Business or Personal?
I see a lot of businesses improperly using Facebook to market their business. Facebook is a powerful tool, but if you use it incorrectly it will work against you.
Facebook offers two ways to share information: Profiles, geared for people, and Pages, intended for businesses. Profiles are personal accounts on Facebook, intended for noncommercial use to represent individual people. Pages look similar to personal Profiles, but they offer unique tools for businesses. You must have a personal Profile to create a Page, but the Page helps keep your personal and business social media separate. You can create and manage multiple Pages with one Facebook login.
A personal Profile is where you friend other people and post or share whatever you feel like sharing. A Page is a business account that represents a company or organization. A Facebook Page gives businesses promotional tools, such as advertising and insights, to help you understand who is interacting with your Page.
Friending versus liking
Facebook provides two ways to connect with Pages or Profiles: by “friending” for personal Pages and “liking” for business Profiles. Clicking the “Like” button on a Page will add that Page to your News Feed and the About section of your profile, so you’ll automatically get that Page’s updates.
As a business, you never want to have your personal Page as your company Page. If you’re a business owner, a store manager or a contractor promoting your company, you should have a separate business Page. Here’s why: When people click “like” on a business Page, it indicates they’ll be following that business. They’re also able to interact, post and share on that Page if the Page owner allowed that in the settings.
Using your personal Page for business posts means that anyone that is a “friend” on your personal Page sees anything you post on that Page, such as personal comments and pictures. For most people who are trying to interact with a business, this is a huge turn-off. This is not just poor practice, it’s even against Facebook’s terms of use to use a Profile for business purposes.
Keep it fresh and current
Another thing to keep in mind — having a stale Page will hurt your business. When people visit a business’ Page that hasn’t been updated with recent work, they most likely will move on because they figure the company is out of business or is not doing work it is proud enough to post.
Interaction is huge on Facebook. Interact with your followers. Let them know that it’s important to you that they “Like” your Page and want to follow your work. Ask questions. Share your thoughts. Click “Like” if someone makes a nice comment on your work.
For me, I have had a lot of social media success using my Facebook business Page (www.facebook.com/QualityEpoxy) and I believe in and trust the process. As long as I do excellent work, regularly post pictures, share videos, post articles and not ignore my followers, my number of followers will continue to grow.
Boost your posts
The “boost your post” feature is an effective and inexpensive way to get more exposure and more likes on your Profile. First, post your most compelling project along with a good photo. Posts with photos get far more attention than posts without. Click the “boost post” button in the bottom right-hand corner. Facebook automatically creates an advertisement from the post. Once you do this, you can choose who you want to see the ad through targeted selections that Facebook offers.
For instance, you can show the ad to people only in a certain geographic area, or people of a certain age or people that have listed certain interests on their Page. Then, you choose your budget and how long you want the ad to be displayed. You can spend as much or as little as you want.
When you select your budget, Facebook will show you the estimated number of people your advertisement will reach. Once you are happy with everything, click the “boost” button, sit back and watch the activity!
Pick and choose
Once your numbers increase — I now have nearly 33,000 people who have liked my business Page — it’s hard to reply to every comment. Accept this. Just pick and choose the most interesting ones to let people know you’re reading your Page.
Some people message me through Facebook, but this is no longer a good way to reach me because I get so many messages I often miss them. I’ve come to realize if people are really serious about hiring you, they’ll either call you direct or email you.
Also, I now ignore comments under my pictures and videos asking such things as “How much?” The floors are too complex to be given a quick answer in that context. It’s up to you to decide how much you’ll interact with people who message you and leave comments you don’t want to answer.
For those of you who are new to online marketing, you’ll see the best results when you follow these guidelines: Your personal Profile is for personal stuff and your business Page is for business. Interact with your followers on your business Page and your audience will grow. 
- www.facebook.com/QualityEpoxy
Jon Kopp, who has been coating floors for more than 16 years, owns and operates Quality Epoxy LLC in Gilbert, Arizona. The company exclusively uses Arizona Polymer Flooring epoxies and urethane and Cohills Building Specialties Inc.’s metallic powders. You can follow Kopp on social media under Facebook.com/qualityepoxy or visit his website at www.qualityepoxy.com.
