Do you run a Facebook page for your business?  If so then you will find this checklist very handy.

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Facebook is a free platform, however, the algorithm, known as Edgerank, makes it difficult for a business page to get exposure.  Along with regular paying adverts (which we would recommend having a budget for), there are certain activities that you can complete each day to get additional exposure to your posts and your brand.

As part of our social media management packages, our social mediators will spend 30 mins a day completing the following tasks on our client’s accounts each day.

Checklist #1 – Post a minimum of twice a day

If you have been running a Facebook page for a while, then I urge you to check your insights to find out what type of content your audience prefers.  If something works well on your page then provide more of that type of content.  If a certain type of post gets very little engagement then guess what? Don’t post that type of content very often.

ACTION: Click on insights > posts > post types, and see what style of content works best for you.

Once you know the type of content that works for you, it is time to figure out when is the best time to post that content.

ACTION: Click on insights > posts > when are my fans online

As you can see from the screenshot above, to get the most exposure for my popular posts, I am better off scheduling my posts for the evening, around 9pm.

TIP: You will have better reach for your posts if you use the inbuilt Facebook scheduling tool rather than Hootsuite, Tweetdeck or any other scheduling software.

Are you struggling for content ideas? Perhaps you have a blog on what you should be posting today? The members of our Green Umbrella Coaching Club receive a daily inspiration each day to help them with content creation ideas.  Example below.  If you would like to know more about our coaching club, just £25 a month, then click here.

An example of a daily inspiration post in the GUCC

Checklist #2 – Use the “invite” trick – you will LOVE this one!

Part of your 5 a day should include the process of inviting people to like your page, IF they have “liked” one of your posts. Here is the process in a bit more detail:-

Step 1 – Find your posts from yesterday.

Step 2 – Click on the people who have “liked” each post.

Step 3 – Click the invitation button and invite those people to like the page who have not yet given your business the thumbs up.

Note: The invitation is sent from the business page and not from your personal profile, which is a real bonus!

Action > navigate to a post > click names > invite

Checklist #3. Check your notifications, your inbox, and welcome new pages.

Ok, so this is actually five or six actions rather than just the one, but they are all very important so let’s break them down.

In all of the following actions, it is important that your brand has the last word.  If someone has commented, then like their comment or reply.  If someone has messaged you, then respond in a timely manner.

a) Notifications: Remember that your notifications tab will also include notifications from your groups’ activities (if you have linked your groups).

b) Inbox – on the Green Umbrella account we have two inboxes, and the 2nd inbox tends to get missed on a regular basis!  Please check your inbox every single day as you would not want to miss out on an important sales lead!  If you have linked your Instagram account, you can also check the messages here!  How cool is that?

c) Welcome new pages.  Did you know that the number of “likes” your page has does not include the number of businesses that have liked your page, it is only “people” that have liked your page that get counted by Facebook.  Crazy eh?  We have hundreds of businesses that have liked our page, and we give them a shout out most weeks.  This is part of a process.

ACTION: click settings > people and other pages > pages that like this page

Here is a quick video to show you how to implement the process of “liking” and then welcoming that business to your page.

Checklist #4 – Implement the “like” strategy (great for brand awareness)

If you are a local business then this tactic is for you!  I challenge you to “Like” a minimum of two other businesses each day. Once you have liked that page, click “page feed” and interact with those businesses for additional brand awareness.  Sharing those businesses’ content and getting involved with their target audience.  The key here is to only “like” other pages where your key target audience or your referral network will be hanging out.  DO NOT like your competitors’ pages, or those in a similar industry – perhaps set up a test page for keeping an eye on your competitors, or use the “pages to watch” feature.

ACTION: like a page as the business (not as you) > click page feed > interact with your audience

Checklist #5 – Share Trending Content

I have a few tips for sharing trending content.

a) Log into Twitter (yep, not Facebook) – and then click on the search icon on the app or “moments” on the desktop.  Explore this area for fun, news, sport or entertainment.  From here you may simply find an article to share, or perhaps get a little bit creative.  For example, last week on Twitter, in the “fun” section, was a collection of tweets about people from people who reacted to a tweet “name a movie that everyone loved, but you don’t get it”.  I borrowed the idea as it was popular and created my own version using Ripl.  See for yourself how much interaction and engagement this post got!

b) Buzzsumo.com

This website will give you the best articles written for a particular keyword.  You can either write your own versions of these articles or simply share the article that has already been written.  Buzzsumo has a free version which will be adequate for most people.

c) Have you used the tools in Google Search?

If you have not explored the tools in Google search then you are really missing a trick.  To find the latest news about a topic, keyword, business, or anything that you are interested in then implement the filters within Google to only see the latest news – rather than a post from years ago that was popular in its day.

Summary and a quick bonus!

It is easy to get distracted on this platform, therefore we recommend downloading a Google Chrome extension called Newsfeed Burner or ToDoBook.  These tools simply block your home feed so that you are not distracted by posts from your mum, your friends, and your family.  You can still access all the important areas, but the main home feed will not load.  I particularly like ToDoBook.  With this app, you add your list of things you need to do today, and if you tick the box to say that you have completed a task, you are awarded ten minutes of Facebook time!

Only works in Google Chrome

Good luck!!

Download the quick version of this blog here as your checklist.