The Absolute Best Way To Build Your Facebook Page

If you’ve spent much time on Facebook in the last year or so, you’ve probably noticed that the vast majority of what gets shared is in the form of a meme (an image that is passed around via social networks). That fact hasn’t gone unnoticed among Facebook statisticians.

According to a media analytics company called, SocialBakers, a staggering 93% of shared posts are images. Only about 2% of shares come from links like this article and 3% of the shares are status updates. Perhaps most surprising is that only 2% are video shares.

Of course, for Facebook page holders, especially Facebook business page holders, this poses a bit of a conundrum. How do you find compelling photographs that are free to share and that will draw attention to your Facebook page?

In theory, Facebook is designed with the idea that people should share and share away. The problem, when you are trying to build a page, is that when you hit the “share” link on a picture and post it to your page, your page will get lost in the shuffle when it’s re-shared. Credit will still be given to the source that you shared from.

If you want your page to show in the shares, you have to post the photo yourself. You can’t share it to your site. Obviously, if you have your own photos, that’s the best. If you have simple meme generator software or if you have something like PhotoShop, you can add inspirational sayings to pretty pictures and, voila! You have a very sharable image. If you are unfamiliar with how to upload photos, here’s an easy step by step. It’s not advisable to choose watermarked photos or copyrighted photos from the internet.

If you do want to post a link, make sure you post a photo with the link. Sometimes, the link automatically posts a great photo. Sometimes it doesn’t. If it doesn’t, I recommend posting an image you like with an excerpt and a link to the article in the comment field.

There are three kinds of things you want to post. The first are things that are directly relevant to your business…for example, a blog post written by you or for you. You can also post things that you’ve accomplished or any sort of community activities. In an ideal world, these are the posts that will drive people to your page – and that’s a very compelling reason to make your blog posts interesting to more than just your customer base – but in the shallow Facebook world, they probably won’t drive a lot of people to your page.

The second type are things that are indirectly related to your business. For example, I have one client who is in the home improvement business. I post a variety of home improvement related items on their Facebook page. I also post pictures of beautiful home decor and of beautiful homes.

The third type are simply images. You can create inspirational or motivational memes or you can post pretty pictures. If you want to share from another page, there is a way to do that that should make everyone happy. First, click on the link. The picture should increase in size. Right click on the image and save it to your computer. Then, you can post it to your page. Before you hit “post,” thank the page you are sharing it from by saying something like “Thanks to @____________ for this share with @The Word Strategist.” The @ symbol will simply bring up a drop down list of pages once you start typing the name. Choose that page and the @ symbol will go away and Facebook will insert a link to the page. The page will receive a notification that you linked to them. Well, they might. Facebook isn’t real consistent with that.

Supposedly, images that are on Facebook are free for people to share, but anecdotally, I have seen accounts suspended when someone claims that they own a particular image. I can’t stress strongly enough that it’s best if you post your own images, but I also recognize that it’s not always possible.

The images are what likely will draw people to your site. Once they are there, they can see all that you have to offer and they will hopefully feel compelled to hit the “like” button. The more newsfeeds your page appears on, the more exposure you will have and the more “likes” you will have.

Unless your business is explicitly political, I recommend staying away from controversy. And, please, be a good sport. If one of your competitors is doing poorly – for whatever reason – give good wishes if they are appropriate. Otherwise, leave it alone.

Your page won’t grow overnight and like a garden, it needs constant attention, but you will see results. With time and work, a good small business page can grow to over 10,000 followers.

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