I had a Facebook page before I even had a website.

I was running my direct sales business from my personal page which is a HUGE no-no with Facebook and honestly, all of your friends on your page. It’s annoying and spammy to use your personal page to talk about your products, sales, and a lot of other business things. Now don’t get me wrong, I still will share a good deal over on my personal page or alert that page if I have a cool LIVE video going up on my LIKE page but, once I started to use my LIKE page for my business, I began to actually feel like a legit business owner.

Prior to this, I felt like I treated my business like a hobby. I would post about it occasionally or go in the opposite direction and post WAY too much about the business.

And while it wasn’t the easiest transition to move to be LIKE page exclusive, I found what I’ve been able to create over there invaluable.

I’ve created a tribe.

For a business to be successful and stand out among others in their field, they have to think about their page less like it’s just to talk about products and more like it’s there to make a movement and create a community. You want the people to come to your page to feel like they belong like they are in a club, and like they can really connect with you.

I didn’t realize this was what I did until a few things happened on some of my posts.

First, I posted about a negative message I had gotten from someone and my tribe came out in droves! They came right to my defense, they shared how they connected on my page, and they had my back.

Second, someone basically told me I had made a community. When I had my daughter I had a lot of questions as a first time mom and I often would ask the Facebook hive what they thought. Someone then commented that I needed to stop asking questions and just parent how I wanted to and my page came back on them! Someone actually said “I like that Cara asks these questions. I am a first time mom too and she’s created a really great forum for us”

BAM.

Community. Tribe.

So How Did I Create It?

Though my page is still what I like to call ‘small but mighty’ the quality of the followers there matter more to me than the quantity. You can have a million followers but if no one is commenting on your posts, sharing them, or feeling connected with your brand, then it doesn’t matter at all.

I started to create this by following the 80/20 rule with my page. 80% of what I shared was more about me, my tribe and the tribe I wanted to create and things I thought they would find valuable. The other 20% is where I posted about my business.

Now, this may not make much sense at first. Wait, Cara, I want to make money with my business, don’t I have to post about it?

Of course, you do.

But if all you are doing is posting what you are selling then NO ONE is even going to come to your page to see it.

When creating a social media plan for your month map out your posts in advance. You’ll need to make strategic decisions for when you will post actual sales on your page. I like to post 3-5 times a day on my Facebook to keep my engagement up (this doesn’t count for LIVE video). So this means that if I post a minimum of 3x a day on my page than 18 times a month I can talk about my business and products. Not so bad at right?!

So what do you post the rest of the time?

I follow the principles laid out in Gary Vaynerchuk’s book Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook. Jabs are essentially soft sells about your brand and the way you make your community. Those right hooks… those are the ACTUAL ‘buy my product’ posts.

When planning out your month ask yourself if your posts use the 4Es…

Do they

• Engage?
• Entertain?
• Educate?
• Empower?

If your posts are doing this then your community will start to grow.

Some examples of these types of posts could be:

• Engage: Asking questions about topics your readers might be into, sharing other viral articles and asking their opinions
• Entertain Funny MEMEs that target your audience, pictures of YOU and your life (kids, dogs, what you’re up to). Remember, it is OKAY to personalize your brand. There are so many people out there with businesses just like you. People don’t buy the product… they buy the PERSON.
• Educate: Share value! This can be yours or someone else’s (that you share from their page)
• Empower: Positive quotes or messages you know your tribe needs to hear

I make sure that almost ALL of my posts explicitly ask my reader to engage with the post. People need to be told what to do so I often will end a post with statements like

• What do you think about this?
• Have you ever….
• How did you….
• Like if this hits home
• Share if you agree
• Post a GIF below to describe how you feel about it…

This way your tribe not only starts to engage with your page but, they share your content for you. What this also does is helps you see more of what they need. When they are engaging they are sharing their needs as well. For example, if I post a recipe and ask what people’s biggest struggles are when it comes to using the crockpot, I then have a bunch of topics for future posts or blogs. If I post a recipe and no one engages, that lets me know that maybe my tribe wants to see less of that type of content.

Be Consistent

Being consistent with your message and social media is a surefire way to build a tribe about your brand. Look at your social media like a magazine. They have great content and then every once and while hit you with a perfume ad. You don’t care that much because the magazine has given so much value so it’s not annoying. By providing value to your tribe, when you do ask for the sale, they are less likely to unfollow because it isn’t in their face (note: this is a different story if you are in the launch phase of a new product!) all the time about it and you’ve built up your ‘know, like and trust’ factor.

You need to get permission from your tribe to advertise and by building a community you’ve done just that.

Need some more ideas of what to post to engage your readers? Check out this FREE swipe file of 25 engaging posts you can use on your social media!