We often are asked “How do I grow my Facebook business page?” The answer is not as simple as it once was. As Feb 2017 there are 65 million business pages. In 2010 the number of business pages grew from 1 million to 3 million. When you look at the stats of business posting and people on Facebook it is even more astounding, like 1.32 billion daily active users. If you are just getting started it has now has become more than just putting up a page and inviting your friends to like it. While this is a good place to start, it is no longer as effective as it once was. Think about how many invites you get in a week and how many of those did you actually like.

Growing Your Facebook Business Page Organically

So how do you grow your Facebook business page? Well here are some things you can do that will help
Let’s look at some simple and passive things you can do.
1 On the signature of your email have a link to your page
2 Have a like our page widget on your website or blog
3 Have a like us on Facebook or use actual page address on all your printed marketing materials
4 If you have a store/restaurant/office have a sign near check out reminding them to like your page.
5 If you email market also have links in your email to your page
6 Add your company as your current employer in your personal profile’s Work section
7 Word of mouth – ask your clients/customers/contacts to like your page

Planning

Now let’s look at some active things you can do. These take thought and planning.
1 Contest or Drawing – you can offer something of value in exchange for people liking your page. You can also have a random draw from all those who like your page and offer something of value. Some will do this to reach certain milestones like 1,000 likes etc.
2 Facebook like ladders – you have to be careful when you participate in one of these as you may not get quality followers or they may unlike your page at a later time. Some groups will conduct these and they may be more effective if the group is related to your industry.
3 Paid page likes – This is NOT Facebook ads but going to Fiver or some other business that offers x amount of likes for x amount of dollars. While they will tell you they are real people more than likely they are fake accounts and will never ever engage or interact with your page.
4 Good content – there is no substitute for having content that people want to share. This is not an easy achievement for small local businesses to achieve. People went nuts sharing Starbucks Unicorn Frappuccino (over 50k shares) not to mention all the news stories and other content about it. Some local businesses would love to get 10-15 shares. So if you support local businesses remember to share when you can.

Facebook Ads

If you are just getting started or even if you have had your page for a while then you need to consider Facebook Ads to grow your page. As a local business, this does not have to be cost prohibitive. This coupled with good content is an effective strategy to brand and grow your business.

Here are somethings you should know
1 Use the ads manager to create your ad – It has more options for you than if you use the promote page option located on your business page
2 Choose a budget – If you are just getting started start with a smaller budget to ensure you are reaching your target market. Once you find your optimal target market then you can increase it.
3 Choosing your target market – when you use the ads manager to create your ad you can choose such demographics as location, age, gender as well as interests, behavior, income, job title and more. This is the most important aspect of placing your ad.

Of the 65 million businesses that have a Facebook business page, would you believe that only 4 million of them are actively advertising. Local businesses have a significant advantage here as you can reach with your ads a large number of potential customers/clients with an affordable ad budget. If you are a local store/restaurant and you want to drive business into your store/restaurant then you would do an ad for say a 10 mile radius and you can really target them.

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