Ultimate Local SEO Checklist: Boost Your Business Locally
A local SEO checklist is a valuable tool for businesses looking to optimize their online presence for local search.
2 min read
David Cuevas : May 11, 2017 7:09:10 PM
Facebook is a great marketing tool for small businesses. The ginormous social network has 1.94 Billion users as of March 2017, which means lots of potential people to build an engaged community.
It’s easy to set up, and if your small business has a customer base, you can build a Facebook following quickly by connecting with your existing clients.
But after this initial setup, things can get tricky.
Many small businesses start a Facebook page, only to abandon it because of poor results and a steep learning curve.
One reason why it’s challenging is Facebook has reduced the potential for organic reach with several significant algorithm changes since 2012.
But don’t fret, we have several Facebook engagement ideas to boost your organic results.
Your brand’s voice is important. Buffer does a great job of describing the development of a brand voice. Simply put, voice is “your brand personality described in an adjective. For instance, brands can be lively, positive, cynical, or professional.”
Developing a voice will help you to determine what to post so that you can build consistency that can be relied upon.
Make sure to mix in fun posts on a regular basis to boost your engagement and create viral posts. Playing with themes like “Monday Morning Blues” or giving an opinion on a fun and trending topic can increase exposure to your page.
Here’s a simple example that provide some fun reach and engagement for our brand.
This was a quick picture I snapped of my dog Luke on a lazy Sunday afternoon with my mobile phone. I was able to turn it into an image for our Facebook page the next morning using Canva. In about 2 minutes and it was up and running. More on Canva later in the post.
There are certain times of the day when your audience is active on Facebook. Identify optimal times of day and post your content during those times.
Facebook’s Insights dashboard provides meaningful analytics. Scheduling tools like Buffer or Hootsuite can help you take advantage of ideal posting times.
Images can be a challenge for a small business. Graphics must be interesting enough to make your user stop and take notice or else you will get lost in the feed.
Great visual content is the key.
According to Facebook expert Mari Smith, “questions, images, and videos were more engaging than all other post types.”
Graphics however can be a problem. Many small businesses have no budget for graphic designers, and few can use complicated graphics programs. Canva is a possible solution that can help you to create excellent quality cost effective images.
Currently, the best posts for engagement are videos. According to Smith, videos are the most likely form of content on Facebook to be shared.
Videos on Facebook are engaging and make visitors more likely to stop, watch, and maybe even unmute when they spot them in the News Feed, according to HubSpot.
We recently started experimenting with video and quickly realized that we were getting about 10 times the engagement and impressions. No budget, just some quickly put together videos that I created with my mobile phone. Here is a recent example.
To learn more about incorporating video and some good tips to get started, here’s a guide from Buffer on creating engaging video.
Sharing great content from outside sources, (including experts and competitors) can ease the burden of creating your own content. By finding content that matches your brand voice, and sharing the best content that you find, you can significantly increase engagement.
Don’t just settle curated content as an FYI. Take time to engage your followers in a conversation. Ask for input. Solicit an opinion.
By doing this consistently, you will improve your engagement metrics, and provide significant value to your page
BE CONSISTENT.
Post interesting content on your Facebook page regularly. By constantly be in touch with your readers. and following these tips, you will increase the reach of your page, and can make Facebook a cost-effective marketing option for your business.
A local SEO checklist is a valuable tool for businesses looking to optimize their online presence for local search.
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