How to Use Facebook to Grow Your Business or Church
Facebook has been a leader in the social media space for years. Its ever-changing features have attracted businesses and entrepreneurs worldwide to "set up shop" and communicate effectively with their customers from the platform. Churches and Christian influencers also used Facebook on a minor scale, but the Coronavirus pandemic has made Facebook more relevant. With the demand for customer and congregation outreach on the rise, you must effectively understand how to use Facebook for business and church growth.
CREATE A CONTENT CALENDAR
Sporadic use of social media will result in, well, no results.
There are a lot of things competing for your customer's and your congregation's attention. Understanding this will make you more proactive on your social media platforms.
When you create a content calendar (there is an online option for this on Facebook Business Suite), you can identify themes and activities weeks and even months in advance. Once you've identified these, you create a calendar of predictable activities that will have the most effect on your audience. Creating a calendar requires a lot of effort, but that is often the most challenging part of the process. Everything flows naturally from the content calendar, and you can easily create content that is interesting to your audience.
MAXIMIZE THE FEATURES
There are three main features of Facebook: a profile, a page, and a group. It is wise to use all three of these features if you intend to use Facebook for growth.
The profile is your anchor and is a personal account. Facebook pages must be attached to an individual profile. Ensure that the profile reflects the values, mission, and mindset of your church or business.
A Facebook page can be the public "website" of your church or business. Your page is the space where curious visitors can explore who you are and what you have to offer.
Your Facebook group can be your private, "members-only access" site. This group will be for community building, nurturing your congregation, encouraging conversations, and strengthening customer loyalty. Knowing that you are a part of something exclusive often makes you feel valued and important. Using Facebook in this way is an excellent method to grow your business or church. And Facebook's algorithm often places more importance on group content than business page content, so the content you post in your group will be seen by more users than those who like your page.
Each one has key features that effectively contribute to your overall growth.
FACEBOOK PROFILE
Your profile is the foundation of everything you will do on Facebook. It is you. All Facebook features flow from your profile. You have to have one of these to have a Facebook page or a Facebook group.
Fill out your profile entirely and add links to your business or church in the cover and or profile image. Make some of your about info visible to the public that applies to your business or church.
The one feature I like is the community tab in the left side menu bar. When you click on the community tab, it will pull up posts of people looking for help in your community. The community tab is a great way to outreach to your community online. You can follow the community tab, so the help requests or offers appear in your newsfeed. You can also turn on notifications to alert you when someone is seeking assistance or offering help. This feature also allows you to create drives so you can raise money for your church or cause.
FACEBOOK PAGE
Call to Action (CTA)
This feature sits at the top of the page and prompts visitors to take the next relevant step after viewing your content. Some CTA options are: Book Now, Sign Up, Contact Us, and Shop Now. Depending on the type of services you intend to offer, you can choose the best CTA for your page.
Moderation
Churches will especially love this feature. Facebook allows all page users to ban the use of specific words on the page. Moderation includes profanity, hate speech, or any phrases that the community repeatedly flags as being offensive. This feature helps to promote the kind of culture and atmosphere that best matches your church or business.
Events
Admins have the option of creating online or in-person events using Facebook pages. Online events include free or paid classes. They also give the option of hosting free or paid general events. You can issue invites from the platform and generate event tickets for admission. Events are a community-building feature that both churches and traditional businesses can use to cater to the specific needs of their audience.
Invites
You can invite anyone who likes your posts to like your page. Once they've liked your page, you can then invite them into your group.
About
You will want to optimize the about section so anyone who visits your page can learn more about you and click on that ever-important website link or have an easy way to contact you.
Business Suite
You can schedule posts on both Instagram and Facebook at the same time. Even better, you can customize your posts for each platform. So, in your Facebook post, you can drop a link, but in your IG post, you'll state, "link is in the bio." You can also add hashtags to your IG post that won't appear on your Facebook post, and these two posts can be scheduled and or posted at the same time.
Chatbots
Chatbots are a great way to get your freebie out there. When someone messages your page, you can set up a chatbot to respond right away with a series of questions that can take them to your sales page to sign up for your freebie, depending on how they answered the questions in your chatbot automation. You can also sell to anyone who messages you via chatbot within certain time limits.
FACEBOOK GROUPS
Membership Questions
You can ask potential members of your group some admittance questions to better understand what type of help they need or want. These questions also help weed out the people you don't think will be a good fit for your group. It's ok to decline membership to your group!
Moderation Alerts
Save yourself some time and set up alerts for specific keywords. Keyword alerts help you quickly identify content or people with whom you want to interact and engage.
Pinned posts
These posts are the first posts that are visible when visitors go to your group. You can use this feature to pin a welcome to the top of your page, and you could include a link to a signup page for a freebie to get them on your email list. Opt-in pages can help expand your network, as by agreeing to give their email, users indicate an interest in your content beyond mere viewing.
Polls
Polls are a fun and engaging way to interact with your audience. This feature allows you to ask questions with a multiple choice effect, allowing your users to select the answer(s) relevant to them. Additionally, they have the option to include responses, which is an excellent source of market research, and an ideal way to understand the issues facing your audience or the things that interest them most.
Link Your Business Page
You have the option of linking your business page to the group. This link will appear in the group's banner and will provide an easy and fast way for a potential member or member to go directly to your business page to learn more about you.
Other Features
You can host Q & A's, create rooms, go live, upload photos and or videos, tag people, create events, raise money for charity (or your organization if you are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit), and add fun GIFs.
Groups are so much fun and have so many features so that you can curate your content to a wide variety of people and their interests.
UNDERSTAND THE ANALYTICS
Ignoring your analytics is not a luxury you can afford if you aim to use Facebook for growth. Your analytics breaks down how your audience is receiving your content. You can use this information to modify your delivery and reevaluate your marketing strategy.
Your analytics will cover the growth or decrease in your page likes, followers, and engagement rates. Engagement includes likes, reactions (smiles, hearts, sad faces), comments, and shares. You can also review your post's overall reach, including viewers who came into contact with your post through sharing. For videos, your analytics will show you how many persons viewed and engaged with your video, as well as the duration of time they spent on the video. View and duration time help you to determine whether people are stopping to watch your video or merely scrolling past it.
It is essential to be mindful of vanity metrics. It can be easy to become overly distracted by performance and obsessed with the numbers. Expanding your reach is important, but don't get so consumed by the numbers you neglect to nurture your existing congregation and customers.
MAKE USE OF FACEBOOK ADS
Facebook Ads is an effective way to reach a bigger audience on Facebook. The paid ads range in prices and the number of people you're determined to reach. You can get leads for less than $1 per person. You will pay higher rates the closer you promote your ad to a holiday. Promoted Facebook posts look like regular Facebook posts, but they target a specific audience you choose. They reach more people than regular posts.
Facebook makes it possible to invite anyone who likes your ad to like your business page. Advertising is not just about publicity and engagement; this is a direct way to expand your network. Once they like your page, they will be notified on their feed when you make a new post depending on their settings. Additionally, you can invite anyone that likes your business page to join your group as well.
Another exciting way paid ads can help you grow is a little less direct but still very useful. If your ad includes a link to sign up for a freebie, your thank you page can include a CTA to like and follow your business page or join your Facebook group. Alternatively, you can redirect your signups to your Facebook business page.
DO IT ALL FOR GOD'S GLORY
Whether you're operating a traditional business or a church, the quality of the content you deliver to your audience should bring God glory. Excellence glorifies God. He manifests in your best work and effort. Your social media strategy and your social media content should reflect your best efforts, all for the glory of God. Facebook gives you an excellent opportunity to engage in marketing and provide outreach as well.