Facebook has become the common marketplace for almost everyone. And learning to leverage Facebook’s platform to promote oneself has become an essential part of an organisation’s operations—whether it be within or outside Nepal. As easy as it looks, there are common mistakes people make while trying to market themselves on the social media site. It is vital that every entrepreneur knows how to use this platform to their advantage. In this article, you will learn basics of doing that.

The first thing you need to do is create a Facebook page. You may ask: why not  a profile page instead? Well, as much as Facebook is a place to connect with other people, it is also, as already mentioned, a common marketplace. And Facebook has created this separate space for people to conduct businesses effectively. And there are differences between having a page and a profile, such as on a page, you don’t have friends, you have people who like your page and follow it. Additionally, you can push advertisements and even check insights of the progress on your page, a feature not available on a personal profile page.

Another basic step that you need to take is define your business in the ‘about’ section, give details of your business, list contact numbers, and describe to customers and potential customers your business values. In short term, what this is going to do, is help people understand who you are; in the long run, it will help you gain their trust.

The third step is to create content. On Facebook, everything depends on the content, your pictures and videos. So you need to keep posting. For example, if you are a clothing store, you need to display the items you have at the physical store on Facebook as well, via pictures and videos.

Here is a small tip that will help you with pictures: a 1080 by 1080 sized picture or video works best for Facebook posts because it fits well both on a desktop screen as well as a smartphone screen. Not that other sizes don’t work, but this one is an ideal size and it’s said to increase your posts’ reach.

Despite seeming ordinary, ‘reach’ is something that makes the most impact on Facebook. Reach, in basic terms, is the number of people your content reaches. There are two types of reach: organic reach and paid reach. Organic reach is when your content appears on someone’s profile because they have liked your page or followed it. This happens without any payment made to Facebook. Paid reach is when you pay Facebook to make your content appear on someone’s profile who has not liked your page, but is a potential liker or follower.

Organic reach is when you invite people to like your page and they do, whereas paid reach is when you push advertisements to make people like or follow you. There are ways to increase your organic reach, like by running contests on your page, planning giveaways and other activities that create engagement on your page and more people come across your page and like it.

It holds the same importance as word of mouth communication does for physical businesses.

Having said that, a large portion of Facebook marketing happens via Facebook boosts or paid promotions. When you create a page, you have an option that says ‘boost’, and when you click on that option, you come across a host of options. Among them, the two most important ones are defining your audience and setting your budget.

Defining your audience means you must have a clear idea who your customers are and what kind of people would be interested in your business. Defining your audience also means defining the geographical area you want to reach. If your business caters to those living only in Kathmandu, you would want to boost or push advertisements to people who live in Kathmandu. And Facebook gives you this option if you have defined your audience properly.

The following step is setting your budget. How much would you want to spend a day, one dollar, two dollars or 10 dollars? The general, and the most accepted approach, is the more money you spend, the more people you reach. You have an option to spend one dollar a day or two dollars for two days or 10 dollars over 7 days. You can choose the number of days and the amount according to your requirements.

But as easy as it sounds, in Nepal, boosting can be tricky, because Facebook as an entity is not present in Nepal. The online payment gateways available internationally is not established here in Nepal. So, you have to have an international payment account like PayPal to make payments. Or know someone who has an account via which you can make payments.

The steps mentioned above are the most basic things you need to know before you get started with a Facebook marketing page for your business. Furthermore, you will have to make sure you promptly reply to your customers’ comments and messages of your customers, post and keep your page updated on a regular basis, and write captions and descriptions of your products in simple, understandable language. These things are going to make your business seem genuine. Also, it’s vital to have a review section where people drop their feedback.

And don’t forget the insights section, where you can check the results of your activities and plan what strategies you can employ to grow your business.