2 Most Important Facebook Tips for Small Businesses

Just stumbled upon a nice, concise blog post offering Facebook tips for small business. The post comes from Kelsey Brookes of Thinksync, a design firm in Australia.

Though you can find thousands of blog posts on how to use Facebook for small business marketing, Brookes does a good job of cutting to the chase.

To my thinking, the two recommendations that small business owners need to pay most attention to:

1. Promote the local community: Adding to what Brookes says, you need to pay attention to the “social” part of social media. You have to be part of a community, and the conversation has to be two-way. When you set yourself up on Facebook, Twitter or any other social media vehicle, if your communication amounts to “Look at me!” you’ll find yourself alone very fast.

2. Encourage posts from your customers on your Facebook page. Yes, that means giving up some control over the message, and there’s a chance that a cranky customer might say something negative about you. But social media gets its power from the community, and the more engaged people are in your page – posting messages, photos, videos, etc. – the more marketing value you’ll get out of the exercise. You’ll even benefit from the classy way you deal with the cranks.

If you’re doing more self-study on social media, make sure you follow Mashable, the website all about Facebook, Twitter and the other social media beasts. You’ll find great info for beginners and experts alike, especially in its small business section.

(This entry originally appeared in an earlier version of the Wave Accounting blog for small business.)