Facebook ads. Ready?
Disclosure: This content may contain a few affiliate links, which means if you click on them, I will get a commission (without any extra cost to you).
Optimize Your Facebook Page
SEO optimization is the most important aspect when building an online presence — regardless of what that looks like. A Facebook page is no exception.
Optimization involves several steps business owners should check off as they build their FB page. Check them out:
Personalize and Complete Profile Information
Each aspect of your page should reflect your brand. That includes a personalized URL, name of business page, profile picture, cover photo, and bio. Doing so reduces bounce rates, which is the percentage of customers who leave the site after viewing only one page. The principle of bounce rates not only apply to web pages but also to social media pages.
Carrying out this step also improves user engagement and builds trust. It shows that you take your business seriously and have taken the time to create a strong and helpful profile for it.
Make sure you don’t skip adding other useful information, such as operating hours, contact info, and address.
Craft a Compelling ‘About’ Section
The ‘About’ section is the first thing your potential clients look for. Think of it as an elevator pitch showcasing your mission, vision, and what you bring to the table.
Even if you have a limited number of characters to work with, ensure you highlight the crucial details your customers want to know. Where your business operates and how long you’ve been operating are just some of these.
State your business name clearly, too, and speak the language of your targeted audience. If you sell outdoor gear, for example, use a peppy, extroverted tone.
Maybe consider a hashtag that reflects your brand, for example, the hashtag of the motivational speaker and athlete David Goggins’ #StayHard.
But don’t think that hashtags are used only to make your brand trendy. Using hashtags is surprisingly powerful for small businesses. The humble pound sign followed by a relevant keyword representing your business can actually widen your digital reach. Check out my article that discusses hashtags in detail.
Add a CTA
A CTA, or a call to action, allows you to track conversion rates (i.e. how many customers landed on your page and followed through by making a purchase or signing up for your services).
According to a 2023 report, personalized CTAs can help convert around 42% of potential or new customers. By using Facebook’s nifty CTA button, you’re telling your clients what their next step should be—whether it’s ‘Buy Now!’ or ‘Call Us Today!’.
Create and Share Engaging Content
Quality content can boost your FB business page by effectively doing the following:
- Improving your online visibility and search engine ranking
- Allowing customers to engage and interact with you on a personal level
- Driving organic traffic to your site
- Increasing brand awareness
In other words, creating and sharing engaging content must be an integral part of your plan to boost your FB page.
This type of content comes in various forms, including:
- Informative Posts: They’re typically the longest type of content you can write (from 700 to 2,500 words) crafted to inform or help your audience with their concern. Our post today is a great example of this content type.
- Interactive Posts: These allow your followers to interact directly with your site through quizzes, polls, contests, polls, games, and more.
- Live Videos: Give clients a chance to get to know you on a personal level and ask you questions live.
- Compelling Infographics: These can include ‘before & after’ pictures of your services, for example, or videos and high-quality photos showcasing your products.
Tip: Stay consistent with your posting to maintain an active presence on Facebook. Additionally, tailor each piece to your target audience’s needs.
To stay on top of your posting calendar, I highly recommend Vista Social or Sprout Social. These are powerful tools that manage your postings across all social accounts you have but they also provide you with the best insight about your audience, helping you adjust your strategy as necessary.
Engage Actively with Your Audience
Did you know that FB business pages can earn badges too — particularly the ‘Very Responsive’ badge. Your FB page can earn that by constantly showing up for your customers online.
After all, it’s important to show new and existing followers that you’re listening. Customers feel safe knowing that when they have any questions or concerns, they can just shoot you a message for some insight.
Don’t stop there. Excellent customer service includes keeping track of the comments followers leave as well. Some might include constructive and helpful feedback or genuine tips your clients feel could make your service/product better for them.
Respond to as many as you can — even the negative ones. Remember to be yourself and have fun with your audience, too. If they share a relatable moment, interact with it. These gestures demonstrate your commitment to customer service,and they like that.
Leverage Cross-Promotion on Other Social Media Platforms
More and more social media apps are being released nowadays, each showing unique features your business can leverage. It means your business’s online presence doesn’t stop with Facebook.
Instagram, for instance, is a visual-centric platform for engaging with audiences and promoting your business through creative image and video posts. Fun fact: 31.7% of people aged 18-24 and 30.6% of those aged 25-34 open Instagram daily.
On this app, you can also host Live Q&As regularly and post stories about current projects. Why not tease audiences about upcoming events or products? While at it, promote your Facebook page and share landing pages where your audience can immediately see what your business is about.
X is another platform you can utilize. There, you and your followers can have fun with short content forms and quick interactive polls—all while linking to your FB page. For example, you could host a Facebook contest targeting Gen Z. You can tweet about it to widen your reach since 29% of young people use the platform.
Cross-promotion of this caliber can amp up customer acquisition by 23% and achieve several goals, such as:
- Boosting your page’s organic traffic
- Generating client conversions
- Increasing potential leads
- Attracting users from different fields and demographics
Collaborate with Influencers
Influencers already have an established audience. Reaching out and collaborating with them guarantees you a couple of their followers ready to listen to their promotion of your business. If you operate your business locally, you may choose a local influencer, otherwise open yourself up to other niche influencers ready to partner with you.
Do your research first, though. The influencer you pick should align with your brand values and audience interests. Let’s say you’re a fitness brand or a local gym. That means you should hunt for legitimate fitness influencers that don’t propagate false information or promise impossible results.
In other words, authenticity comes first. When you reach out to these influencers, remember to be upfront about your services or products and why you picked them for a collaboration. Additionally, share compensation details in clear terms.
Giving them a sample of your product (without any expectations) can go a long way, too. It’ll help the influencer speak from experience and provide genuine input regarding your business. It’s certainly better than handing them a script and having the promotion appear forced.
Heepsy is a tool that you can use for influencer discovery. It has all the information you need to make an educated decision about a potential collaborator for your campaigns.
Host Contests and Giveaways
Hosting contests and giveaways may seem daunting, but they’re easier than you think. They also reap a lot of benefits, including boosting user engagement, brand awareness, leads and sales, and social media followers.
Trust the numbers by BusinessDIT. Giveaways stand at the top of content types that increase engagement, with about 34% of new customers converting because of them.
According to the same source, hosting contests grows your social media presence 70% faster. Email subscribers are boosted by 700% after each giveaway as well.
So, what are the best practices when promoting a contest or giveaway? Take a look:
Identify Your Goals
Have a clear idea of what you want by the end of the contest. For example, are you attracting more leads? Then include a form new customers can fill out before entering. Doing so helps measure how many people engaged with the contest.
Provide them the option to share their email, too. This allows you to share upcoming promotions and other future events they can participate in in case they don’t win.
Familiarize Yourself with Facebook Contest Guidelines
To avoid any legal issues, carefully go through Facebook’s guidelines concerning hosting contests and giveaways. The platform doesn’t want to deal with liability issues and you also don’t want to hurt your brand’s image.
Keep It Simple
Events are a special way to promote your business and get your service/product out there, so don’t complicate things for your followers. Keep the rules straightforward.
Offer Attractive Prizes
No point in having a contest if the prize isn’t that appealing to your audience. Pick a prize that’ll urge them to participate and keep coming back for other giveaways. It could be monetary vouchers, a free service, or a bulk of products.
To Sum Up
In summary, promoting your Facebook page to attract more followers takes time and a well-rounded content and marketing strategy. Experiment with the six tactics we shared today to figure out which combination works best for your target audience.
A younger demographic, for instance, enjoys giveaways, listens to influencers, and spends much time on social media platforms, making cross-promotion a breeze. Mature audiences, on the other hand, like to be heard and engaged with, valuing customer service more.
