I feel so privileged to meet so many passionate, kind, female business owners through my business. One of those lovely ladies, Sophie, dazzles me with her beautiful equestrian photos, and impressed me with the massive Facebook following (over 9,000 people!) that she’s grown 100% organically. Just like my ladies are my biggest cheerleaders, I am theirs, so I was beyond excited when Sophie agreed to share some of her Facebook tips on my blog. While times have changed a bit since Sophie started her page, she has some incredible insight that will help you grow your page, and keep your followers engaged!
Hi, there! I’m super excited to have been asked to write this guest blog post for you guys. I absolutely love Kimberly’s enthusiasm, passion for business and generosity. I’m honored that she felt me worthy of chatting to you guys about growing your Facebook business pages!
My name is Sophie Callahan, I’m twenty-seven and am an equine photographer from the UK. I photograph solely equestrian clients, visiting the yards they keep their horses on, for private, commissioned portrait shoots. I began my career behind a camera in event photography, when I was nineteen, transitioned to equine with a side of portraits and weddings about four years ago and then made the scary, but exciting leap to specialize in my chosen niche, around two years ago. Other than horses, I love reading romance novels, milky tea with one sugar, anything sparkly, sunsets and my Cocker Spaniel, Barney.
At the moment, I currently have a little over 9,600 followers on my Facebook business page, Sophie Callahan Photography.
These have all been achieved organically, through hard work and a lot of time spent, over the past four years, and are a very interactive fan-base. I’m so lucky to have such fab Facebook followers and so grateful for each and every one of them that have chosen to share my journey with me.
I can vouch for the fact that, in my experience, anyway, the more Facebook followers I have had on my page, the busier I have been with my business!
I am now fully booked four months in advance, doing between five and seven shoots per week, in the summer and have never spent a penny on advertising! So, I’m a huge advocate of social media for business and hope that this blog post will help you grow your Facebook pages in a way that benefits your businesses.
I think the biggest thing to remember is that building a loyal, active following takes time, staunch commitment and creativity.
Buying likes on social media is just about the worst thing you can do, as it will be detrimental to your post reach in the long run and achieve the exact opposite of what you are aiming to achieve. Think of it as a marathon, rather than a sprint. Choose a few social media platforms that you think you can manage well and that are appropriate for your target audience. Kim has a great post about that, here! Then, set aside time each week to work on them. You need to build social media into your life until it’s a habit.
Here are some of the tactics that I found were crucial to building my Facebook following, from when I started out, to now…
Competitions
I know that so many business owners think it’s a cardinal sin to offer your services for free, but I disagree. I think, so long as you are doing it for the right reasons (your business’s growth) and only on the odd occasion, then it can be a fantastic tool. In the early days of my business, before people knew my name, I would run the odd competition on Facebook and most often, they worked really well.
Competitions and giveaways are such a great way of alerting potential clients to your page and hopefully getting them to share your products or services with all of their friends. Make sure you create a strong, eye-catching, clear graphic that includes an example of your work and very clear instructions, and it should get a great reaction!
The old myth that the people who like your page through a competition aren’t potential clients, as they’re only interested in freebies, hasn’t been my experience, at all. I’ve had people that followed me through a competition, when I first started out and then, sometimes even years later, have gone on to book their own, paid shoot.
Make sure you follow Facebook’s rules and regulations regarding hosting a competition on your page. You can find a great article about that HERE.
Using Facebook Groups
Facebook groups can be really valuable in getting your content in front of the right people.
I’m a member of a variety of horsey groups on Facebook and if I have content that I really want people to see, I’ll post it to my page and then share it into the relevant groups. Don’t just post it and cross your fingers that it lands in front of the right people. Get sharing!
For example, I had a shoot in Wales (five hours from me) a few weeks ago and I shared this piece of information into a group called ‘Welsh Horse Owners’ to see if anybody else would like to take advantage of me being in that part of the UK, as I don’t get over that way very often. As a result, I received two more bookings for the same trip.
Another example would be with the competition idea we mentioned earlier. Post the competition to your Facebook page and then share it with the groups that you think your target market would frequent. If you’re a photographer and you mainly photograph children, join mother and baby groups. If you photograph weddings, join bridal groups.
Be careful not to overuse this idea, as it will end up looking like you’re spamming the groups. Pick and choose what you post and where to maximize the impact your content has.
Make sure you check the details of the group to see if they disallow advertising of any kind, before you share so that you don’t start off on the wrong foot with the group admin.
Tagging Your Clients
Tagging the images and raves that you put up on your page about your clients an absolute must. Every time I do a shoot and post the images on Facebook, I tag my clients. By doing so, I automatically have the possibility of marketing myself to every person on their friend’s list.
The average person on Facebook has around 300 friends. So that’s 300 new people that could potentially see my work, every time I tag a client.
If my clients’ mother, boyfriend, friend, etc. was helping out or involved in the shoot, I’ll often tag them, too!
Make Your Posts Relatable
One of the key parts to my business is my blog, because it gives each set of images a story. I’m not saying that you have to start writing essays (like I have a habit of doing!), but I do think it’s really important to use your blog to tell a story and share value with your potential clients.
By making your posts relatable to other potential clients, you are inviting your audience to comment and interact with the content you are posting.
If I post a picture of a horse and owner and don’t mention anything about their story, lots of people might flick through and think ‘Nice picture’. They might even click the like button if I’m lucky. But if I share that horse and owner’s story; if I tell my audience that the horse was rescued from slaughter by his owner, or that he has overcome an awful illness, etc. I will immediately get a much higher rate of interaction. By sharing the story being the image, you evoke emotion in your audience and emotive content will always receive more engagement.
People will either comment that they have been in that situation and identify with my client, or they might just mention that they enjoyed reading the story and send their best wishes, but either way, it gives them something to respond to.
So, share stories and watch your audience relate to them.
Make it Personal
Some people like to keep their business and personal life separate. Personally, I don’t think, as business owners, we have that luxury. I think it’s really important to mix the two! (To a certain extent. Of course, airing your dirty laundry and that argument you had with your spouse last night, on your business page, is not advisable.)
The one thing that you have that no other business owner has is you! You want your clients to work with you because they like you. By sharing snippets of your personality and your life outside of work, you will be attracting the type of client that you will click with.
People want to do business with people that they like, trust and connect with. By making some of your Facebook content personal, you are allowing your clients to get to know you before they ever get in touch to enquire about booking. Your potential clients are much more likely to work with somebody they feel as if they already know, than somebody who doesn’t share any part of themselves on their social media or website.
I share a lot of pictures of my dog and my family, because they’re a huge part of my life! The amount of clients that mention them, when I am at a shoot, proves to me that people really do enjoy getting to know the person behind the logo.
Keep Your Audience Engaged
In my opinion, this is the biggest thing I have learned about managing my Facebook page. If I hear somebody moaning that Facebook algorithms are stopping people from seeing their content, I want to tell them that they’re just not doing it right.
Yes, Facebook does decide what we do and don’t see. It does stop our content from reaching every single one of our followers. Yes, it’s annoying. Which is why you need to work out how to beat it. And you can!
The more somebody interacts with your page, the more likely it is that your posts will land in their news-feed. The more likely it is that their friends will see it, too. An interaction can be a like, a share, a comment or even a click, onto any of your content. So you simply need to encourage your followers to engage with you.
I try to post on my Facebook business page every single day. If I can, I’ll post up to three times a day. And I try to post what I call ‘interactive posts’ at least a few times per week. These can be anything that will get your clients involved on your page. Sometimes I will simply post a ‘Show me a recent photo of your horse’ status, or ‘Show me the last photo taken on your phone’. The other day I asked my clients what their favourite equestrian product was. On Father’s Day I asked people to post pictures of their horse’s fathers. For Valentine’s Day I asked how involved their other halves were with their horses, and asked them to share pictures. Sometimes a simple ‘Tea or coffee?’ or ‘What are you having for dinner?’ will do the trick.
Anything easy, simple and generic. You just have to think of things that most of your clients can get involved with. Think: quick and easy to answer, while people are scrolling through Facebook on their phones, and use it!
The more people reply to your posts, the more of your content they will see in the future!
Vary Your Content
Try to post a real variety of content to your page, to keep people interested in what you have to say. I advise keeping the actual advertising of your product or service to a minimum and letting your work and past clients do the talking. If people feel like you’re selling to them, they’ll lose interest pretty quickly. Here are a few examples of the things you can post on a day to day basis…
- Your work from recent work. But make it about the client, rather than about how great you think you are!
- Behind the scenes phone pictures.
- Personal phone snaps of what you’ve been up to, outside of work.
- Personal stories. (I shared a recent, funny conversation I’d had with my other half, about eyelash curlers, which received a great response and is nothing to do with horses or photography, but I knew would entertain my target audience which is made up of mostly women.)
- Quotes, memes or funnies, that your target market can relate to.
- Funny out-takes.
- A plain old text status about your day.
- Any news or links that relate to your niche.
- Interactive posts.
- Testimonials and pictures of your work on your clients walls.
See, all of those ideas and not one advertisement!
Remember to keep it positive and up beat at all times. Never moan or rant on your business page and always be yourself.
There is so much more I could write about for this blog. I could go on for days. But hopefully, what I’ve given you here, are ideas that you can go and easily apply to your page. They will help to drive engagement, attract more followers and grow your business, right now.
Do you have questions about growing your Facebook following? Leave a comment!
Isn’t Sophie fabulous?! Be sure to follow her on Instagram and Facebook, chirp her on Twitter, pin her on Pinterest, and check out her website!
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Hey girl, hey! I'm Kim.
I'm a business coach determined to help female entrepreneurs run successful, profitable businesses that are not only stress-free, but fun. I'm passionate about finding ways to work smarter, not harder, so that I can spend time with her stud muffin and spunky, kind hearted daughters. I am a self-proclaimed organizational queen that is couldn't live without Lip Smackers chap stick, fresh flowers or dark chocolate. Real Simple Magazine is my guide to navigating life. My true obsession lies in branding; I am every business owners biggest cheerleader!
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