Grow Your Facebook Presence With These Tips

Many brands are enticed to start a Facebook presence when they see the success of companies like Target and Starbucks. Your practice may not reach hundreds of millions of fans (although it may), but there are targeted steps you can take to build your Facebook page quickly and efficiently.

Use what you already have 
One of the reasons national brands are so successful on social media is because they had a loyal fan following prior to setting up their accounts. Chances are, your Facebook page is not the first online interaction you'll have with your customer base. Use your already established channels such as an email newsletter and your website to drive traffic to your new Facebook page. This is as simple as putting a link to your page above the fold on your emails and website pages in the form of a Facebook logo.

Utilize the (free) tools Facebook gives you
The native Facebook platform provides many opportunities to engage with your community once they become fans. One option is to ask questions using Facebook's poll feature. Remember that many people aren't comfortable interacting with brands on a daily basis, so don't overuse this feature. Ask multiple choice questions so that your fans can answer them quickly and easily. Ask engaging questions that you would want to reply to - don't just use this for target market research. There are paid tools you can use on Facebook as well, such as Offers, which give your fans a special discount on procedures. To take advantage of an Offer, click "Offer/Event" at the top of your publishing box, choose "Offer", and follow the steps Facebook provides for you to create your discount.

Launch fun contests
Many brands see success with contests on Facebook - use an application like Easy Promos to easily create an engaging contest your fans will want to enter. Ideas include gathering their name and email (valuable information for that email newsletter you run) to give them a chance to win something (it can be as simple as a Visa gift card or a free electric toothbrush). Make sure your offer is enticing enough for your fans to enter - offers have to be valuable in order for people to feel comfortable giving you their personal information.

Explain yourself 
Many companies scream at people to "like" them on Facebook... without providing any incentive as to why they might be interested. Instead of just promoting "Like XYZ Dentistry on Facebook", you should say, "For more fun tips, promotions, and photos, like XYZ Dentistry on Facebook!"

Be relevant
As tempting as it may be, don't only talk about your practice on your Facebook page - show that you care about community events and local news. If your city is voting on whether or not to put fluoride in the tap water, write a short blog post about what this means for your patients. Or, if you don't have time to write your own post, publish a link to a local news story about it. The key to social media is to be social, not sales-y.

Keep content fresh
No matter what types of content you post regularly - contests, blog posts, or questions - change it up frequently so you can measure what works and what doesn't work for your page engagement. Posting regularly will also entice your fans to check back more regularly to see what content you've published.

Watch your insights
Facebook's free Insights tool gives brands a good idea of what posts increase engagement... and what posts do not. You can easily click the Insights tab on your Admin panel and see how many fans react to individual posts. You may find that on average, more fans like and comment on posts that include photos or stories about certain subjects. Pay attention to your successes so you can easily repeat them.
Overall, growing a Facebook page following seems like a daunting task - but if you follow these few key tricks and don't give up after a few short months, you will almost certainly see success in your online community.

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