Finding content to post to your Facebook Page isn’t easy, but it’s a great exercise. It can help you refine – or broaden – your view of the field you’re working in.
And it’s a process that entails great reflection each time you get ready to hit the post button. Your personal Facebook profile and your small business Facebook Page are separate and distinct and it’s important to keep them that way.
The last thing you want to do is alienate people by posting nasty commentary or sharing inappropriate material. So before you post something, ask yourself if what you’re going to post is political, sexy, opinionated or completely unrelated to your business.
If you answer yes to any of those, don’t post it. It’s important to infuse your own humanity into your Facebook Page because you want folks to realize you’re not just a small business but also a person in the community.
You can wish your employee or vendor a happy birthday and wish your Facebook Page followers a Happy New Year. But you do not want to laud a political candidate or share an opinion article disparaging a candidate or a political view.
If you do, you do so at your own peril. There are people who troll the internet for opportunities to share their views about each and every topic that’s being discussed, and sooner or later an argument ensues.
It’s easy to offend people so it’s important to keep a Facebook Page clean and simple and to the point – the point being the general environment your business is focused on. An auto mechanic’s Facebook Page will include helpful tips on maintaining a vehicle, news about the latest aftermarket parts and links to car show events.
But whether you like or dislike political figures is completely unrelated to your business, as are your opinions of what others wear or do or say.
OFFENDING CUSTOMERS
The chance of offending people is always present so be sure to read the article that you’re sharing and scan the page that it’s on. Make sure there isn’t any indecent material on the page that you’re sharing. You’ll really want to stick to known sources, but if you share a blog, remember that a great deal of spelling or grammatical errors makes the source completely suspect.
Older material is still OK – like an article listing top Spring Cleaning projects – as long as it remains relevant. Political material is so polarizing I recommend people completely avoid it. And as far as the latest societal scandal is concerned - I would avoid those as well unless the work you do in your business is related to that scandal. I might post a reminder that it’s voting day but that’s as far as I’ll go.
Avoid politics on your small business Facebook Page.
AVOID SHARING CONTENT WITH TOO MANY POP-UPS
Annoying pop-up ads on a web page are another opportunity to annoy people. Even if the article is good, if you have to close more than two boxes to get popups out of your view to read the article, don’t bother sharing it.
A popup is fine if it comes at the bottom of the screen and people can continue reading the content. But asking them to click a bunch of boxes just to read what you’re sharing could cost you a follower on your page.
It’s like most things – if it would bother you, it will probably bother other people. Don’t impose yourself on people. Provide meaningful content so they get some value out of following you.
