Spectrum Insights


Spectrum Business Insights
BUSINESS INSIGHTS

How small businesses can use Facebook to build community

4:00 Minute Read

by Spectrum Business

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Starting and growing a small business can be challenging, especially when it comes to building the loyal customer base needed to drive long-term revenue growth. Facebook’s broad reach and easy sharing features make it a powerful tool to help devoted patrons spread the word and create a sense of community around your brand.

Here are examples of how three small businesses — a jewelry store, a vintage shop and a health food restaurant — could use Facebook to build community and grow their customer base.

Jewelry store: targeting high-value customers

A jewelry store wants to establish a community of people who appreciate fine jewelry and make frequent purchases. Using Facebook can help by:

  • Promoting the arrival of new merchandise, weekly specials and informative stories about gemstones and jewelry trends

  • Hosting contests where people share their favorite jewelry moments, encouraging votes and awarding gift cards to top entries

  • Using paid ads to boost posts and targeting audience by age, income and interests

  • Announcing monthly in-store events and sharing photos and details during and after the event

Vintage shop: bringing customers to your physical store

A vintage shop located in a historic building in a newly popular part of the city wants to bring more people to the store. To increase traffic, the shop should:

  • Use Facebook paid ads to promote daily merchandise photographs to people within a 20-mile radius who select AMC’s television show Mad Men as a “like” on Facebook

  • Post stories about the building’s history and share them in local business groups and historical societies

  • Offer Facebook-only discounts to encourage followers to visit in person

  • Sponsor, participate in and share events located around the city that are promoted on Facebook

Health food restaurant: becoming a wellness leader

A restaurant that specializes in healthy prepared meals wants to position itself as an expert in nutrition and wellness. It could:

  • Write weekly blog posts on nutrition topics and tease them on Facebook with catchy headlines and mouthwatering food pictures

  • Connect with key health and nutrition influencers on Facebook to expand the restaurant’s reach

  • Host a charity event to raise funds for a wellness cause, feature a well-known chef to cook a healthy meal, share photos and videos from the event on Facebook, create a fundraiser challenge on their Page and pledge to match donations

  • Join the Facebook network of journalists who write about nutrition and health and engage with their posts by commenting or sharing them to build credibility