How to Use Google My Business Posts and Facebook Offers Effectively

Maintaining an active presence on social media has become second nature to many Experimac owners and by now, most of you have found this makes a big difference in keeping your business top of mind for customers in your area but are you making the most of the opportunity to post offers on Google My Business and Facebook?

Google My Business Posts

Posts on Google My Business are really helping those businesses that use them stand out against competitors that don't. Your Google My Business Posts can take several forms as you are able to add an image, a call to action (CTA) and even include a link to your website or another site. Take a look at some Post ideas:

• Hosting an event or class at your store? Set up an event Post with a date/time and add a link to the info page.
• Having a sale? Create an offer Post for your sale with the date/time and the details of your sale.
• Do you have a large inventory of iPad tablets or a new product you want to feature? Share a photo and more details with a link to your site.
• Want to share an article that mentions your store in a local paper? Write up a simple post and add a link to the article with a great photo.

The possibilities are endless when posting on Google My Business. Posts stay live for seven days and will "go dark" after the event date. Your older Posts will continue to be visible but will no longer show on your listing as they are pushed down by the newer Posts. We recommend using a photo that will help to get the attention of searchers. Also, Posts show up very prominently in mobile searches so help your business stand out by keeping those Posts current.

Facebook Offers

Similarly, Facebook gives business owners the opportunity to promote discounts and deals to customers directly from their Facebook page. Users are able to save offers they are interested in and then, they will get reminders for those offers. Offering coupons and other bonuses will help encourage customers to make a purchase. Business owners can set up offers to include a wide variety of information to get users interested. You can even promote these offers through Facebook ad campaigns or by boosting posts.

Timing is everything so we recommend you plan your Facebook offers to coincide with holidays or local events and align the offer with the holiday or event when appropriate. Keep these tips in mind:

• Make the offer worthwhile to make sure it's really tempting for your customers.
• Include images of people using the products you are promoting – this can often get the attention of users more than photos of the products themselves.
• Set a realistic expiration date. We suggest 1 week for most offers. This gives enough time for customers to interact with your offer.
• Promote your offer by pinning it to your page – this will help users see it.
• Make sure your promotion targets the appropriate audience. There are several factors you can choose so you will want to give this some thought.

Once your offer is live, you need to monitor it and actively promote it by sharing a post or two on your Facebook page reminding your followers that the offer is still active. Don't go overboard as some of your followers may consider this spam and be turned off by this.

Need images for your Google My Business Posts or Facebook Offers?

We can help! You can request images for these posts and offers through the Gallery in LocalExperimac. Once your request is submitted, Marketing.com's Creative Team will get to work on preparing these images for you. Allow an average of 5 business days for your custom image creation.

As we wrap up the back to school season and approach the holiday season, you may want to experiment with Google My Business Posts and Facebook Offers in your area so you can maximize these with great holiday offers and deals. If you have any questions regarding posting offers on your Google My Business page or your Facebook page, contact your Marketing.com account rep today.