First of all, let’s be clear.

If your business is not growing and prospering and you’re struggling with that, the REAL PROBLEM is that you don’t have enough OUTREACH in your marketing department and in your marketing systems. After several decades of working with hundreds of businesses, I’ve noticed that businesses that are growing and prospering have active and regular methods of outreaching to new prospective clients … and businesses which are struggling … DO NOT have active and regular methods of outreaching. Period.

And if you have questions about that, I’d refer you to our free video “The One Single Thing that Growing Businesses Do, and Struggling Businesses Don’t!”  If you want to see it, we’ll send it to you for free through Messenger, just click here.

But in the meantime, although it’s usually not the strongest possible business builder, your Facebook business page can have a large effect upon how much new business you actually land from your outreach projects, and this brings us to …

Two Ways to Lose Business with Facebook Posts …

There are  two ways you can lose business with your Facebook business page posts (too little or too much).

• TOO LITTLE (where you hardly post at all): This makes your business page (and your business) look really Blah. And new people do not flock to a Blah business! (To see how this can trash your word of mouth referrals and paid advertising, and how to fix it, just CLICK HERE.)
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• TOO MUCH (of the wrong thing): You do post, but every one of your posts is about you. You, you, you. Selling, selling, selling. For example a Mexican restaurant, and they have posts, and every darn one of them is about something they want you to buy. For example, every Tuesday they post about Taco Tuesday. They show you pictures of their enchiladas, about their Family Friday specials. Selling, selling, selling.Now this is better than not posting, but it makes you sound like a carnival barker, shouting about what you sell all the time. In fact, you will actually get the most good-will, the most engagement, the most growth of your followers, when you break it up into five different kinds of posts. For example …

The 5 Kinds of Posts to Maximize Good-Will (And Sales)

This is really pretty simple, and will make perfect sense when you think about it. You want regular (preferably daily, if you can manage it) posts, and you want some posts about you and what you sell, and some other posts which promote goodwill and human contact, so that you become personable, like a human, like you CARE about the fans of your business.

1. Posts about your specials and offers
2. “Engagement” posts which make people comment, like, and share
3. Posts about your “menu items” (even if you don’t run a restaurant!)
4. Posts which are interesting and not directly related to what you do
5. Posts which create general good will

Posts about your specials and offers

Yes! Do post specials. A Mexican restaurant definitely should have special offers like Taco Tuesday, and a dentist should have specials on something like teeth-whitening for new first-time patients.

And these should be both posts in the daily timeline, and also created over in the “Offers” section on your Facebook business page, to get extra mileage from the same offer.

Push those Tuesday Tacos every single Tuesday!

Or if you’re a chiropractor, you’ll have some educational articles and some special offers as well. (September ‘Sports Injury’ Specials, Senior Specials, Specials for New Moms to Be!)

Or hair salons with offers for coloring, or ‘Mommy & Me’ mother and daughter specials!

(And if you’re REALLY smart, you’ll select one of your best bring-new-business offers and work it right into the huge header graphic so that everyone who comes to your business page sees it without having to scroll or click on anything!)

Engagement posts

These are posts that ask a question, with the simple objective to get more people to “engage” with your post. For example to get more people to comment, like, or share your post.

QUESTION: Why does this matter?

ANSWER: Because Facebook no longer shares all your posts with all your followers. Facebook prefers to show more of their paid ads to Facebook users, and so they'[ve been slacking off the number of free posts they show to people who ‘liked’ your business page in the past. So these days when you post, only some see it.

But in order to keep users happy, and tuning in every day, Facebook also wants its users to see things they like.

So when your post is getting more engagement — likes, shares, comments — then Facebook considers that post to be “popular.” And so Facebook shows that post to more of your followers. And the more of  your posts get engagement, the more ALL your posts get shown to people … and that’s free advertising, free brand-building, and getting your name out there more.

• So if you were a hairdresser, you might have a post asking what’s the difference between “balayage” and “ombre.” Now most men will have no clue what this is about, but most women know that these are two hair-color techniques for creating highlights in a woman’s hairstyle, and the two are very similar, but a little different. So a hairdresser asking their (women) followers which they prefer … well, everyone has an opinion, so asking people for their opining gets more comments.
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• For a pizza place, a tried-and-true post is a picture of a pizza with pineapple on top, and asking “Does pineapple belong on pizza? Yes or no?” Another old-reliable is “Thick crust? Or thin crust?” Everyone has opinions about this, and they WILL comment, and so your free advertising from Facebook increases!

No matter what your type of business, you can always ask questions, and especially about anything in your business that different people view differently. When you post a question, more people respond. Works every time!

Posts about your “menu items”

For any kind of restaurant, this means exactly what it says. A barbeque joint should regularly post new pictures of a rack of ribs, another time show hot links, another time display roast chicken on a plate with luscious cole slaw. Simply by showing pictures of food, it makes people hungry, and that’s an on-going business-builder.

For a chiropractor, you’d post pix of certain patients, or articles about faulty alignments and how they can be fixed. The list of conditions that you can help are your “menu items.”

For a hair stylist, cellphone pictures of hairdos you’ve done can be your “menu items.” Post on Facebook and Instagram.

Posts which are interesting but not directly related to what you do

Generally you want to avoid politics and religion, if you want to avoid losing business from people who hold opposing views … but in general, posting things which people might find interesting (and which are clearly not self-serving messages) is a way to create a “personality” for your business.

• For example, you can create the impression that your business is “supportive of animals” if you post cute animal pix, or an article about someone who saved a lot of dogs. This would be great for any animal shelter, veterinarian, pet-food store.
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• You can create the impression that your business is “supportive of children” when you share some found (or searched) stories featuring good news about children. This would be great for any business selling baby clothes, for any pediatrician, for any charter school. There is no “selling,” and you align yourself with the views of your target customers.
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• You can create the impression that your business is “with it” or “quirky” by posting about some entertainer’s antics, or on March 2nd just post a picture of King Kong and tell about how on this day in 1933 was the premier of the original movie starring Faye Wray at Radio City Musical Hall.

And … you don’t even have to align the post with your target audience … IF the post would be one they’d find interesting — For example, there’s nothing to prevent the veterinarian posting about King Kong, or the pediatrician posting cute kitten pictures!

Posts which create general good will

These are REALLY easy. You could post “cute kitty” pix and cartoons … but one of the best ways is simply to wish people Happy Holiday throughout the year, as different holidays come around. For one thing, when you post “Merry Christmas” 2-3 days before Christmas, people are already thinking about Christmas, and so your post gets superb readership!

Secondly, Facebook users really like to share appropriate posts, and you’ll notice that huge numbers of Facebook users share colorful picture posts at every holiday. The incoming posts they read is where they GET picture posts to share. So why not let them share YOUR picture-posts for holidays through the year? (And this also increases YOUR post engagement, triggering Facebook to show more of your posts in general!)

Huge good will comes from simple Happy Holiday graphic posts, and like general-interest posts, these illustrate that your business is not just about selling, but you’re a likable and personable business, and that you care about your followers, each and every one.

And when it comes to this type of post, we here at Voltos can make your life real easy. 🙂

Here’s how …

Free Holiday Posts for Any Business …

Here’s the easy-peasy way to add high-quality holiday posts. Because you can use our free Holiday Graphics posts.

To start adding holiday posts, just download our completely free Holiday Graphics posts, and start to increase good-will by simply saying Happy Holiday throughout the year. You don’t even have to register, immediate download available, though if you’d like us to send you new ones each month, we can do that, too!

(There are are always several major and minor holidays every month, and you’ll always have a choice of several graphics.)

To get these eye-catching graphics for your business page, just go here to claim the current set of free Holiday Graphics, immediate delivery through Facebook messenger available right now —

http://voltos.us/HOLIDAYGRAPHICS