There are different approaches to this, some people want to know you on Facebook and will friend you there as soon as they meet you. Other people like to keep their Facebook profile very private, for example if they use it primarily for family, and therefore would rather connect with your Facebook page.

I feel if you’re using Facebook to share your work with the world it’s a good idea to connect with the people that you meet because then you can continue the conversation that you might have had with them when you met them at networking events, social gatherings etc. It’s a way to continue a conversation so I do recommend connecting on Facebook as I think it can be a very powerful way to grow your network. If you can connect as friends via your Facebook profile and if not let them know about your page.

I recommend focusing your attention on one or two social media platforms rather than spreading your attention across several, especially if you are a solopreneur.  Grow a really strong following, form real relationships and have real meaningful interaction on the platforms you are focusing on. That way you don’t just make people aware of what you do, you actually get them interested in getting to know more about you and about your offerings.

This comes down to what kind of group/s you have and what are their goals, e.g. is it a group for a paid course or a free group to build awareness.  As long as you have a steady flow of really relevant gorgeous inspiring content that’s happening on your personal page it’s ok for you to then go and spend time in your group.

If a group is taking more than say 20 minutes a day then it’s really really worth re-assessing whether it’s the best use of your time. If people have paid for a program then it’s really important to tend to them and give them excellent customer service and make sure that their needs have been met. If it’s a free group  then make sure you are clear on how the group is serving your business.

You can only change the name of your Facebook page once and you have to have under 5000 likes on the page when you request the change.

I really recommend using a plain text email with maybe a photo of you at the bottom. Many people, whose newsletter I read, are using this method. They also keep their newsletter short, focusing on one piece of content and including just one call to action. Many include a story or lesson from their lives and this makes the interaction much more personal. People lead busy lives, therefore they are much more likely to open and read a newsletter if they know it is going to be relatively short and to the point. It also makes the newsletter much easier for you to put together, taking up less of your precious time.

Insights can help you better understand what is working well, and what not so well. I would pop in there about once a week and then go and look at the posts and see which posts are doing well. You can easily see this info because Facebook puts next to it how much engagement there was; how many people liked it; how many people commented; and then you can actually click on the on the post itself and you can look at more details. You can see more demographics of the people liking those posts.

I tend to review and evaluate in a flowing way, I don’t have a spreadsheet when harvesting numbers as I haven’t found that to work very well. I just feel it’s important to go into Insights and take the pulse of your Facebook page. Watch over the course of a couple of months who is liking, commenting and engaging. What gender are they, what country are they from – all this is helpful info about your target market.

A piece of advice I got from a social media consultant about 7 years ago was that morning tea break, around 10, and afternoon tea break,around 3, are really good times and I’ve seen that to be true. That doesn’t mean that other times won’t be really successful too and that’s why I recommend really playing with different times and watching over the coming weeks and months which times seem to get the best engagement for you. You can also look at your Insights and see what times people are most active on your page.

Posts can only be scheduled from a desktop, unless you download the Pages app for your phone. However, this app can be a little clunky so you may find desktop scheduling easier.

People can only be invited once to like your page.

There are absolutely ways that you can spread the word about your work without having a website, through Facebook for example. You can also build a mailing list to educate people about your work. However, in the longer term it really is very meaningful to have a website and will make it easier to grow your business.

Head to your profile and on the top left, just underneath your profile image, you will see a section called Intro. Here you can edit where you work. Click the small pencil icon and then you will be able to add your job title, such as ‘Owner’, and your business page. Simply start typing the name of the page in the ‘Where I Work’ Section and you will see similar pages with the same start to their title appear in a dropdown. Choose the correct page and then that will be visible on your profile.

It’s true that we don’t want to get into an echo chamber where the only people we’re talking to are people have a certain level of privilege or a certain background. It’s really important that our work is open and accessible to people of all kinds of backgrounds, so that it’s inclusive. However, it’s a simple marketing truth that the more you know about who your audience is, the more you can speak to them and speak to their longings, and the more they are going to trust you and want to work with you. So it’s about finding a way to do both and the great thing about Facebook is there are so many millions of people on it, it’s literally the largest country in the world at this point, so it’s a place where people could find out about your work from a really diverse range of backgrounds whereas if you went down to maybe your local yoga centre there would only be certain people you could bring your work to.

A good starting point for your ‘ideal client’ is to think about the clients you have been working with so far. Look for the threads which link them and look especially for the ones that you really love working with.  Paint a picture around who who they are and really come to the themes that compel them to work with you. What problems were they trying to solve by working with you. Once you have these themes in mind you can look for people on Facebook who are experiencing the same issues or who have the same passions etc.

You click on the three little dots that are at the top right hand side of a Facebook post and when you scroll down it says pin post. You can pin a post in a group or on a page but you can’t do it on your personal profile. The way to unpin a post is to again click on those three little dots and you then have the option to unpin.

It’s important to share links to content on your website etc. so some of the time it’s fine to include links in posts. Just make sure that not every post includes an outgoing link – mix it up. Another option is to say on some posts  that I’m going to put the link to this in the comments below. That way the link won’t disrupt the Facebook algorithm because it doesn’t have an outgoing link in the post itself.

I recommend that you shake it up. Sometimes your posts are simply a sentence, sometimes just a word or question and at other times they can be a paragraph, a few paragraphs or even a whole blog. Then you can watch over time and see what people respond to. Also mix in images, and videos as that too will help you see what your audience enjoys.

I totally understand there can be a real energy and time drain when it comes to social media and that’s why I suggest you spend no more than 1 or 2 hours on Facebook per week. That should include everything you are posting and time spent on other people’s pages.

It’s really good to link back to your website regularly. I wouldn’t do it on every single post, because that can start to feel a bit too salesy. I feel the balance is right if you do it about once every three times you post. You can link to content like your: blogs; articles; podcasts; and interviews.  Facebook is brilliant for getting people to engage and be interested in what you’re doing and then come over and explore more on your website. It’s great therefore to give them something informative, educational, inspiring and uplifting to experience.

I would use all of your website content on your Facebook page, it’s a great thing to harvest content that you’ve already written and recycle it. You don’t need to be writing fresh stuff on your Facebook page all the time, you can get it from your blog, website and newsletter. All this content is great to re-share because Facebook moves so quickly. After about 2 or 3 months people have forgotten what you posted, so you can post the same thing again.

One word of caution is to use your Facebook page as the primary place to promote your business, rather than your profile. It is against the Terms of Service of Facebook to market from a profile and some people have lost their accounts that way. So when in doubt always use your business page to share about your work.

I think the best way into this is that your Facebook page doesn’t necessarily have to have one very targeted type of audience. What you could do is have say up to three  designated target audiences which all have a common golden thread. It’s really important to have that common golden thread otherwise your page will start to feel chaotic and confusing.

When I worked with Tree Sisters we knew that we had several different kinds of women who were interacting with our page, therefore we went in-depth exploring what we could about these different kinds of women.  So for example there were women who were post-menopause in there. They were in their 50s and 60s with a very clear view about their purpose in life. They wanted to save the earth and were full of fire and passion. There was anger too and I learnt that I really needed to speak to these women via the Facebook page. I would create posts about how the crone, the wise owl, was needed in our world and then there would be huge conversations that would come from that so I knew I needed to always keep serving those women, that they needed Tree Sisters to be a resource for them and a space for them to be able to receive that kind of inspiration and knowledge. There would also be women with other perspectives in the group, but different content spoke to different people and they could all be served. As I created the content for the page I was always thinking how it would speak to these different women and the golden thread always ran through it – it always came back to women and trees.

It’s also an emerging process, even if you think your target audience are there for a specific thing, once you start posting more on your page you’ll see the posts that get more engagement and you start to see themes emerging and it’s important that you follow those themes. This is why Facebook becomes so exciting because it’s like a free market research platform where you can learn about your audience and what they really want, love, need and what they really respond to.

Facebook loves content which is native to its platform.That means content which people can watch on the Facebook platform itself, without the need to click away to somewhere like YouTube. Therefore, it will show native content to more people who follow your page.

When you have a video that you want to showcase to your Facebook audience, instead of sharing it across from YouTube, it’s better to upload it directly to your Facebook page.

To do this, head to your page as usual and instead of writing a post, click on the button that says photo/video (see screenshot). You will then be able to upload your video from your computer and add a title and description.

I make a spreadsheet of the pages that I really like and want to share content from on my own page. I have a list of about 20 of them and I also include the url link to the Facebook page to make it super quick and easy.

Tagging means that you put the @ sign and then either the name of a person or the name of a page. That person/page will then get a notification saying they have been tagged and who by. (Note: It may sometimes not be possible to tag a person because of their privacy settings).

Tagging is good because the person/page who has been tagged will often come over to check your page out. Plus, other people will click through to the person/page you have tagged. This is a positive thing because you’re cross pollinating and spreading the word about the things you love. Yes it is taking people away from your page but it’s also adding value to your life and the beautiful thing about Facebook is that people in your audience will see another one of your posts come up soon and they will gain a sense that you are helping them to connect to inspiring things and adding value to their life.

Hashtags are ways for people to keep track of different themes on Facebook. This could be a movement like #metoo or related to a specific event or topic. It can also help spread the word about something going on in a business. It is best to add no more than 2 or 3 hashtags to any post on Facebook as otherwise it can come across as too pushy.

I speak regularly in this course about how, whether you’re a small page that’s just starting out or an enormous page with a massive following, the key to getting the Facebook algorithm on your side is knowing exactly who it is that you are and being very clear on who your target audience is. If you know what they are longing for and how you can help to meet that need, and then consistently through the content that you bring to your Facebook page are adding value and meeting that need, then your following will grow. The algorithm will help you reach more people because if you’re working like that you’re going to get more engagement from the people who you really want to speak to. The number one way to work with the algorithm changes is to follow the steps of this course so that you are offering valuable content to the people that are on your page and that’s true whether you have a small organisation or a bigger one.

Above all it’s important to not worry too much about Facebook algorithm changes and I know it’s a big thing to say but trust in the fact that if you are bringing your joy and passion and you’re helping people to feel more alive and well connected your engagement is going to be good on your page and that will positively impact the algorithm.

Everyone receives negative comments at one stage or another. The approach I take with cyber aggression is that if someone leaves me a comment and I think there might be some truth in it I take it to other people that I really respect, my advisors and council. If they say “yeah there’s something in it” then I listen to the criticism, usually there’s nothing. It’s just the projections of the person leaving the comment and you can let it go.

If you feel uncomfortable about anyone on your page or in your group, you should not hesitate to delete their comments and ban them.

Facebook Lives have a great advantage because when you start one people who like your page will get a notification saying you are now live. These therefore get a lot more attention than sharing a YouTube link and will ultimately get more engagement.  

On a public page or in a free group I would stick to between 3 and 10 minutes, and just above the Live video I would outline the benefits of listening in.

If it’s in a group where you are offering a class or training then you can go for longer, particularly if they are already invested in the process, it just depends on the circumstances. You can always play around with time length and see which ones get better engagement.

There’s a certain amount of targeting you can do on Facebook with local areas it’s often city-based. You can select the place that people in your target market come from, so you could select UK for example and then drill down to the city or town that you want to target.

As far as I know you can’t welcome people who have liked a page. To do that you would need to send them a private message and often if you’re not friends with someone your message will go into their ‘other inbox’ or spam inbox and they are unlikely to see it. A better use of your time would be to respond when people comment on your posts. That’s the best way to start building engagement and relationships with those who have liked your page.

You can easily see who has joined your group and I recommend welcoming the new people, even if it is in batches rather than individually. Create a personal message that you can just copy and paste each time offering a welcome. If there are certain things that you want new members to be aware of in the group, this is also a good time to convey that information.

A Facebook Event is a little like a mini Facebook page once it has been created. Also people can click on the events tab on your page so it’s like an events calendar on your website. Your audience can also subscribe to get notifications about your events which is really helpful as it will keep them up to date on what is happening within your business.  You can also click on the event and invite your friends to attend.

I would take a photo at the event and then post the photo in the group, tagging those who attended and asking them to name their favourite thing about the event. That will naturally get engagement and therefore Facebook will show the post to more people. It will also raise awareness amongst those who missed the event this time, making them more interested in upcoming events.

What I recommend is that you wait for a time when you feel like you naturally want to reach out, so that you’re not pushing against yourself. Then devote 20 to 30 minutes to going in and responding to people. It does have value because it can really help with engagement on your page and people feel like they have been heard.  Some people might say you need to respond immediately but I personally think that if that’s pushing against your own natural creative rhythm it’s not going to create great results in the long run. It will create more powerful results if you come from a place where you’re truly feeling connected and where there’s integrity, because people will be able to feel that over time.

Write your post and add any photos as you would do usually. When your post is ready, you will see a button below the post which says ‘Share Now’. Click the small drop down arrow to the right of this and you will get a few options including one called ‘schedule’ (see screenshot). When you click on the schedule button it will allow you to choose a date and time that you want the post to go live. The clock is always set to your local time. Once you have chosen the date and time, click the blue button at the bottom which says ‘schedule’.

When someone likes a post that you have published, Facebook gives you the opportunity to invite that person to like your page. This can only be done on a desktop.

To do this simply click on the the people showing underneath the post that have liked it (see screenshot).

Once you have clicked on this, a new window will open, showing which people already like your page and which can be invited (see screenshot). If the invite button is greyed out, this means you have already invited that person to like your page and are not able to do so again.

What I recommend with this is to think of two or three people who are or who would be ideal clients for you and then offer them something in return for a chat – so it’s a win-win experience for both sides. You could offer them a free session, an eBook or if they are local take them out for coffee & cake.

During your time together you need to ask them questions that will help you understand the kind of challenges they face; the longings they have; and the ways your services/products could support them.

The questions could include:

• What’s most important to you at the moment?
• I’d love to hear about your life right now what are your favourite parts. What’s feeling really fulfilling to you and what’s not working right now?
• What are you looking to shift and change?
• What’s the most painful or difficult bit about this for you?
• How would your life get better if this wasn’t an issue for you any more?
• Who are your heroes and inspiration?
• Who do you respect – alive now or from history?
• What social media sites do you use?
• What are your favourite brands and shops?
• What magazines do you read?

This is where your understanding goes much deeper. You might think you know them but when you actually hear the words from them it can be quite different. You get a much deeper idea about what they’re longing for and what’s a dream solution for them.

You can tell them about your current work/offering and ask what they think about it. You can ask them about similar services they use and how much they pay. If money were no object what would their perfect solution be to the issue/longing they have?

The language that they use can help you in your marketing, in social media posts, blogs and newsletters – as you know it resonates with your audience.

You can write a post on your page encouraging people to click the ‘see first’ option. Sharing a screenshot of how to do this can be helpful to encourage them.

Another option is to put a post up that says Facebook is only showing my posts to 10% of the people that like my page. Please let me know if you love my content and it will help me to show it to more people. People click like or love on the post and leave a comment  and that boosts the algorithm on your page. Don’t do this all the time, but maybe once a month can be helpful.