This spring, every business wants a Facebook page. Not a better website, nor an email list: a Facebook page, usually by the following week.
The demand is understandable. In February, Facebook redesigned Pages to resemble personal profiles more closely, with a strip of photos across the top. It is now possible to use Facebook as your Page, liking and commenting from the business account instead of a personal one. Businesses have been collecting "likes" for about a year, since the old "Become a Fan" button was removed. Many shops are also building custom tabs that require visitors to like the page before they can see a coupon. We do not recommend this practice: it attracts likes from people who wanted a coupon, which is not the same as customers who genuinely care about the business.
A significant part of Robert Scales's work currently involves social media for dive operators in Southeast Asia. Here is the field guide we would give any small business owner who asks.
Why post photos of the real place?
This is the first rule: stock images go unnoticed on Facebook. People scroll past a polished beach photo from an image library without registering it.
A phone photo of this morning's boat leaving the dock, even a slightly blurry one, attracts comments. The same applies to the staff, the regulars or the dog that sleeps under the counter. The page conveys a real place, because it is one.
Phone cameras remain limited in quality, but this matters little. What people respond to is that the photo was taken today, on site.
The method is simple: take about ten photos a day without overthinking it, and post the best one or two. A weekday update does not require a photographer.
What posting rhythm should you adopt?
One you can actually sustain. The most common mistake is the burst: a new page goes up, the owner posts five times on the first day, three times the next, then nothing for six weeks. The page looks abandoned, and an inactive Facebook page does more harm than having none: it suggests the business may be closed.
The effective approach is consistency: a few posts a week, on the same days, at a time when your customers are likely to be online. For a dive shop, that is often the evening, when guests are back from the boat and browsing their feed. For a café, it may be early morning.
Keep the rhythm light enough to sustain during busy periods. If it only works when you have spare time, it will collapse in high season, precisely when people are looking for information.
What should you post when ideas run short?
This question comes up often. Here are some ideas:
- Today's conditions, today's special, or today's weather at your location.
- A member of your team, with a line about their role.
- A question a customer asked this week, with the answer.
- Something new, even if small: a new menu item, a new boat ladder, a new trail sign.
- A thank-you to a customer or a local business, tagged.
Why reply to every comment in the first year?
This practice has the greatest effect, and most owners neglect it.
When someone comments on a new page and nobody responds, the page feels empty. When the owner responds, even with a simple "thanks, see you Saturday", people return and comment again. Their friends see the exchange. The page begins to come alive.
Respond to everything during the first year: every comment, every question, every complaint, and promptly. Once the page has developed its own momentum, this effort can be reduced somewhat.
Complaints are often a concern for owners. The approach is straightforward: respond calmly, publicly and once. Offer to resolve the matter by phone or email. Avoid extended exchanges in the comments. Other customers pay far more attention to how you handle the situation than to the complaint itself.
For administration, including roles, settings and who can post on behalf of the page, the Facebook Help Centre for Pages is the reference. Facebook changes these features often, so we recommend checking it before relying on any blog post, including this one.
Why can a Facebook page not replace a website?
Many small businesses have concluded that a Facebook page is enough: Facebook is free and everyone uses it, so why pay for a site? The reasoning is understandable, but it amounts to building your house on someone else's land.
The current system already shows why. Your fans do not see every post you publish. Facebook determines what appears in news feeds using a formula some call EdgeRank, and you have no control over it. Today, your posts reach some of your fans at no cost. Facebook is a company, and at some point it will seek to generate revenue from businesses. All indications are that reaching your own fans will one day come at a cost.
The principle we recommend is therefore: own your address, and treat your audience on platforms as rented. Use Facebook to reach people, always direct them to a site you control, and aim to collect their email address so you can contact them without depending on a platform.
Where does a Facebook page fit in a small business plan?
This is not a reason to abandon Facebook. For many local businesses, it is the place their customers frequent most: community groups, friends asking where to eat, holiday photos. That is where word of mouth now happens.
The page is where the conversation takes place. The small business website is the home base, with prices, hours, the booking form and everything you want people to find two years from now, not only today. Both are needed. If the budget allows only one, we recommend starting with the website and launching the page the same week.
If the page feels like one more task you do not have time for, keep it modest or seek support with social media management. Three genuine posts a week are better than a daily schedule abandoned by June.
A page with a few genuine posts and answered comments will outperform one launched with fanfare and then left silent.