Wondering how to promote your small business on Facebook?
You probably spend a lot of time on Facebook already. Why not build your business there?
You can promote your brand and sell your goods and services directly on Facebook.
Facebook offers so many options that it can be confusing, though.
Not to mention you need to know what to post, then create those posts, and actually get them on Facebook!
Well, fear not, because I’ve found an awesome tool that’s going to clear up the confusion.
Not only that – it’s a storehouse of 6,000 social media visuals that you can search, tweak, and schedule to Facebook. Right from your web browser!
It’s called PromoRepublic. I’ve been allowed to test it for free to let you know what I think of it!
Disclosure: As an affiliate, I may earn a referral fee if you decide to purchase a plan.
You’ll learn more about this multifaceted tool in the second part of this article.
First we’ll cover Setting up your Facebook Page for Success.
Then we’ll get into Creating Effective Images for Facebook Posts.
Both sections include written content plus a short video.
Let’s do it!
How To Set Up your Facebook Page for Success
So you’ve created a Facebook Page for your business. Now what?
Let’s set up your Facebook Page for success!
Read the text below, or watch the video at the end of this section.
Today, small businesses spend more time on social media marketing than they do on website optimization.
As a small business owner or marketer, you may not need an actual website as you can promote your brand and sell your goods or services directly on your social profiles.
Statistics predict that the social networks’ global mobile ad revenue will reach almost $70 billion USD by 2021.
Why does your business need a social media presence?
- Sell your products and services.
- Improve your customer relationships.
- Increase your reach (targeted ads and sponsored messaging).
- Expand your professional network.
- Improve your business’s customer support.
- Manage your brand’s online reputation.
How to organize your Facebook Page
There is something you should do before creating stunning content: You have to set up your Page and complete your profile.
Profile and Cover Photos
Your Profile photo should be clear and catchy as it appears in your followers’ Facebook newsfeed in comments and replies, and in posts on your timeline.
It’s a good idea to set your logo as your profile image. If you are the face of your business, though, learn how to create a great profile picture.
For your Cover Photo, choose a picture that evokes the emotions you want your clients to feel when they think about your brand.
If you choose to add text, you’ll want to optimize the size for desktop and mobile with this template.
Use the About section to tell about your company
Summarize what your company is about. This is also a great place to share related links to other social channels and pages on your website.
General information should contain mission, contact information, and comprehensive summary.
Call-to-Action buttons
Facebook offers many choices for your Business Page CTA: call-to-action button. Choose the most relevant one to your business purpose:
- Contact you through Messenger or email or by phone or website.
- Shop now.
- Start food orders.
- Book a service.
- Learn more.
How to use Facebook tabs
Facebook tabs are linked from the left sidebar of the Page on desktop (see Page layout image above).
Create useful and helpful tabs to make your followers’ experience better.
You might not need a website if you have a professionally-managed profile with relevant tabs!
Take a look at these tabs different brands created for their followers (examples on video):
→ Trilogy natural skincare brand lets their fans purchase their goods directly on Facebook.
→ Huntington Beach Homes and Happenings makes it twice as easy for their followers to find their dream home on their Facebook Business Page.
→ Starbucks lets their fans search for jobs that the company offers directly on the Page.
Which tabs to create depends on your brand type and needs. Think over what might be useful for your fans and followers, and start testing.
How to set up an optimal content plan
Before you start posting on your new Page, you need to have a content strategy.
A well-balanced content plan should look like this:
- 40% engaging content
- 30% promotional content: share the faces of your team and clients
- 20% educational content: what does your audience want to learn?
- 10% curated content: only share what your audience is interested in
Engaging content
This type of content should be the biggest part of your social media pie when you use your Page to build relationships with clients.
Engaging content includes:
- Quotes
- Polls
- Interesting facts
- Question and answer
1 | Quotes need to be appropriate to your audience and visually stunning. When done effectively, they evoke an emotional response and can go viral.
Find your quotes in seconds. You don’t need to spend hours searching for the content your audience will like!
With PromoRepublic you just type your keyword in the search bar and discover dozens of pre-made templates relevant to your business.
2 | Promotional content should be about your brand face, not only discounts and special offers.
Show them your face! Get closer to your customer and share with him the faces of your team.
And never forget about your clients. Share photos of them with your goods or at your business. It’s great User Generated Content, absolutely for free!
3 | What educational content are your followers interested in? What do they want to learn?
If you’re a real estate agent, for example, you can educate about:
- Real Estate trends
- How to choose the right agent
- Insurance tips for new homeowners
- Home renovation tips
- Furniture trends
If you use PromoRepublic, all these posts are already created for you. Choose the ones you need and customize them with your logo.
4 | Curated content means sharing others’ posts. But don’t do it blindly!
Follow Pages connected to your industry and see which posts your fans may like.
You can also learn more about social media content types.
When should you post on Facebook?
Now you know what to post, and where to get the content for your business page.
The next question? When to post!
- Use your Facebook Insights to see when your followers are most active.
- You can also see the results of your posts in the PromoRepublic dashboard (see above).
Here’s everything on video. You may wish to read along what I wrote above, as the narrator’s accent can be a bit tough to decipher in parts!
How To Create Effective Images For Facebook Posts
Coming up with Facebook posts consistently can be a challenge! That’s why I want to introduce you to PromoRepublic.
This tool will help you find post ideas, customize visuals from pre-made content, and schedule to your Facebook page!
Plus, you can schedule to Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram at the same time. Win-win-win-win!
In this section, we’ll delve a little deeper into creating effective Facebook images – easily.
There’s also a video at the end.
Social Media is visual!
It’s a well-known fact that social media marketing is all about visuals, so marketers need to learn to market without words.
Why you need to include visuals:
- 93% of human communication is nonverbal.
- 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual.
- 70% of your sensory receptors are in your eyes.
- 40% of people respond better to visuals.
Social Media Examiner gave us some interesting data in their industry report:
- 74% of social media marketers use visual assets in their campaigns.
- 71% of marketers planned to increase their use of visuals.
- 51% of B2B marketers prioritized creating visual content assets.
- 42% of B2C marketers place more importance on visual content.
Sometimes it’s hard to understand why some pictures go viral, and some professional and great photos are largely ignored.
Which images get more engagement on social media:
- Images that are light receive more likes and shares than dark images.
- Images with multiple colors attract more attention than images with just one color.
- Images with less than ten percent of background perform better as visual posts.
Design tips for your visuals
Think about what message you want to convey, and follow a few simple design guidelines.
How to use fonts effectively
- Use two or fewer fonts in your graphics.
- Mix only contrasting fonts – avoid similar styles.
- Choose a font that evokes the right feelings for your message.
- Center elements to create a balanced composition.
- Keep the text in the body smaller than the header text.
It’s also important to choose the right font personality for your brand.
How to combine colors successfully
- Avoid using bright yellow as your text color.
- Try not to place text over your subject’s face.
- Pay attention to color combinations.
Be sure to use the business colors that communicate the right brand message to your audience.
How to use the Golden Ratio
The Golden Ratio is a mathematical ratio that exists in nature and is considered pleasing to the human eye.
- Multiply the short side by 1.618 to get the complementary length of the long side.
- Also consider using the Rule of Thirds.
How to create engaging posts
The goal of engaging posts is to get likes, comments, and shares.
You need to give fans the information they need – or don’t know yet that they need it! Information that will make them WOW and want to share with others.
And what is most important? It must be visual!
Ideas for your engaging posts
- Quotes
- Tips
- Greetings
- Top lists,
- Motivations,
- Interesting facts
- Contests
- Polls
Find ready-made Facebook post ideas in PromoRepublic
It can be time-consuming to search for all these engaging post ideas. That’s why PromoRepublic provides customized templates for over 100 industries.
While on the Post Ideas tab, click the dropdown to see broad industry categories and choose which fits.
To find content to publish, use the suggestions across the top, or click the More menu to find the engaging post types we discussed, and more! Another option is to search by keyword for relevant content.
You can edit any of the static images:
- Text
- Fonts
- Colors
- Photos
- Add your logo.
Or leave as-is for ready-made content!
The GIFs (Animated section) aren’t editable, but I doubt you’ll find a better selection of pre-made animated images that actually fit your niche! Visit the PromoRepublic dashboard and hover over each to quickly view the animation.
Share links to your blog posts and sales pages
Facebook link shares should include:
- Clear message.
- Strong visual with a call to action.
- Logo or branding.
Boost your best Facebook posts as ads
You can boost posts right within the PromoRepublic dashboard!
Components of great Facebook ads:
- Relevant image that people will associate with your business.
- Limit the text, or Facebook may suppress your ad’s reach.
- Include a call to action in your image and/or caption.
- Use these tips to make the best Facebook ads.
- Find Facebook ad sizes on this infographic.
Schedule your Facebook posts
Once you’ve created this great content, you can schedule it right inside PromoRepublic!
Use their suggested time slots, or choose your own favorites (see above).
PromoRepublic really offers everything you need to manage your Facebook Page.
And here’s the video if you’d like to watch!
You Can Market Your Small Business on Facebook!
PromoRepublic’s tips and tools make your Facebook marketing easy.
There’s absolutely no charge to try it out. Access 6,000 post ideas, automatic posting, and more. Register for free and enjoy!
• • • Click here to try PromoRepublic for FREE • • •
I’m a PromoRepublic affiliate, which means I’ll get a referral fee if you purchase a plan.
I’d love to hear what you think about the tool, and how you’re doing with your small business Facebook Page. Leave a comment!
Kathie sauer says
I have a question regarding being banned from advertising. I set up my business page and everything seemed to be working. I purchased an ad and it ran and then the next time I went to add a boost, it said that we broke some rules. I asked for a review and AN EXPLANATION, never received. Month later, the ban was lifted and it happened again. This is also causing issues with IG. When I see actual, obvious dubious ads out there, I become frustrated with my attempts to boost my artist friend’s site and inability to communicate with someone from FB who can give me a reason for this. Any suggestions?
Louise Myers says
Unfortunately I doubt you can get an actual human to communicate with, and the bans are probably done by AI.
You can review the many Facebook ad rules here.
Kathie sauer says
Thanks for responding. I have read that several times, but your response is what I was anticipated. Worth asking, I guess. Thanks!
Pauline Jyll Purcia says
Good morning. I would like to ask for your permission if I could use the information of your work: Color Theory Archives.
I want to write trivias about the idea and meaning of people’s favourite color. I will write it on wattpad.
If you allow me, I will make sure you will be credited. Thank You.
Louise Myers says
I can give you permission to quote a maximum of 5 sentences, and link back to the page(s) where you found them as the source.
That’s 5 sentences total from all my articles, could be one sentence each from 5 different articles, or 5 from 1 article, as long as no more than 5 from my blog.
Heru P says
I create graphic of header cover of facebook , and graphic content of my my blogs. because I am designer too. I agree with you about creation of professional and trusted header cover, profile photo and the image/photo for every post on facebook is have good effect on traffic, engagement and maybe sales.
Fernando Almeida says
Hi there! Great stuff!
That content plan is really interesting
Louise Myers says
Glad you like it!
Martin says
How can I find someone that does it for a fee?
Louise Myers says
https://louisem.com/196742/outsource-social-media-marketing
Mary says
Great post. Do you have any other article for other social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.
Louise Myers says
Sure do! See the categories menu at top of page.
Jessica Rousey says
Interesting post, thanks for sharing this, however, I have a question though, In creating images for fb, I new to business in Facebook, and I can’t seem to find what color that fits my business. do you have any tips on choosing a color on what fits best for your business? Thanks. Thanks for posting this, by the way, it is a great article.
I would appreciate your response.
Jessica
Louise Myers says
I have a ton of info on that. You can start with this post on colors in branding. Others are linked there.
Note that I don’t allow deep links in comments. Yours has been removed.
Mily Wood says
Thanks for sharing this article.
Mily Wood says
Today Facebook is a good source of marketing your business but there are other sources like Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram etc.
Louise Myers says
There’s definitely something for everyone!
Cori Ramos says
Hi Louise,
This is great stuff! I don’t have a big budget to promote my web design business so the tips you shared here is going to be very helpful – especially the components of a Facebook ad. I’ve done a couple but didn’t get any conversions, so of course I need help. 🙂
I’ve saved this so I can watch the video and take notes without any distractions. 🙂
Thanks again for these great tips! Have a great week!
Cori
Louise Myers says
Thanks so much for checking it out, Cori, and leaving such a great comment.