Tips to Build Your Facebook Presence to Boost Online Visibility for Local Business

With 526 million daily users, and 901 million active users overall (a 33% increase from last year), more than 13% of the global population are now on Facebook, as reported in a recent post on Digital Trends. And though it will be interesting to see how Facebook going public as of May 18^th will impact local business Facebook pages, there’s no doubt that it’s a force to be reckoned with and has changed the way we interact as individuals and businesses. With that being said, it’s the place to be for local businesses.

Having a strong Facebook presence can do wonders for a local business by increasing online visibility, credibility, lead generation, search engine rankings, and more. But for all of this to happen, you need to build affinity on Facebook by being an active user on a consistent and regular basis. In other words…

Show up in your subscribers, fans and friends newsfeed! You see it every time you log onto Facebook: your Facebook newsfeed. And your goal should be to show up in your subscribers’, fans’ and friends’ newsfeeds as well! T do this, you need to be commenting and posting daily and regularly, and make sure what you’re posting is relevant, newsworthy and valuable to your readers. By doing this, others will be prompted to check out your page, comments, links, etc. and share your posts on their pages, and their friends’ pages.

Tag others in your comments or posts. When you post a comment or update, you can type in a name or business in your network and ‘tag’ them in your posts. When you do this, it shows up on their Facebook page, which means their network will see it, as well. This helps build your Facebook affinity and visibility, and can also create a viral effect depending on the popularity of the comment or post.

 Network with other experts. You are in part represented by the company you keep, so it’s a great idea to associate and network with other experts on Facebook. Plus, you can leverage from their network of individuals, as well.

Share others’ posts and images. You can build affinity and visibility on Facebook by clicking the ‘share’ button next to other peoples’ images and posts. When you do this, it shows up on your home page. It’s a great way to network and give some kudos to others, and it gives you additional content to share with your target audience. 

Send a message. Many don’t realize this, but Facebook messaging, even private messaging, is used by Facebook to build affinity for users. So send private messages when appropriate to others to build your Facebook affinity, and thus search rankings via Facebook.

For more tips on using Facebook for your local business, consider reading: 5 Tips to Building Affinity on Facebook.

Do you have ideas that work well for your local business and Facebook business page? We’d love to hear about them below!