Facebook has become the de facto online marketing medium. It is a platform that is fairly easy to maintain and update, requires little to no technical knowledge (unless you are looking to develop some custom features), and provides a soap box to an incredibly vast amount of people. And even if certain studies suggest many are losing interest in the social network, it still remains -- and will continue -- one of the best platforms to create leads with your clients.

With that said, it is time for you to do some maintenance to your business's Facebook page. Are you really using Facebook to its full potential? Are you converting page visitors into Likes and leads? What can you do to maximize its efficiency?

Make the Most Out of Your Cover Image

The cover image on your page is a canvas of opportunity for you. Recently -- well, somewhat recently -- Facebook quietly updated its Terms of Use to allow you use your cover image as a promotional area. Previously, the cover image was not allowed to have any major call-to-action (CTA), and your account could be flagged and penalized if it was discovered.

You may now use the cover image as a tool to guide viewers to the next step. Note that covers images cannot have more than 20% text; they are, after all, cover images. Be creative with your cover image, but also include the a CTA to guide the viewer downwards to your content, or to an external location.

Use Your Facebook Tabs

Your Facebook tabs are an excellent feature that you can use to reinforce your brand image. It is there you can quite simply explain what you are about, offer additional information, use external content, etc.

Be sure to use apps and design tabs that are relevant to your industry or area of service. If you are a hotel, for example, you might wish to show your TripAdvisor reviews. A restaurant might want to show their menu. You can use internal Facebook apps, third-party extensions, or a service such a Heyo to build out custom tabs. A newsletter sign-up is almost always a strong idea.

 

Once your tabs are in place, be sure to design the tab thumbnail image in a way that clearly shows what the tab is about, entices the viewer to click through, is consistent with your brand image. Bonus points if you can design your tabs consistently with one another. If you update your tabs or apps, keep the most important one as the first three.

Review Your Page Information

Facebook is investing a huge amount of time and money into search, which is excellent news for you and your page. It means you have the potential to be found by relevant users who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer. There is no time better than right now to review your page information.

1. Description: Depending on what kind of page you have, you can add a short description of about 150 characters right below your profile image. Think of it as a tweet: you have one tweet to explain what you and your page are all about.
2. URL: The URL is often an aspect overlooked, but can be one of the best wayfinding systems. Make sure your page has a custom username -- and thus URL -- in order to help your visitors know exactly where they are and what they are looking at. Having a custom username/URL will also help returning visitors find you.
3. Information: As search on Facebook will become more and more valuable, making sure you page information is accurate and up-to-date is crucial. Fill out all available areas, and use keywords in your descriptions that can help with search.
4. Category: With Open Graph coming to fruition very soon, you will have more power than ever to get new visitors. Update your business category to accurately represent what it is you do. 

Post Consistent, Quality Content

Perhaps the most important of all tips included here. Be sure to post regularly with good content on Facebook (or any of your social media networks)! Whether it be three times a week, once a day, or 5 times a day, make sure the content you post is good, enticing material. Don't overload your followers by posting eight posts on Monday and nothing for two weeks. Spread out your content, keep it consistent, and post interesting, valuable content.

Have you come across any tactic or information that you think we have missed? Leave a comment below, or hit us up on Twitter @CustomFitOnline or, of course, Facebook /CustomFitOnline.

Filed in // Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Landing Pages and Calls to Action, Brand Identity