By Chelly Ontis, Elegant Designs 

If you’re an entrepreneur, I bet you’re thinking, this lady is crazy-pants. Hold on now; let me explain a bit. I understand you can market your business and increase sales by using Facebook for business. BUT, I have a little secret for you. 

First, let me ask you: Are you selling a product or service? Do you sell local or online? Do you have repeat customers? Does your product or service require some type of follow-up training? Do you sell new items to the same customers over and over? Do you sell virtual consulting? Or digital downloads online? 

If you answered “yes” to any of these, then selling on Facebook is right for you. 

If you are still reading, I’m guessing you are running a business or managing social media for someone. Is your Facebook page delivering sales and customers like you had hoped it would? 

Well, lean in, I have a secret to share when selling on Facebook: Be social. (That’s why it’s called social media.) Yep. It’s that easy. 

A New Way to Think about Advertising

As entrepreneurs, business women, or shop owners, we often think of our social media as a place to spew out all we have to sell. This doesn’t entice your fans to like, comment, or share on any of your items/posts. Eventually, this type of posting leads to Facebook diminishing your reach. So now even fewer sales are coming in. UGH! 

So now how DO you sell on Facebook if this isn’t working?

Remember that secret I mentioned earlier? Be social. 

Yep. It’s that simple. We need to think of advertising as not showing our customers what we are selling (like a billboard ad) but instead, our Facebook page needs you to have interaction with fans like they are in front of our sales team, in our stores (or virtual stores if you are online). 

The longer you keep customers on your posts or videos, the happier Facebook will be, therefore showing your content to more people. Keep in mind: Facebook’s goal is to keep people on Facebook. Play that game too, and Facebook will be your friend.

Don’t worry. It’s easier than you think. It simply requires we retrain our marketing brain. 

Let me get you started with four ideas: 

• Post for engagement. 
• Ask “answer with a GIF” questions.
• Try a poll (use your merchandise in two different colors to measure who likes what color).
• Do a Facebook Live and showcase different ways to use the items you sell (for decor items, display in a fall setting and summer setting).

How do I know this works? I help manage about eight other business pages on Facebook, including my page, We Can Make That! (for crafters and DIYers). I successfully grew this page from zero to 10K fans in a few months using this same concept — and a few other tricks. 

When people tell you Facebook is dead, it’s because they are using their Facebook business page the same way they use it personally. 

Simply stated, stop selling and get back to customer service to build up your social media.

“You don’t need to know everything about marketing. You simply need to know how to market YOUR business.”

Want to learn more about having success with your business Facebook page? 

I’m offering a hands-on live workshop in Bismarck Oct. 30, 2019. Registration details available at www.ElegantDesignsInc.net