How to Run a Small Business on Facebook - Meta Business Suite

As a small business owner, you wear the hat of the owner, finance officer, marketing chief, sales manager, supply chain manager and so on and so forth.

As such it could be hard knowing how to get social media up and running. But at OK GO Media we don’t gatekeep valuable information. Here is exactly what you should do as a small business owner to help grow on social media. And stick around because I will be sharing an extremely powerful tool that your business can use today!

To build a client base, publish content, schedule appointments, sell products and respond to customers might just be Facebook, for all the tools it offers.

Please note that when drafting this article, it mostly applies to B2C organisations. Of course, B2B businesses can still benefit from using Facebook for their marketing, however B2C organisations may find the tools to be more suitable to their business model. That being said, try out these tips and see how well they work for you! We also have articles on how LinkedIn can help B2B businesses grow!

Facebook offers a suite of tools to help small businesses promote their content and connect with their customers. This is called the Meta Business Suite.

How to get set up on MBS

Firstly, you will need to have a Facebook page. It doesn’t have to be a business. It just has to be an account set up as a page, rather than just an account, so that it has access to the Meta Business Suite. Your page could be for anything you want. It could be about you as a content creator, entrepreneur, coach etc. It could be a page you create about a hobby or passion like fishing, bookkeeping, or coin collecting. You could create a page about your Youtube channel, twitch streaming, or your pet dog. It doesn’t matter what the page is about, as long as you have one set up, it will allow you to use Meta Business Suite.

What tools are available?

Meta Business Suite facilitates small business growth with features like reviews and recommendations. Many people use Facebook to find small or local businesses, just like the yellow pages back in the day.

Customers can leave their reviews on your business’ page which will help attract new customers down the line.

The Chat function.

Using Meta Business Suite, you can monitor your inbox and respond to messages and comments from Facebook and Instagram all from one central location. This means you can respond to all messages with a proper computer keyboard and avoid having to swap between apps and devices.

With everything in one place you can avoid customer messages being missed. You can also set up automated responses in case you want to take a break or have customers contact you in other forms.

Content Creation

Facebook supports many forms of content including videos, photos, going live (streaming) and text posts. This is a great opportunity to keep all your content, marketing, and promotion on one easy to manage platform.

Can I sell products through my page?

Yes! You can sell products through your business Facebook and Instagram pages, and you can even bring those items in to chats with customers. For example, if you have a customer asking if you sell lamps, you can bring a picture of a lamp you sell along with the price into the chat, and they can buy it right there.

What else is available?

A Facebook business page can display your contact information, address, website, and opening hours. A well-populated page will give your customers everything they need to know where your business is, what time you are available, and how to get in touch with you.

Posting frequently to your page maintains visibility and lets customers know your business is still operating.

Advanced features

Additional tools available with Meta Business Suite

The Meta Business Suite offers a lot of tools to help businesses monitor the performance of posts and grow their audience. I will cover more about this in other articles but the tool I want to highlight will provide value to your business immediately - The Planner. This tool provides the ability to plan and schedule upcoming posts for your business across Facebook and Instagram.

Why is this so useful?

It means you don’t have to worry about posting ad-hoc each day. You can plan out the posts for your business for the week, add the photos and text, then the tool will automatically publish the posts for you on the scheduled date and time.

This is an incredibly powerful tool that will provide you with convenience and consistent engagement.

Final Thoughts

There is a lot the Meta Business Suite offers to organisations to help them grow. If you have a page already for your business, then take a look through some of the tools. If not get started today! Your page will remain private until you publish it, and it will be a great way to get to know the tools and insights available.

Stay tuned as we release more articles and videos to go over all the features and expand on how you can get the most out of it for your business!