Cakes chesterfield
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​How to Grow Your Business Page on Facebook
Even though I have a website at the beginning i used to gain 99.9% of my orders via the Social Media platform, facebook. Once you have regular customers or you have grown to a size where people know who you are then you can rely on your website to do the job for you, So if your NEW to having a business page or struggling to gain NEW followers then this is the article for you . Facebook has over 2.2 billion monthly active users. So when you are new to the world of baking even though it is wise to start your own website, you wont get the same amount of Traffic going to your website every month compared to a well established social media platform.
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You need to get your name out there, for some people there facebook following can grow a lot faster than others. But the key elements to making this happen for everyone just remains the same. It’s a bit like YouTube some videos go viral most don’t, however even if a video does not go viral it doesn’t mean that you cant grow your channel.
Key Point #1 – Corporate Identity
Before you even open a business page you need a logo. This will make you stand out from those who don’t have one, it looks an awful lot more professional and if its designed correctly an image is more powerful than you can possibly imagine. How many posts do you read on facebook if there is no image? Your more likely to scroll past them, however if an image is placed on there and its appealing to others then its more likely to get noticed. Not only this but in the long term people will start to see your logo and know who you are, they will identify that image with yourself.
Key Point #2 – Paying Facebook to Promote your Page
The phrase “You have to speculate to accumulate” is very true. Since I started my Business back in 2014 I have spent nearly £1500 on Facebook Advertising. It sounds like a lot but over a 4 year period , it gets paid monthly , it really does not add up to that much each month, in fact you barely notice it. Just make sure you are sensible and have a set budget for that month, don’t be tempted to go over. Recently facebook have made many changes to there platform so unfortunately your money no longer goes as far as it used to. I have found to beat this change its best to simply BOOST a popular post rather than actually advertising the page itself. If you pay £2 to boost a post it will help if this post has been on your page for at least 24 hours, if the organic reach is HIGH then it’s a good indication to BOOST that particular post because you will gain more likes from it. If the organic reach is low then maybe skip that one and wait for a popular post. The more likes and comments a post receives the more people it reaches.
Key Point #3 – Likes and Comments make your post reach more people and consequently receive more followers
This is very true and part of the changes facebook has made. If you liked a page whatever they posted used to pop up on your timeline. This is no longer the case, you can have 20,000 page likes and a post may only reach 3000 if you are lucky. So to reach people you need to keep them engaged in your content, by simply asking for a like or a share this can help but you may find not many people will do it for you. So you need to come up with Questions, ask your followers about things they are interested in, keep them engaged in your posts. When they comment, there friends will see that they have commented or liked and then they are more inclined to visit your page. I wont lie to you it is getting increasingly difficult to reach out to people. How ever these changes were made this year, and for me my page has never done so well in such a short period of time. I have done all of the above, so it proves it does work.
Key Point #4 – Invite your friends and ask your friends to invite there friends
A great feature that has not been taken away YET ! When I first set up my business I invited all of my friends to like my business page ( there is an option on the business page to do this ) I then asked each friend by private message if they would be happy to invite there friends. This helped my page go from ZERO followers to 400 in the first 4 weeks. A new option facebook now has, is if people like an image or post on your page but don’t like the page itself your also now able to invite them.
Key Point #5 – You Never know what`s going to be popular
I have made some very Stressful, OUTSTANDING Wedding cakes in my time. Couldn’t wait to upload them to my business page after the event had taken place. Did they reach thousands of people organically and gain me new followers? Honestly, its never happened with a wedding cake. I suppose if you think of this logically it does make sense, everyone has a birthday every year but people tend to only get married once in a lifetime. From a celebration cake point of view, all you need is ONE cake that grabs people`s attention and BOOM 400 new likes in 24 hours, without even boosting a post. For me it was my `3D Me 2 You Bear Cake` and defiantly the `Sewing Machine themed cake` these have been two of the most popular cakes in my career that have helped increase my following. It has to be unique though, if your just replicating a cake that someone else has made then the WOW factor has already been seen. It needs to be something people love but also something they haven’t really seen before. I still never know which cakes my followers will love the most, I personally love my 3D Eeyore cake but that had no where near the same reaction as the sewing machine. So you never really know, it is the luck of the draw, but when you get it right it’s a win win !
Key Point #6 – Advertise your page and posts yourself
This is a Great way to get your business out there, start by joining selling groups in your local area. You can then post a link to your business page with a brief introduction and place on there as many cakes as you can that grab people`s attention. The more photos you upload on that post with some popular cakes the more page likes your likely to gain from it along with orders. It can be tedious and time consuming, remember to not post the same link more than 10 times in a 24 hour period otherwise it could be classed as SPAM and facebook now prevent people from posting for 7 to 4 weeks if this ban is placed on you.
Key Point #7 – Advertise Your Facebook Page On other Platforms
So if you have a website , make sure there is a link to your facebook page and make it prominent so it stands out and people want to click on it. YouTube is another great way to gain facebook followers and also get your name out there. You could start teaching people and doing free tutorials, its fun , exciting and not nly will you be helping others but your also helping your brand grow.
These are just a few of the Basics to gaining more followers on facebook but at the end of the day the principle remains the same. If you have engaging content that people want to see and interact with then your page will grow. Posting on a regular basis without long breaks also helps keep those who already like your page engaged with it. I like to set myself targets and really focus on page likes so I do advertise and I advertise what I know will work in order to do this. I hope this article has helped you today, remember success does not happen over night but I am a firm believer that you can do anything you put your mind too xxx
Final Words of Advice
Finally, due to recent changes on the social media platform, attention is given more to groups than it is to a business page. To combat this you need to keep your audience engaged otherwise it will get to a point when you will stop popping up on there timelines. Sitting at the computer for a few days a week setting up scheduled posts, this means the post will automatically pop up at a certain time and day of your choosing.
So when your busy rushing about with cake orders you know that your social media platform will take care of itself.
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Its boring, its quite time consuming but it does work, and when you do happen to go online you can always share the post. Many changes have been made but it is not all doom and gloom, You can still grow a decent following and remember certain times of the year it will go quite I find during the children`s summer holidays my following slows down however at Christmas it can increase because people get bored, shops are closed and they have nothing to do so they gravitate naturally to social media.
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“Nothing Worth Doing is Ever Easy”