With over 1 billion active users, Facebook offers a huge potential customer pool, which makes it an essential marketing tool for brands today.

Not surprisingly, Facebook already boasts 11 million  business pages.

However, it is not enough to simply have a business page, you need to understand the best way to leverage their page effectively to drive traffic to their stores and increase sales.This will help improve your page's Edgerank  and increase the reach of your posts.

What to post on your business page

Here are some ideas for relevant content to post on your Facebook page:

1. Promotions and Contests

Two-thirds of fans like a brand on Facebook just to get exclusive offers. So give them what they want. Post sweepstakes, giveaways, contests, coupons and discounts regularly (note: make sure you are following Facebook’s guidelines for promotions).

• Great example: Jewelry creator Delezhen had a spring giveaway, offering a free pair of pearl earrings to all customers who mentioned ‘pearl earrings’ at the time of checkout.

2. Shop Announcements

Encourage visitors to your shop by announcing any upcoming sales or new products.

• Great example: Unique sweater-coat creator Katwise uses her business page to announce upcoming sales. Her coats sell out in minutes!

3. Interesting Shop Facts

If you or your shop has been featured in a magazine or well known blog, or you have introduced new items in your store, be sure to post this on your page.

• Great example: Lupen Grainne Photography posted this when Pottery Barn started selling her work.

4. Helpful Tips

Post any blogs, tips or FAQs that are related to your products or customers.

• Great example: Rhasdala, who makes handmade beauty and skincare products, posted an article on identifying skin tone and choosing beauty products to best suit it. This is likely to be of interest to most of her customers.

5. Questions

Users loved to be involved. Ask questions about what they would like from you. Not only will this make them feel like a part of the team, but it will also be an invaluable source of information for you.

• Great example: Crazy Dog T-Shirts asked customers to choose between two potential tee-shirt designs.

6. Hand-picked Endorsements

While most user comments may not have a universal appeal for your fan base, there are some exceptional endorsements which are worth sharing on your page.

• Great example: Madison Street Beauty shared the following photo by a customer. Now that kind of customer loyalty is worth showing off!

You can also use your business page to show your personal side and build your brand identity:

7. Create your brand identity

Today, what we share defines who we are. All great brands have an identity - develop yours.

• Great example: Three Bird Nest who creates accessories for girls and women, does a fabuous job of creating an online identity which resonates with her customers. The following post got over 1,000 likes and 2,000 shares - imagine what that did for her Edgerank!

8. Show off your personality

This one can be a double edged sword. While it’s great to show who you are - mom, dad, dog lover, yoga freak - you need to be careful not to overdo this. Occasional personal information or photos make you more human and so, more likable. But you need to remember that this is a business page, not your personal profile, so do it in moderation.

• Great example: Rae Dunn Clay posted an adorable photo of her dog Wilma who won 3rd place in the Design Sponge Cute pet contest.

Conclusion:

Content that your post on your page should have 2 main characteristics:

1. Be of universal interest to your customer base.

2. Give fans an incentive to visit your page.

While creating the right sort of content takes time, thought and effort, it can be a great way for brands to gain visitors without having to pay for expensive advertisements. This is especially relevant for small businesses who may not have the same sort of resources that large companies do.

So take some time to define your business goals, understand what your customers are looking for and then choose the message you want to send out.

Learn how often to post on your Facebook page.

Do you have any other kind of engaging content that works well for you? We’d love to hear about it!

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