Social media platforms give business owners the ability to target their ads at niche consumer groups, including local area residents and visitors. Santa Clarita business owners can use the flexibility of Facebook’s ad platform to show their advertisements only to people close enough to become customers.

For those who can effectively master social networks, social media marketing is a powerful tool to turn network users into real world customers. Despite this, many business owners find Facebook’s advertising platform to be difficult to understand, and end up not unable to leverage social media to get more business.

Part of the confusion comes from misunderstanding Facebook on a fundamental level. Facebook was originally created with the goal of bringing individuals together, and its advertising platform was created as an afterthought. When Facebook saw users trying to promote businesses on their personal profiles, they built “pages,” which allow businesses and public figures to run business-oriented pages on Facebook which are connected to, but separate from, users’ main user profiles.

Once these “pages” become available to businesses, Facebook started cracking down on business owners who used their personal profiles to advertise. Facebook may ban users who attempt to advertise without setting up a Facebook page, and a Facebook page is necessary to buy advertising space with Facebook.

Once businesses sign up for a Facebook page, they are able to post content to the page and promote their website through targeted advertisements which show up both in Facebook users’ timelines and in the advertising sidebar.

Getting Started with Pages

To create a business page, the business owner should first log into their personal profile. If they don’t have a personal profile, they’ll need to create one. Once this is done, they must click the downward-facing arrow in the upper-right corner of Facebook’s blue menu bar. After clicking “Manage Pages,” they will need to click “Create a Page” to get started.

A tutorial will help business owners fill out their page profile by entering their company’s name, category of business, and address. Business owners should also provide a profile picture and cover photo. Facebook then asks business owners to invite friends from their personal profiles to “like” the new page.

After finishing the tutorial, business owners may begin customizing their new page to show off the best of their businesses and link customers to their company website.

The “About” section of  Facebook pages allow customers to learn where businesses are and how to contact them. Business owners will want to ensure this information is up to date and accurate in order to drive online shoppers to visit them in person. It’s also possible to set a Facebook username from the “About” section. This username can be used by customers to @mention businesses in  posts and comments.

Related Article: Twitter Advertising For Santa Clarita Business Owners Explained

Customers should also be able to find the company’s website at a glance as soon as they load the Facebook business page. The easiest way to allow customers to visit a company’s website from a Facebook page is to “Add a Button” to the navigation bar beneath the page’s cover photo.

These buttons can link to an outside website, and business owners have a choice between various different buttons which can send customers to their company’s website. Choices include “Book with you,” “Contact you,” “Learn more about your business,” “Shop with you,” and “Download your app or play your game.” If more than one of these buttons is used, it’s best to have each go to a different section of the company’s website, corresponding to the button’s text.

Business owners who aren’t comfortable setting up their own page can hire social network marketers to get their business set up for social media marketing. For those in Santa Clarita,  KHTS Marketing can build business’ online presence from the ground up, including social media marketing strategies tailored to the Santa Clarita market.

Branding for the Web

While businesses can change their profile picture and cover photo as often as they like, it’s generally preferred to pick a good profile picture and use it for a decent amount of time. Unless a company decides to do a major rebrand, profile pictures should remain the same or very similar, since this is the main thing users see when interacting with the business on Facebook.

In general, profile pictures showing smiling faces are more engaging to customers than photos of products or the company’s headquarters. Cover images can change seasonally or may be updated to reflect new product lines or events at which the business will be represented. It’s better not to include text in the cover image to advertise promotions or events themselves. Pictures with text are best left for timeline posts or paid advertisements.

When customers move between a company’s website and their social media pages, the experience should be seamless. Businesses can achieve this effect by using the same or similar colors and images across both their social media pages and their website.

If they cannot use graphics made for the website on social media, business owners may consider hiring a graphic artist to create similar images for use on social media. In fact, if the business doesn’t have high quality, professional photographs on their website, they may wish to have their site redesigned at the same time they begin advertising on social media.

Santa Clarita business owners can look to KHTS Marketing for website redesigns and graphics packages targeting online advertising and social media promotion. The graphic artists at KHTS Marketing understand how to build graphics for the web, from finding the right resolution for social media to building a website with a sleek look that works well on both mobile and PC.

Finding a Following

In order for social media users to find a business’ Facebook page, it helps to gather as many “likes” as possible through organic marketing. The more people who “like” a page on Facebook, the more often its posts will appear in followers’ timelines.

Some restaurants and retail businesses run promotions where customers can receive a discount at the register when they show cashiers that they’ve “liked” and followed the company’s page on Facebook. These promotions can quickly grow a business’ social media presence while also rewarding customers for loyalty.

In order to maintain a following on Facebook, businesses should post content regularly. This content should be interesting to a business’ customers. Videos and image posts tend to get more views and comments than text posts, and images which include peoples’ faces tend to show up most often on users’ timelines.

Of course, social media is a great place to post about promotions. The best sale advertisements are often those created by graphic design professionals. These graphics can also be used as paid advertisements, giving business owners two uses for one asset.

Because content creation takes time and posts must be made frequently in order to drive engagement, some businesses may choose to hire a social media marketing company to update their Facebook page with professional content. KHTS Marketing can help Santa Clarita businesses maintain their presence on social media by generating content that can be used both on clients’ websites and their social media pages.

Advertising on Facebook

The Facebook advertising platform allows businesses to zero in on exactly the kind of customer they’re trying to reach. In order to start advertising on Facebook, business owners must click the “Promote” button on their business’ page. The”Get Started With Automated Ads” option allows people who aren’t social media experts to unlock some of the power Facebook advertising provides, and unless business owners are prepared to take on second jobs as social media marketers, this option is the one they’ll want to choose.

The automated ads tool allows business owners to use a still image, a slideshow of multiple images, or a video as an advertisement. Above the ad, Facebook allows 90 characters’ worth of text. Below the image, a button can send customers to the business’ website or allow them to message business owners on Facebook, depending on the parameters set within this tool.

Business owners can also create multiple versions of the same advertisement to target different audiences. In the “Choose an Audience” section, Facebook automatically picks the audience it thinks will most benefit the business based on information the owner has provided. For business owners with more social marketing experience, more tightly targeted markets can be defined using the “Create Audience” button.

Using this tool, business owners can filter customers by birthday, location, education, finances, and more. Facebook ads can also target users who are newly married, who have certain types of friends, or who have certain political affiliations, for instance.

Lastly, business owners must choose a daily advertising budget. Facebook suggests daily allowances of $2, $3, and $5, but users can also set custom amounts. Advertisements will reach more people depending on the amount users pay per day.

In order to get the best experience from Facebook advertising, it’s necessary not only to be an expert in the Facebook ad platform, but also to keep up with changes Facebook makes to the system over time.

Santa Clarita business owners are often busy with their full-time jobs running their own businesses. Sometimes it can feel difficult or impossible to keep up with social media on top of the responsibilities of running a business. Because of this, many business owners look to social media marketers to help them build a following online and turn online followers into in-person shoppers.

For businesses in Santa Clarita, KHTS Marketing is an obvious choice for social media marketing. KHTS Marketing has been advertising on the web since 2003, and have a clear advantage when it comes to targeting consumers in the Santa Clarita area. Since KHTS Marketing thoroughly understands the Facebook ad platform, they can relieve business owners who find the process of buying Facebook ads complicated and time consuming.

For more information about KHTS Marketing, click here.

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