~by Haley Lynn Gray~
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It used to be that if you wanted to get clients on Facebook, you’d just post on your personal page, and there you’d have clients. Unfortunately, that’s now a violation of Facebook’s terms of service, and they can and will cut off your personal Facebook Account for using it for business.
The next step in the evolution was to build a Facebook business page and post all kinds of promotion on it. Get likes, and people who liked your page would see your posts, and then buy from you.
Then Facebook got wise to the fact that their users don’t really appreciate seeing a ton of sales and promotion on their social media, so they started making it harder and harder for the contents from a business page to be seen.
Now you have to post content that is engaging and interesting to your audience, and limit promotion. In order to get in front of more people, you have to boost your posts, or they have to be massively engaging. Preferably both.
If you try to get lots of ‘Likes’ on your page, and engage in ‘Like Ladders’, the current algorithms that Facebook uses actually penalize you even further. It can be satisfying to get more likes on your page, but since Facebook measures things like how long someone looks at your posts before sharing those posts with more people, you can actually banish your page to the pits of despair if you have lots of likes from people who don’t actually like your page or your content.
The current best ways to get clients for your business are to join Facebook groups based on your interests, and build relationships in those contexts. You can start your own Facebook group as well.
The thing to be very aware of with groups is that you must mind the rules of each individual group when posting. Doing a hit and run posting isn’t going to be effective for your business, and will likely just get your posts deleted, and you removed from those groups.
So, what’s a business to do?
If you don’t want to engage in building fun, interesting and engaging content, then you can pay to advertise. If you don’t want to do that, then your next best bet is to build relationships with people. I know that’s probably shocking. But a wise woman once told me, “All things being equal, people do business with people they know. All things being unequal, people still do business with people they know.”
Your job in the online world is to build those relationships with people, and build that know, like and trust factor. You do that by being of service, and posting interesting, engaging, and real content. The word “authentic” is mentioned quite a bit. Whatever you do, it needs to be from you, and be a reflection of you, your values, and who you are. Your personality should be reflected in your posts. Even if you think you “should” portray yourself a particular way, resist the urge, and show up as yourself.
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Meet the Author: Haley Lynn Gray
Haley helps female entrepreneurs create a strategy plan for their businesses – so they can make enough money to spend quality time with their family, pay for their children’s dance lessons, pay bills – and not worry about where the next client is coming from.
Haley is a serial entrepreneur and founder of Leadership Girl. She helps other entrepreneurs build their businesses by sharing the benefits of her business education and experience through Business Coaching.
Whether you want to get a new business off the ground or expand an existing business, Haley can assist you.
Connect with Haley:
- Work with Haley: https://leadershipgirl.com/work-with-haley/
- Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Leadershipgirl
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haleygray