Social Media Blogs by Aliza Sherman
Aliza Sherman is a web pioneer, author, and international speaker. Sherman is the author of 8 books about the Internet including The Everything Blogging Book, Streetwise Ecommerce, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Crowdsourcing and Social Media Engagement for Dummies.

Three Ways to Get More from Your Facebook Page

Three Ways to Get More from Your Facebook Page

Facebook is still the social network to beat when it comes to the “Battle of the Social Networks.” Despite the rising popularity of Instagram – which is now owned by Facebook – there are no other social networks in the United States that have caught up in terms of active users and reach.

But how do you tap into the Facebook audience with all of the restrictions and limitations placed on your Facebook Page without paying for advertising on the network? In short, treat Facebook as more than a place to publish posts to the feed and turn it into more of a place to inform and engage with customers and prospects. Here’s where to start:

1. Use Notes

You may be posting to your website’s blog but a lot of the longer-form content you’ve been putting on your more static site could be leveraged on Facebook through the Notes feature.

First you need to add Notes as a feature on your Facebook Page and only Page Admins have the ability to add new tabs. Go to Settings and pick Templates and Tabs. If you don’t see Notes as an option to activate, click on Add a Tab and pick Notes from the list that pops up.

Once you have Notes installed, it should appear in the left hand column of your Facebook Page along with other tabs such as About, Posts, Photos and Videos. You can rearrange the order of the list of tabs under Templates and Tabs. Simply drag and drop the tabs as needed.

Use Notes like an alternate blog including syndicating your regular blog posts to publish them on Facebook. Facebook prefers that you link within their site, not out to your website or free-standing blog. By linking to Notes, instead, you may get greater visibility for your content.

2. Start a Group

Gone are the days of frequent conversations on Facebook Pages. When not paying to advertise, most Facebook Pages get a few likes and even fewer comments on posts. The real conversations tend to happen in Groups that were set up by Facebook specifically for discussions versus marketing.

Groups can be used for current customers as a peer-to-peer customer service forum or a place to gather like-minded people including your existing and potential customers for conversations relevant to your business. If you’re a party planner, for example, you could treat a Group as both an “Ask the Expert” format and a place where people can share their own experiences and party planning tips. If you own a pet store, your Group could be a local outlet where pet owners can get recommendations for pet services in addition to your store such as vets, groomers and pet boarding.

Setting up a Group is easy and you can do it from – and link it to – your Facebook Page. Click on the Community tab on the left side of your Page and then click Create Group. If you don’t see the Community tab, you can add it the same way you added the Notes tab – Settings, Templates and Tab, Add New, then reorder it in the list of tabs as needed.

Follow the instructions as you set up the Group, adding a name, description, and other features. Decide on an Open, Closed or Secret Group to help manage access and the amount of work it will take to moderate the group. An Open group will be hardest to oversee. A Secret Group will make it hardest for people to find and access it. The Closed Group is a good setting where you can approve who joins your Group and control the growth of the Group.

Be less commercial and more conversational in your Group. Share useful information, ask questions, and keep conversations going by participating regularly. Chances are people in your Group will be more likely to see, and respond to, your posts.

3. Use Facebook Live

When it comes to effective social media, you can no longer ignore video. While videos posted to your Facebook Page should get more engagement, the real interactions are attention-grabbing Facebook Live videos.

There are many ways to use Facebook Live including video tours of a location, behind-the-scenes storytelling, and product demos, but some of the most useful Facebook Lives tend to be the Q&A or “How to” ones. Don’t just broadcast your video but ask for comments and watch out for them, responding both verbally on video and typing a quick response. Having another person on hand to do the typing and keeping an eye on the comments is a good idea.

Back to the party planner example, you could host a weekly “Ask the Party Planner” live video interaction. Or as a pet store owner, you could devote 30 minutes a week to a “As the Pet Expert” live video. Posting the schedule for your weekly video chat can help people know when to tune in, but anyone following your Page will also be notified when you’re posting live to catch followers in the moment.

With these three tactics, you can easily breathe new life into your Facebook Page, garner more attention, and interact with the people who matter most to your business – customers and prospects.


Read other social media blogs by Aliza Sherman