Tired of posting the same old updates on Facebook? Sometimes you need to try something new, maybe quirky, to liven things up for your audience and to let them know you’re still there. Here are five things you can do to freshen things up a bit.
People love stories about people. Interviewing someone or writing a little profile about them is a great way to humanise your business page. It lets people know there are flesh and blood people behind your business. It doesn’t necessarily have to be an employee either. You might want to feature a customer who has an interesting story or take on things. You can make it a short Q&A type of thing or a 90 second video — whatever works best for you and your audience. This is a great and easy way to bring your business to life.
Disclaimer: We do this regularly with one of our clients, Pure Gold Pineapples, featuring some of the farmers who grow the pineapples. It always gets a good response. This is a professional looking production but you can do great things without too much money as long as you have good talent and a little creativity. Audiences aren’t expecting a Steven Spielberg movie, just something that gives a little insight.
If you’re running a retail business, don’t be afraid to put it out there and run a flash sale every now and again. Let your customers know there will be a flash sale coming up soon with posts on Facebook and run limited offers on items with decent discounts. You have to make it worthwhile in terms of discounts otherwise your customers won’t see anything special about what you’re doing. Ideally the aim is to get people to share news of the flash sale with friends, so make it as enticing as possible. Build anticipation, make the sale worthwhile and be prepared to respond and service customers properly while the sale is on. Do it well and you could have a new bunch of customers; do it badly and you could be dealing with plenty of complaints and a loss of customers.
This might be a bit confronting for some business owners, and you have to be comfortable with doing it, but taking a stand on an issue could set your business apart from the competition. It might be something like same-sex marriage (for or against, that’s your choice) or supporting a cause or charity. Taking a stand like this shows that your business cares about more than just the bottom line and it’s something we’re seeing more and more businesses do these days. Again, you have to be comfortable with what you’re supporting and you might have to be willing to deal with some backlash.
It’s probably the most obvious thing on your page and what greets people when they land there, so how long has it been since you refreshed it? A change can be as good as a holiday and changing your cover photo sends a reminder to your followers that you’re still out there and active. Think about themed cover photos in line with seasons, holidays or events like football finals (or whatever is relevant to your audience). Always look for an image that fits your brand.
People love the concise and attractive way that an infographic can convey lots of handy stats and facts in a bite-sized bundle. There are plenty of free online infographic makers and it doesn’t take long to figure out how to use them. Come up with a set of interesting facts and figures about your business or industry and package them together in an infographic. This is a great way to get information out there and is also highly shareable.
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Fi Bendall is chief executive of The Female Social Network and a Westpac-AFR 2015 100 Women of Influence, who was described by CEO Magazine as “The CEO’s secret weapon”. An expert and pioneer in digital strategy, she has over 23 years’ experience in the digital and tech sectors.
