How to use Facebook for business

Facebook is part of the new business revolution, enabling businesses both small and large to reach vast amounts of people with their message. However there is already a backlash happening against people using social media to ‘sell’ to their friends or followers.

It has been said that the average customer needs to have contact with a product or service approximately 7 times before they will seriously consider buying it. From my experience it is important that a person feels they can trust a product before they buy it, and that trust can be formed by repetitive contact and can take some time to build – this is where the traditional wisdom of ‘7 contacts’ comes from.

The good thing about Facebook and other social media is that those ‘7 contacts’ can happen relatively quickly and if somebody accepts your friend request you already have an advantage over a ‘stranger’ advertising the same product.

But if you try to sell to people straight away you will lose the trust you are building with them very quickly!

So if you are planning to use Facebook for business make sure your emphasis is on networking, go into it with an open mind and be prepared also to prove yourself or your product to people the same way as you would have to with any other kind of promotional activity.

To show your business in its best light you need to make sure your ‘profile’ is suitable for business purposes, having a load of friends posting raunchy comments or pictures of you is not going to help your professional image!

I love using facebook for friends and family so I got around this by setting up a separate profile for work, I have heard that this is not allowed by facebook but I have seen no evidence supporting this. I used a separate email account and of course have a separate password too.

Your profile picture should also be appropriate, but still look friendly – no snapshots of you with the England flag painted on your face at a football match! I definitely recommend getting a professional to shoot some for you – and try to have a variety so that you can change from time to time.

However do make sure that your business profile is not completely devoid of all personality, as I have said, facebook is about building relationships with people first and foremost, and any good salesperson knows that people buy from other people. And their preference will always be to buy from people they know and trust.
Just think about what you put on there – is it the type of content you would want a boss or a potential client to see? If it’s not don’t put it on there – and if somebody else leaves something on your profile you are not happy with – remove it! (You can do this by clicking ‘remove’ on the top right side of each post).

This advice should set you on the path to a profitable facebook account and can equally be applied to other social media too, to find out more including how to set up an account if you don’t have one yet follow this link http://www.learn-on-demand.co.uk/facebookmarketing.php

If you are already on Facebook add me as a friend http://profile.to/illuminate-coaching/ or join my group for more tips on how to use facebook for business http://www.facebook.com/groups.php?ref=sb#/group.php?gid=86491217899

See you there!