There’s no disputing, Facebook is the king of social media. But having a Facebook Page for your tire business isn’t going to do much if you don’t take a strategic approach to managing it. While millions of American adults visit Facebook every day, that’s no guarantee it will drive profitable customer action to your business. Running a Facebook Page takes commitment and discipline – before you get started and for every day after you launch your business on the social channel.

Here are our top tips for tire business owners who want to get the most out of their Facebook activity.

Set up a business Page

Facebook has become increasingly particular about how businesses behave on social media. It’s essential you set up a business Page for Facebook. Don’t try to rig the system and run your business from your personal account on Facebook. Facebook business Pages are free and give you many additional benefits to help you showcase your tire business.

Dedicate resources

Facebook is no longer a kid’s game. People of all genders, races, education and income levels consider it a vital part of their day. You must treat it as you would any traditional media channel and provide the resources to make daily posts, create ongoing content and monitor activity. This needs to be driven by the person in your organization responsible for marketing. It can no longer be parked with the receptionist or trainee.

Complete all the information on your business Page

You don’t want to do anything to deter people from finding you in the way they prefer. Fill out every box available on the form. Essentials include:

• Address
• Phone number
• Business hours
• Email address
• Services – You can showcase each service, so don’t be shy about adding these to your business Page.

Lead with original content

Facebook is the distribution part of you content marketing strategy. Every piece of content you publish is an opportunity to get people onto your website. This is why it’s important to consistently create high-quality blog posts, consumer buying guides, safety checklists, and videos – to name a few examples. Without your own content, you’re providing little more than a chatting service for your potential customers. Or, if you’re curating someone else’s content, you’re encouraging your readers to visit sites on the internet that you don’t control.

Make sure you’re producing content aimed at your audience, not focused on your business. What do you know that can help your potential buyers? How can you make their life easier? These types of posts and the associated content are far more interesting to tire buyers than seeing broadcast marketing messages about your business.

Get visual

Ensure your content is using good images or video content. Facebook posts with photos or videos are far more successful than those without. You can easily whip up social cards or create your own memes using a tool like Canva. Even someone with no graphic design skills can make attractive infographics using the templates on Piktochart. Don’t underestimate PowerPoint or YouTube as a good way to create tutorials about things like tire safety and maintenance tips.

Treat Facebook as a staging area

Your goal should be to move people off Facebook and onto a channel you own or manage. Here are ways you can do that:

• Have an email subscription form on Facebook to help build your newsletter database. Facebook works with popular email services like MailChimp so you can capture email addresses from people even if they don’t visit your website.
• Put a ‘Call Now’ button on your business Page that allows Facebook to send your phone number directly to the reader’s phone.

• Create an offer to attract customers. Offers let you share discounts right from your Page. People can save them and get notifications before they expire.

• Create an event listing for every special promotion you’re running. This could be as simple as having an Easter sale and providing coffee and chocolate bunnies for anyone who comes in on a Saturday morning before Easter.

Commit to the conversation

The best way to get comments on your Page is to reply when people leave a comment. Treat every comment as if it were a person standing in front of you. You wouldn’t ignore someone walking into your store; don’t ignore a comment. At the very least, ‘Like’ every comment so your fans will know you’re paying attention. Make sure to check your Notifications tab every day so nothing goes unnoticed.

Also, don’t shy away from complaints or criticisms if they occur. Again, treat them as if they were standing in front of you saying the same thing. Whatever you do, don’t delete negative comments.

Promote your Page

There are a number of ways to promote your Facebook business Page. The easiest way is also free; invite your friends to like your Page. Ask your employees to do the same. Put a Facebook widget on your website. A word of caution here – it’s best to refrain from the “Find us on Facebook” or “Like us on Facebook” campaigns popular in the early days of social media. The general public now expects businesses to have a presence, so it’s no longer a differentiator and will make you look outdated.

Unfortunately, the glory days of Facebook are over and you now have to pay to play. Business Pages have a very low organic reach. You can boost your posts and run Facebook advertising for a relatively modest spend. The good news is they provide you with an incredibly good way to target your audience based on location, income, gender and a variety of other criteria. Don’t be shy to spend money; even $20 per promotion will increase the effectiveness of your Facebook marketing.

The new Facebook order

Facebook has grown from a fun way to meet new people to a full-blown strategic marketing tool. Invest a little energy into your approach to Facebook as part of a larger content marketing strategy and you’ll begin to see results. Take a dabble approach and you run the risk of wasting time and money with no return on investment.

Get in touch by dropping me an email at sarah@tractionnews.com if you’d like more information on how to set up a documented content marketing strategy.

Tagged: Facebook marketing

Facebook success tips for tire businesses