Your business's Facebook page and your personal Facebook page may look similar, but they are a lot more different than you think. One of the mistakes we often see is catering and events businesses using Facebook as they've always used it for their own personal profile.
However, posting on Facebook for your business requires a whole different set of rules, best practices and things to avoid. These common Facebook marketing mistakes could be costing you and your business valuable customers.
Posting too often
While it's perfectly fine to post on your personal Facebook page multiple times a day, your business Facebook page will be penalized for posting more than 5 or 6 times each week. This is because Facebook knows that you as a business have an agenda: you are selling something.
Facebook want to make sure you're not spamming your followers. As a result, Facebook will limit the reach of your posts if you post too often. Keep your posts to no more than once a day, and no more than six days a week.
Sharing the same posts on Twitter and Facebook
If you have both Facebook and Twitter accounts for your business, you might think it's a good idea to auto-post social media: that is, have your tweets automatically post to your Facebook. You may have even done this before for your personal social media pages.
While you may like this arrangement for your business, Facebook doesn't, and they will penalize your page if they notice that you are posting your Twitter content on Facebook. It gets trickier though: it's not just autoposting that Facebook disapproves of. It's anything that looks as though it was posted from a third-party service such as Twitter.
Therefore, in order to avoid being penalized, it's important to get to know the major differences between these massive social media networks.
For example, Twitter leans more heavily on tagging people (using the @ symbol and the person's Twitter handle or username) and tagging ideas, phrases and keywords (using the #). Using plenty of hashtags is a sign to Facebook that you're posting Twitter posts to Facebook. Avoid this trouble by dedicating a different strategy to every social media network in which you are active.
Neglecting Facebook messages
Does your business have someone checking Facebook private messages for your business page every single day? If not, you are likely missing out on valuable leads.
As business becomes more social and personable through social media engagement, social media users are becoming more and more comfortable messaging businesses via Facebook just as they would their friends or family. You probably get most of your leads through the phone or email, but don't neglect your Facebook messages, or you could be leaving money on the table.
Failing to brand images
You may think that because an image you posted is tied to your Facebook page that your brand name will go with that image wherever it goes. But if you are not branding images with your business's logo, you are risking that photo being disconnected from your business's name at the very least — and at the most, having another individual or even another catering company download that image and claim it as their own.
Besides all of that, branding simply gives your Facebook images a professional, polished look.
It may look like all fun and games (Candy Crush Saga, anyone?), but Facebook is a powerful tool for your business. Many catering businesses squander the potential of Facebook by not seeing it for what it really is: a moneymaker.
Let 2015 be your year of major growth by harnessing the power of social media to make money for your catering biz.
