The problem with running a small business and relying on Facebook for the bulk of your sales is that when FB makes changes – even if you are keeping up with them as a business – many of your fans have no idea what has changed. They are still seeing all their friends posts, so what’s all the fuss about?
So this picture is my FB personal profile page a few weeks back and I’ve strategically placed large pink arrows to direct you to the two crucial things (in my opinion!) - Lists and Sort.
Facebook - Lists & Sort
The first thing to focus on is Lists – you can only do this on your personal page not on your business page, but that’s OK because you’ve ‘Liked’ all those pages from your personal profile haven’t you? Before you start you’ll need to have an idea of what categories you want for your lists. For example: Close Friends, WAHM Business, Business I do Business With, Acquaintances, etc (you get the picture). I have Close Friends, Family, Candles, Weddings, Business as my main five so that I can keep up with the things that are important to the running of my business and in my private life (everyone else tends to be left to fend for themselves!). You can find out a little bit more about using Lists here.
If you can’t be bothered reading all of Facebook’s help here’s a (very) brief guide:
- Click on Lists
- Choose to either Create a List (top right) or click on an existing list
- Click on the Manage List buttone (top right) – If you chose Create you’ll be prompted to name the list first.
- Choose ‘Add/Remove Friends’
- Start adding your friend and pages. You’ll need to click the little arrow next to friends to get to the pages you’ve liked – see pic below.
Adding Pages to your custom list
The Sort dropdown box is just as important. It is defaulted to ‘Highlighted stories’ but this is not necessarily the most recent posts by your friends or pages you follow. To learn more about how Facebook determines what goes into this category click here.
If everyone you know takes these changes on board it should help with your friends and fans seeing your posts … so let’s get out there and educate them!
Caveat – All you see above is my opinion and not a guarantee of sudden fame and riches, let’s face it I only have just over 100 Likers on my Invites by Just Jane page so what would I know?
Well, what I do know is that it works for me and by using Lists in particular I am able to keep up with everyone I need to – it’s why I don’t miss those posts asking for people to ‘Like’ them …
Have fun!
Jane x
Tags: Facebook for business, Facebook Lists, Facebook Sort, Facebook tips, Invites by Just Jane, Just Jane
