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How To Leverage Facebook For Small Business Growth
How To Leverage Facebook For Small Business Growth

Forbes

time5 days ago

  • Business
  • Forbes

How To Leverage Facebook For Small Business Growth

Using today's strategies, Facebook for small business can prove a lucrative venture. Doing Facebook for small business? It's still alive, but the way it used to work is dying or nearly dead. Posting every day? That's a fast track to burnout. Random boosts? Usually a waste of money. Waiting for organic reach to kick in? Don't hold your breath. Using Facebook for business does work, but it takes an intentional approach using what's working today. These seven growth hacks reflect that approach. They're for small business owners who want to stay visible without spending all day online. No full-time team required. No complex ad funnels. Just practical, low-cost ways to grow your Facebook Page and connect with the people who are most likely to care—and buy. Tips To Grow Your Business With Facebook Facebook for small business works best when you treat it more like a conversation and less like a ... More billboard. Facebook works best when you treat posts less like billboards and more like conversations. Pages that feel personal—where someone replies, reacts back and opens up like a real human—tend to get more reach. And that reach really matters for small businesses built on trust and word-of-mouth. Think real estate agents, hairstylists, wellness coaches, restaurateurs, pet groomers, plumbers and artists. Their audiences—usually in their late 30s to early 60s—still check Facebook daily. They scroll. They read. And they respond to content that feels honest and useful. Better still? Facebook for business doesn't mean you need a big team or endless hours. Just tap into the following hacks, and you'll go farther than most paid strategies could ever take you. When non-followers react to posts on your Facebook for small business page, invite them to follow ... More you. When someone taps 'Like'or drops a heart on one of your Page posts, it's not the end of something. It's the beginning. Most small business owners overlook this one simple way to grow a following: Inviting people who reacted to a post to follow the Page. They already engaged. They already noticed you. So why not say, 'Hey, want to stick around?' Here's how. Click the reaction count under any post to see a list of everyone who reacted. If someone liked your post but doesn't yet follow your page, you'll see a little 'Invite' button next to their name. Tap it. Facebook will send a notification inviting them to follow your page. It's quick, free and surprisingly effective—especially if your post had a lot of reactions or if you boosted it. Who knows? With this trick alone, you could easily pick up a hundred or more new followers a week. No ads. No algorithm cheats. Just friendly little invitations. Another hack for growing your business with Facebook for small business: Giveaways! Want more reach without spending lots of cash? Run a giveaway with another small business. You each toss in a prize—maybe $25 each or two products that form a bundle. People follow both pages to enter the giveaway. It's quick, cheap and doubles your exposure without doubling your work. The trick is to pitch to a potential partner who shares your audience but doesn't directly compete. An interior decorator might team up with a local furniture shop. An online coach could pair up with a copywriter. Once you've got a plan, promote the giveaway for a few days, then pick a winner manually or with a tool like Comment Picker. Imagine growing your following from, say, 25 to nearly 400 with no ads, just a little collaboration, and a shared audience. It's possible. Facebook for small business doesn't always mean paying for reach; sometimes it's just about playing nice with your neighbors. If you're not using Messenger on your Facebook business Page, you may be missing out on some easy ... More wins. People don't always comment. Sometimes they slip into your DMs to message: 'Are you open?' 'Do you deliver?' 'Can I pick it up today?' If you're not using Messenger on your Facebook business Page, you may be missing out on some easy wins. Head to your page settings and turn Messenger on. You'll find the switch under 'How people find and contact you.' That one toggle will give potential buyers a direct line to you and makes it easier to answer quickly or follow up with a discount. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame used this move to grow followers by 81% and lift sales 12%. Your small business using Facebook can do the same. Just connect first, sell second and build loyalty along the way. Going live on Facebook is a powerful hack for using Facebook for your small business. Live video still works. It gives people a real-time way to ask you questions, see your smiling face, get a look at your stuff, and decide if they want to buy. Your videos don't have to be polished. Just useful, honest and short. Selling products? Show what's new. Selling services? Answer FAQs or share tips. Tap on 'Live Video' where you'd normally create a post, and talk to people as you would in person. Look at the camera. Your viewers are out there! End with a simple call to action (CTA) and include that text in the caption: 'Message me for details' or 'Drop a question below.' People love buying from real people. And Facebook for business growth depends on that connection. How often do you think you have to post on Facebook when using Facebook for small business? Less ... More often than you think! Posting less often can actually help you grow your Facebook for business presence. The Buffer team tested it. When they cut their posts by half, reach tripled and reactions doubled. Those results makes sense only because Facebook favors quality over quantity. So, focus on giving more value less often. Share a tip, a quick behind-the-scenes moment, a before-and-after, or something funny that happened at work. And when people comment, by all means reply. That back-and-forth is what boosts visibility. Aren't you happy to have a reason to stop posting daily? It's a relief to know that one fierce, memorable post a week will beat five forgettable ones, every time. When your Facebook for small business Page is up and running, invite your family, friends, and ... More customers for an initial follower boost. These days, people don't just Google you. They Facebook you. If your Facebook for small business page doesn't exist or looks messy or outdated, that might be the only thing they remember. Use clear photos that people can see even on phones. Create a simple, mobile-friendly About section. Add up-to-date hours and contact details. Choose a CTA that fits, like 'Call Now' or 'Book Online.' Then pin something good to the top: a welcome video, an intro post, a seasonal offer. If your page earns a second glance, it can help people begin to trust you, too. Lookalike audiences on Facebook for small business let you find other people who share traits with ... More those who already like your Page and posts. If one of your page posts gets likes, comments and shares, chances are the people who dropped those reactions share certain characteristics. Using Lookalike Audiences, Facebook can help you find others with those same traits, people who might also want to follow and, eventually, buy from you. Head into Ads Manager. Create a custom audience based on people who've interacted with your content. Then build a Lookalike Audience from that list. Boost a winning post and target your new lookalikes. For small brands using Facebook for visibility, even a $20 test can expand your reach fast. Bottom Line Facebook for small business works when you work it. Facebook for small business still works when you work it, but only when the approach you're using maps to how the platform operates today. Show up consistently. Try these hacks. And stop doing what no longer delivers. The right moves don't take a team, just a shift in the things you're doing and a willingness to connect like a human. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) How Do You Create A Business Page On Facebook? A Facebook Business Page is your public business presence on Facebook. It serves as a second website where people can find you, learn about you, experience your work, and decide if they want to do business with you. Setting up a Page is free and takes only about 10 minutes. Head to and pick the category that best describes your business. Fill out the essentials: page name, description and contact details. Upload a profile photo (your logo will work) and a cover photo that does your brand proud. Add a call to action that makes sense for your business. After you've filled out all the sections and published the page, link it to your other social accounts and main website so everything's connected. Then invite your friends, family and customers to like the page to get that first bloom of followers. How Do You Create Ads On Facebook? Facebook Ads helps you run campaigns to reach new followers and sell your wares. But honestly? They're complicated, especially when you're just starting. There are campaign types, audience targeting, pixel tracking, conversion optimization—it's a lot. If you want to go down that path, Facebook's official Ads Manager guide has all the gory details. The easiest way to get started with ads is by boosting a happening post, one with lots of shares and reactions. Hit 'Boost Post,' and choose who you want to see it. Start simple with your audience by selecting people near you or people most likely to be interested in your topic or industry. Set a small budget—maybe $20 to $25—and see what happens. If the ad works, put more money into it. If not, try a different post or audience using Facebook for small business targeting options. Boosting is way less overwhelming than building a full ad campaign and gives you a good taste of what it's like to use Facebook for small business advertising. How Do You Create A Store On Facebook? Create a store on Facebook using Facebook Shops. Facebook Shops are essentially mini stores that live inside Facebook and Instagram. People can browse and buy without having to bounce out to another website, which makes impulse purchases way more likely. Setting up a Shop is free (though Facebook takes a small cut when people buy). Your starting point is the Meta's Shops page. Just click the big blue 'Get Started' button to walk through the process. You'll connect your existing store, whether it's on Shopify, BigCommerce, or somewhere else. If you're starting from scratch, you'll create your shop directly on Facebook. Either way, you'll tell Facebook where you ship from, how long orders take to process, and your return policy. The setup walks you through everything—shipping zones, handling times and whether you allow messaging. After your Shop is approved, usually in a day or two, you can start tagging products in posts and going live to show off your brand and your wares.

Is it worth paying a real estate agent to sell your house?
Is it worth paying a real estate agent to sell your house?

RNZ News

time5 days ago

  • Business
  • RNZ News

Is it worth paying a real estate agent to sell your house?

Three quarters of agent-listed properties in the past 10 years were successfully sold, compared to 65.1 percent of privately listed properties. File photo. Photo: You might pay a real estate agent $30,000 or more to sell your home. But is it worth it? Analysis by property data firm Cotality suggests it might be. Each year, a small number of people opt to sell their homes privately - from a low of 3.1 percent in 2021 to 8 percent in 2016. Last year, it was 7.6 percent. But Cotality head of research Nick Goodall said agents seemed to sell properties more quickly and effectively. "The sales success rate is higher for agent sales - by an average of 11.5 percent over the 10 year period." Roughly 76 percent of agent-listed properties in the past 10 years were successfully sold, compared to 65.1 percent of privately listed properties. Last year 65 percent of agent listed properties sold, compared to 52.8 percent for private sales. Goodall said real estate salespeople would often have an understanding of which buyers might be in the market for a particular property and could target them more effectively than a private seller might. "The typical days on market for agent sales is also most often shorter. In 2021 - the market peak - the median days on market for agent sales was 24, while it was 40 for private sales. Interestingly last year was the one year to buck that trend, with agent sales taking a median of 75 days, compared to 71 days for private." He said the median sales price for properties sold by agents was higher, too, but that could reflect a different mix of properties being sold. "Vendors may be more likely to sell their property privately when it's a lower value property, whereas owners of more expensive property might be more likely to use an agent." He said last year's higher rate of private sales could reflect vendors being aware that prices were not strong and looking to save money where they could. "Nonetheless, for the record, the median sales price of properties sold by agents this year is $740,000, compared to $662,500 for private sales. Last year the respective figures were $735,000 for agents and $704,000 for private." Goodall said the data was not definitive enough to say whether agents were delivering enough extra value to pay their commission. At Barfoot & Thompson, for example, a $750,000 sale would incur $23,978 in commission. A $1 million sale would mean just under $30,000. "The figure for this year is almost $100,000 so I'd say that would justify it if it was like-for-like properties. But the year before was closer so you might be sort of borderline there." Goodall said people selling privately would also need to account for the time they would need to spend on the process. "Having to take time off work or the opportunity cost or what else you could be doing if you have to spend all that time preparing to sell a property on your own, you know that might bring the calculation a little bit closer as well." Real estate agent Brooke Gibson said she could understand why people would sell privately. She did it herself before she entered the industry. But she said she could see that agents would add value for most people, particularly when it came to negotiating. "You could actually easily kill the deal because you know, if someone comes up to you and you're opening up your house to them and they go 'how much do you want?' and you say $1 million and he thinks it's worth $700,000 for example, he's going to be like 'nah not interested." Wellington salesperson Mike Robbers agreed. He said agents would also often present properties a bit better than private sellers would, with professional photography and home staging. "Private sellers often start out with a very high price in mind, then reduce it over time when there's no interest, but by then the listing has gone 'cold'. Agents tend to use their market knowledge to get the pricing strategy right from the outset, so the listing doesn't sit as long on the market." He said some buyers also expected to pay less for a private sale because the seller did not have to cover commission. Real Estate Authority chief executive Belinda Moffat said whether it was better to sell privately or through an agency would depend on the seller's specific circumstances, the property itself and the seller's knowledge and experience. "Licensed real estate professionals are trained and experienced in working on behalf of homeowners to help them navigate property transactions with confidence and are legally required to seek the best outcome for their client." She said all real estate salespeople were required to follow the standards in the Code of Professional Conduct and Client Care and meet their obligations under the Real Estate Agents Act 2008. "If a person works with a licensed real estate professional, and an issue arises with their professional conduct, the person has the option to make a formal complaint to REA and/or to raise the issue with their agency." Agents should provide a current market appraisal (CMA) of what a property might sell for before they signed an agency agreement. "(CMA) of what they think the property might sell for before the seller signs an agency agreement. The CMA must be informed by comparable recent sales in the area and can be helpful in understanding what the property may be worth. They will also prepare a proposed marketing plan which the seller can discuss, amend and agree to. "They also understand and can advise on the important legal disclosure obligations a seller has when selling a property, including in relation to defects and unconsented alterations. If a seller knowingly fails to disclose relevant information to buyers, they could be in breach of the terms of their agreement with any buyer, meaning the sale could fall over or the buyer could seek compensation and take court action." She said vendors might be able to negotiate commission. People choosing to sell privately should research the process so they understood what was require, she said. Moffat said confidence in the industry had lifted from 70 percent in 2021 to 82 percent last year. Goodall said there was demand for property but there remained high numbers of listings. "I think if you're willing to be very, very flexible on that price then it's probably not that difficult to get a sale, but it's all about you know, your expectation, what you want to do, if you're buying in the same market, if you're moving elsewhere..." He said some people were still hung up on the prices being paid at the peak of the market and were finding it hard to adjust their expectations. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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