Wash Wisdom: How to use Facebook for business

According to the article “10 Powerful Tips for Using Facebook for Business” by contributor Derek Walter on www.businessnewsdaily.com, Facebook continues to play a huge role in businesses, no matter which industry you’re in. While it’s easy enough to set up a page and add some posts, you may not realize how much you can customize your business’ Facebook page to be better tailored to it. As such, Walter offers 10 tips on how to use Facebook for business:

Match your @ username to your business. Consistency in branding is key, so make sure to not only choose an @ username but to make it match your business as closely as possible. While your ideal pick may not be available, play with other possible options.
Choose a page template. Facebook keeps a fairly consistent look across its platform, but it does offer you some chances to customize your page, including choosing a template best suited for your type of business: professional service, business, shopping, standard, venue, politician or restaurant.
Manage your tabs. You can rearrange the tabs on the side of your page to place precedence on some (such as photos) over others, or you can delete any tabs you don’t use to clean up the page.
Choose the right call-to-action button. Facebook offers a selection of call-to-action buttons you can use at the top of your page, such as “Contact us” or “Sign up.” Choose the one that best fits your business.
Upload videos straight to Facebook. You can grab an audience’s attention with videos, and statistics show that page metrics are slightly better when you upload a video straight to Facebook instead of embedding a YouTube or Vimeo file in a post. In the era of smartphones, it’s easy enough to create a video with just a little editing.
Keep tabs on Messenger. If you add a call-to-action button, you’ll be able to get messages in the Messenger app just as if a contact had messaged you. Visitors will also be able to see how responsive you are to messages, so be sure to keep up with them.
Target your posts. Facebook has created a way to target your posts to specific audiences, such as based on age, location or interests. You’ll probably have to spend more time browsing through your dashboard to use this function.
Create an ad. While you can still reach audiences without the use of ads, even Facebook admits that organic reach is declining due to an expanding user base. But, to gain some extra exposure, you’ll probably want to spend a little money for some ads.
Follow the updates. Facebook updates its algorithms often, and it’s best to stay on top of these changes in order to best utilize them. The engineers and designers make these changes based on what they think creates a better user experience, so they’re most often beneficial. You can learn about new changes at Facebook’s business site.
Keep experimenting. Because Facebook keeps growing and changing, so too must you. Use the analytic tools Facebook makes available to you to track your page’s progress; this way, you can see if any of the customizations you might have made had any effects. If you want to keep your business relevant, you have to keep up with Facebook.