If you are marketing your business on Facebook, you have probably been seeing a lot of posts lately about the changing strategy for Facebook’s news feed.  Although most of the reports are speculative, the general sense that the changes will make marketing more difficult is causing much concern among small businesses and nonprofits.  So, let’s talk about how to be smart about this and to set your business up to succeed despite these changes.

I will get to my productive comments about smart Facebook strategy in just a moment.  But first, I want to start with the caveat that it is never a good idea to put all of your eggs in one basket when it comes to marketing.  I still have people who call me for marketing support because “the Yellow Pages used to work for me, but not anymore.”  In the US, the Yellow Pages stopped being a relevant advertising platform for most target markets decades ago.  It is our job as marketers to look for our target markets, to figure out the right message to send them, and to put the message in front of them.  If your target market moves – or the platform you were using stops reaching them – it might be time to adapt.  It helps if you were experimenting with new solutions all along the way so you don’t get caught by surprise.  Not to say that we should all abandon Facebook right now.  I am just saying…diversify.

Now, let’s get back to what to do if you still want to reach your audience on Facebook.  We know that Facebook has over 2 billion active users, so chances are that the people you want to reach are there somewhere.

I have had a very particular way of approaching Facebook from when I first started using this tool for marketing.  I have built my audience organically – never paying for likes – and I would say I have spent about $75 a year boosting the occasional post that I really wanted to get in front of more people.  Yet, I get conversions from Facebook marketing.  I have a loyal community.  When I need recommendations or support, the Melissa Forziat Events and Marketing audience comes out in force to back me up.

With all this in mind, here are a few things I want you to consider if you want to survive and thrive through these Facebook changes:

Find out where your target market is on Facebook and engage there in a non-salesy way.

If you don’t know exactly who your target market is and exactly what they’re doing on Facebook, you are wasting time or money.  Let’s say you’re selling B2B, and you’re trying to reach human resources people at your target companies.  Are the HR people the ones monitoring the company account?  Are the HR people using Facebook during business hours or when they get off work?  If so, what are they looking at?

Maybe you’re selling B2C, trying to reach people who love to drink wine.  What groups are they in?  What pages are they following?  What events are they attending?  How and where do they show up on Facebook as wine lovers?

Find out where your target market is on #Facebook and engage there in a non-salesy way. #smb Share on X

Once you know where your audience is, that’s half the battle.  But these people probably didn’t come to Facebook with credit cards in their hands, and most of them don’t care about your sales pitch right now.  So, be there with them talking about HR life or your favorite wines.  Be there as long as it takes until they feel like they know you.

Always Be Intentional about Where You are Sending Your Audience

It’s great to have engaging posts and conversations, but then you do need to give people a way to learn more.  This can be done subtly, but it needs to be done consistently.  If they can read more back on your website, show them how to get there.  If they can find more great things like this on your website, show them how to get there.  Maybe you just have a catchy sign-off and a link to your website on your posts.  Make sure they will know where to go if they are curious to see more.

Give them chances to know how to sign up for a newsletter or a free resource if they like what you have to say.   Free resources tend to be a good stepping stone from Facebook to build your audience to the next level of commitment.

A trickle of traffic to your preferred landing pages may not seem so exciting the first month or two, but in a couple of years you will be awfully happy that you were casually putting all those links in place.  Over time, the volume will help boost your cornerstone blog content, your search rankings for key pages, etc.

Always be intentional about where you are sending your audience. #facebook #business #marketing Share on X

And if you are going to do this successfully, you will want to start by thinking through how all of your content connects.  I frequently get calls or emails from people who are interested to work with me who just spent an hour or two watching my videos, reading my blogs, or reading my social media posts.  Make it easy for them to do this.

Get Off of Your Page and Have Conversations

Go to other people’s pages.  Influencers.  Partner business pages.  Groups.  Have conversations with the people there (as your business page, when you can).  Offer insight or kind words.  Don’t give sales pitches.  Just be worth talking to.  People will appreciate that.

And those page owners, influencers, and group administrators will wonder who you are.  They may even be thankful for you.  Over time, a good percentage of these people will start to take notice of you, especially those from pages that have relatively low traffic.

Get off of your page and have conversations. #Facebook #marketing #business #nonprofit #smb Share on X

Not only is it still marketing for you to have these touch points, but you will drive people back to your page to learn more about you and return the kindness.  It doesn’t take a lot of these people visiting you back before you start to see improvement in your reach.  Plus, new prospective customers who land on your page will see how popular you are, and it will reflect well on you. (Read here for more about why engagement is so powerful for you).

Is this a quick solution?  NO!  I have spent years doing this.  It’s why my page is so strong.  It’s why I am not worried about these Facebook changes right now.

Facebook marketing is not easy.  It is not a quick fix to marketing.  It is not a one-stop shop for all of your customers for the rest of your years.  Remember that.  Think about how to build all these little techniques into your plan so that you are setting yourself up well over time.

If you are feeling pressure to make adjustments in your Facebook marketing strategy right now, and you are not sure what to do, I want to point you to three resources that will help you do all of the things I just talked about.