This month, the Chamber is focusing on social media. Since Facebook is the most widely-used form of social media in Golden, I’ll focus on that. Many of the news items that I share in my daily Golden Business News posts are culled from local Facebook pages. That in itself is a good reason for you to post on Facebook. Golden.com‘s daily business posts reach about 1000 people per day.
Facebook has some real advantages for a business owner: it’s free to set up an account, and it’s very easy to use.
The main disadvantage to Facebook is your lack of control over when, if ever, your message will reach your followers. Facebook constantly changes the formula that they use to decide who will see your posts. According to an article that I read today, you can expect 3.7%-8.7% of your posts to reach your followers. The high end of that range applies to video posts.
So no matter how many people “follow” you, chances of their seeing what you post are low.
I have also noticed that Facebook posts sometimes take several days to appear in my newsfeed. I often see posts for things happening “today,” that describe events that happened a week ago.
So what’s the lesson to be learned from all this? Go ahead and use Facebook–it’s free and it’s easy. Don’t abandon other forms of advertising though. An email newsletter is also free, and it’s a great way to reach your best customers.
If you really want your message to spread, send it directly to those of us with big local followings–the Chamber ([email protected]), Golden.com ([email protected]), and Visit Golden ([email protected]). We can use our websites, newsletters, and Facebook pages to help you get the word out!
Barb Warden
Webmaster, www.golden.com