An obvious tool in many digital marketing strategies, Facebook gives your business the ability to share content, engage with your followers and target potential customers. But it’s also an easy space to make any number of mistakes.
The good news is that done right, Facebook can contribute to the success of your business.
About two-thirds of Facebook users visit a local business Page at least once a week.
Dig deeper into the challenges and opportunities of the world’s largest social network.
The following are 13 of the biggest mistakes businesses make on Facebook, as well as tips to avoid making them in the first place.
Not defining your Facebook goals
When you haven’t defined your goals for your Facebook presence, your page is going to reflect that indirection.
Possibilities for goals include (but are not limited to):
- Driving sales
- Generating traffic to your website
- Building awareness of your brand
It’s easy to think that Facebook isn’t working for your business when you don’t have a set goal. Take the time to determine what you want to achieve. Then, it’s easier for you to build a strategy to support that goal.
Using a Facebook profile rather than a Facebook page
It’s very important for you to use a Facebook business page to represent your business. Not only does it appear unprofessional, but it also:
- Does not offer any analytics tools, so you won’t fully understand what is working and what isn’t at a glance
- Makes it impossible for you to run any paid Facebook ads (either boosted posts or full ad campaigns)
- Could violate Facebook’s Terms of Service, which could end up in a deletion of your profile without warning
To avoid any other issues in addition to those, be sure to create a Facebook business page for your business. It’s free and simple to do.
Failing to show a personal side of your business
Because most users join Facebook to connect with their friends and family, you’re missing an opportunity by hiding behind your brand.
Impersonal (robotic-like) posts will unfortunately never gain traction with your target audience.
Instead, think about communicating like a real human when posting. Get personal. There is a human side of your business. This is a great place to showcase that.
You can share employee stories, upload photos or videos of your workplace and/or customers and even host Facebook Live videos, where you can really share your personality as you discuss common questions, talk about new products and more.
Making everything about you
If you’re thinking that social media is merely another place to broadcast about your business, you’ll never see the engagement you’re aiming for.
And, of course, Facebook (like all social media) is intended to be a platform of connection and conversation. Your target audience is only going to follow you or share (or engage with) your posts if your content is relevant, informative or empowering to them in some way.
For example, instead of boasting about how great your business is because of a milestone you hit in follower or sales, use the opportunity to thank your audience for their support in a personalized post.
Whenever you have the opportunity to make your content about your customers and potential customers rather than yourself or your business, do so. That will always be the most engaging approach.
Using only one content type in your posts
It’s important to perform a quick audit of your posts. Are you using only one content type?
For example, is every post a link? Or, are they all generic stock images?
Understandably, a mix of content will perform better on Facebook. In particular, you’ll want to incorporate videos into your posting strategy.
The average engagement rate for Facebook video posts is 0.26 percent, while the average engagement rate overall is just 0.18 percent.
Ideally, you’re also incorporating some element of humor, attention-grabbing visuals, event announcements and so on.
Creating weekly or monthly themes can help boost the execution of a thoroughly executed mix of content. A content calendar, in particular, can help you organize your planning.
Posting without a plan
A relaxed demeanor on your Facebook page has engagement perks, for sure. You’ll appear more human, relatable and engaging.
But operating without any sort of plan or strategy is a problem for many businesses on Facebook.
It’s very difficult to be consistent and hit your goals if your posts are more “shooting from the hip” than “sniping a specific target.”
Again, themes and a content calendar can help you overcome this.
Never measuring your performance
This sounds obvious, but it’s easy for businesses to neglect monitoring the performance of their Facebook pages.
Fortunately, it’s easy enough to stay on top of. See our guide for exploring Facebook Insights.
Knowing what works and doesn’t work for your target audience helps you pivot as needed and adjust your strategy so that you’re content can continually improve and be that much more engaging.
Not knowing what is happening on your page is a big mistake and a lost opportunity.
Inconsistent posting
It’s more common than you think. A business posts several posts a day for several days and then, boom. Disappears. Possibly even for weeks.
This isn’t just a problem from the perspective of your followers and potential customers, it impacts the consideration of your Facebook page in the platform’s news feed algorithm.
Facebook’s algorithm works in the back end of the social platform with the goal of showing content in each user’s news feed that the user will most likely engage with.
Inconsistent posting on your part is a red flag to the algorithm. Posting fresh content consistently is a good signal to the algorithm.
Don’t stress over the quantity. Once a day or even once every other day should be fine as long as you’re consistent with your overall schedule.
Unbalanced sales posts
There is a difficult balance you must strike when it comes to mixing in your sale posts amid other content you’re sharing.
Some businesses post too many and appear pushy.
Some businesses post too few and lose the opportunity to drive any sales from Facebook.
Mix in your sale and discount posts among your other content. Peppering in is not an exact science, but strive for one in five posts at most.
Lacking an optimized Facebook page
First impressions are everything, whether that’s your website or Facebook page.
If your page is vague or unclear in any way, especially with the key information most users are seeking (such as address, contact information and description of products or services), then you lose the potential customer.
Improper use of Facebook groups
Don’t get us wrong, there is potential for Facebook groups to be a useful tool for your business, when done right.
See our 12 tips to help grow your business using Facebook groups.
When businesses create Facebook groups for the sole intention of selling to members, the success can be hit and miss (and often miss). Just remember that Facebook created the groups feature for users to connect with each other over common interests. The more you can leverage that desire from participating group members and the more you can leverage multiple voices and viewpoints, the more engaging your group will be.
Not investing in at least some paid advertising
Gone are the days where a business can often see great organic reach and growth on social media platforms.
But living in denial is not going to get your business anywhere.
Whether you’re boosting a Facebook post or creating a specific Facebook ad campaign, it’s wise to consider investing at least some of your marketing budget into the platform.
See our six tips to maximize your social media advertising budget.
The benefits of at least some advertising include:
- Targeting the demographic of your best potential customers
- Reaching beyond your Facebook following
- Controlling your daily or lifetime budget so that you’re only spending what you want
Check out our seven tips to get more out of your Facebook ads.
Ignoring comments
This can easily be a deathblow to any brand on social media if comments are left entirely unmonitored.
First, remember that users are making the effort to comment on your post. They want you to know that they’re listening. If they are not responded to in some way, they’re less likely to engage again.
Pages that engage with their commenters are typically more successful than pages that don’t.
In addition, a negative comment thread can easily spiral out of control and impact your brand in long-lasting ways.
As you’re working to avoid the most common mistakes that businesses make on Facebook, consider leveling up your digital marketing with DailyStory. Features include automating various marketing tasks, dynamic audience segmentation and more. Schedule your free demo with us today.
