Really all five reasons have names: Your mom, your high school classmate, your ex-but-we’re-still-friends, your college roommate’s feelings about race in America, and your best friend’s toddler. Facebook is a personal platform. It’s meant for sharing personal experiences, not conducting business.
UNLESS ...
Businesses on Facebook who are doing it right meet the following criteria:
They sell to consumers what cannot be purchased anywhere else. Etsy store owners, I’m talking about you.
They have a business user account, not just a business page, and they actively support other businesses.
They have marketing PLANS that include specific Facebook posts, schedule times and dates based on performance statistics, and monitor returns on these posts.
If you’re not running a planned, targeted, and measured Facebook campaign for consumers, then you have three reasonable options for Facebook and your business:
Use Facebook to announce events, gauge interest, and post pictures from the event.
Use Facebook to keep track of your business news, share others’ business stories you think your followers would find helpful, and show presence on social media.
Use Facebook to organize live discussions during live events such as using your Facebook page as the location for discussion during a webinar.
Facebook is a fantastic tool for a million different uses. Special interest groups, FAQ forums, and event invitations are ways to velvet-rope your page for your clients. Sharing pictures of your team out in the community is a way to show involvement.
Facebook on your phone cannot accurately do any of these things. It can only derail you from the conversation in the room by showing you pictures of your best friend’s toddler cramming birthday cake in her face.
For more Marketing Don'ts for Small Businesses, go Backstage.