With communications nowadays happening a lot on the Internet, the importance of social media cannot be understated. Social media is a tool that allows businesses to increase their visibility, redirecting traffic toward them, and maintain strong connections in the online world. If businesses are strategic about their content, posting to social media can be a massive edge over the competition. Here are some reasons why it is crucial to get a Facebook Business page and an Instagram business account. I will first cover Facebook Business Pages and then cover Instagram business accounts. (Note that many of the advantages of Facebook Business pages are also advantages of Instagram Business accounts.)
Advantages of a Facebook Business Pages
Facebook Business pages can help your business by building your company’s online identity. A Facebook Business page helps viewers find out about your company and understand the products and services it offers. A well-designed page also shows the company’s culture and values. This kind of authenticity helps retain current customers and can appeal to potential customers. Well-run pages frequently post content and interact with or mention their audience, keeping members of their audience engaged and interacting with your business.
Another benefit of using a Facebook Business page is having access to specialized tools not included with a personal profile. An example of this is Insights. Insights collects data about your viewers, such as demographics, and their interactions with the page. This lets the business owner analyze trends among their viewers. If used effectively, this is a significant improvement over using a personal account.
Finally, Facebook Business pages can help spread awareness of your business and increase traffic to your business’s other pages. For example, you can post about important events your company is involved in organizing and post links to find out more. Then, viewers who click the link are redirected to learn more on another page, increasing viewership and also keeping users interactive.
Advantages of a Instagram Business Pages
Similar to the benefits of using a Facebook Business page over a personal account, there are benefits to using a Business Account on Instagram. One advantage is the ability to pre schedule posts, or write many posts ahead of time to be published at predetermined times. This is more efficient, since you can write many posts in a single sitting. Furthermore, pre scheduling posts is an effective way to increase viewership, by scheduling posts for when your company’s audience is the most active online.
Instagram as a platform also offers advantages that Facebook doesn’t. According to this article, Instagram has a younger user base, with most users being under 30. Using Instagram can therefore help your business cater to a wider demographic and attract more clients. Also, Facebook and Instagram are best suited for different types of posts. Facebook is best for posts with lots of text, while posts with lots of photos tend to do well on Instagram.
Using a Facebook and Instagram Business account will allow you to run targeted ads based on the user’s specific interest and habits. Overall, in today’s age, social media is an important investment for any company’s marketing strategy. Knowing different platforms and their features can help your business succeed in forming a larger, more connected network of clients.
Now more than ever, it is crucial for businesses to invest in their social media presence. Social media helps businesses increase visibility, gain new clients, and engage their audience. If you want to learn more about the benefits of platforms like Facebook or Instagram for your business, read HERE. This begs the question, how can businesses make the most out of social media? One technique is called pre scheduling. This is where social media posts are scheduled to automatically get posted at a certain time. Pre scheduling can help businesses update social media with less effort and maximize viewership by strategizing their content and the times their posts are published. Facebook already offers pre scheduling for businesses, but what about other social media sites? Today, you will learn how to pre schedule posts on your Instagram business account by connecting it to your Facebook business page. Note that this will only work if the Instagram account being linked is a professional business account, not a personal one.
Here are the instructions to link your Instagram business account to your Facebook business profile:
Go to your Facebook business profile. On the left side, you should see a sidebar titled “Manage Page.” Click on Settings.
Under settings, click on Instagram.
Click on the option to Connect Account and continue to your Instagram account or sign in. You will want to make sure it is the correct Instagram account before selecting this option.
Now that the accounts are connected, if you go back to Settings > Instagram, you should see a page titled “Connected Instagram Account” listing account details.
Now, go to your page on business.facebook.com, and click on the “Publishing Tools” tab. Click on “Scheduled Posts” on the left-hand sidebar. When you click “Create Post,” you should see both Facebook and Instagram as options under “Placements”. Note that if you pre schedule a post for only Instagram (and not Facebook,) it may not show up under pre scheduled posts, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been pre scheduled. Be cautious to pre schedule posts for Instagram only once, otherwise you will end up with duplicate posts.
f you ask entrepreneurs why they started their businesses, motives spread all over the place, from following passion and wanting to turn a hobby into a business; being personally unable to hold an office job and needing to be its own boss; all the way to just “I saw an opportunity”, “I saw a market”, “I saw room for improvement”. After this, conversations often go into the “I wish I knew” topic, and that’s where pain starts talking by itself. You will hear stories about sleepless nights trying to solve operational problems and lost business opportunities due to lack of experience or not knowing where to find an answer. Thus, it always helps to have resources to learn from and reach out to in times of trouble.
The learning chance that helps one become a better business owner often comes as a result of a previously failed business. When the business owner is busy putting out fires day and night, it is only after failure that one will take the time to do a postmortem and understand what went wrong. Thus, it is important to stay on your feet, listen to your business, and make timely changes if/when needed.
A quick google search will get you to hundreds of “10 things I wish I knew before starting a business”, “7 things to know before opening your business”, “5 things I learned from running a business” and similar results. Of course this experience will be very different for people running different businesses and with different lifestyles, but here is a list of selected quotes I found quite relevant for most entrepreneurs:
Running the business takes 24/7
The biggest difference between a 9-to-5 job and being a business owner is the total lack of a fixed schedule. There is always the possibility for your client to have an issue with your product at an inconvenient time, or a supplier to have trouble in the middle of the night. Consider these possibilities, have contingency plans to address your customer’s needs, and organize responsibilities among your employees to ensure resiliency.
Optimize, outsource and automate everything you can
We at EGBI take our time to explain “The Four Roles An Entrepreneur Must Take” (Product Manager, Organizer and Manager, Marketer and Salesperson, Financier), and we emphasize that the entrepreneur must focus on the roles he is best at. Start by wearing many hats, but as soon as you have some traction, consider the best use of your scarce time will rely on dedicating your full attention to what you’re best at and outsourcing or hiring for other activities.
A part-time gig gives peace of mind
Once you give up a regular full time job in place of a business, you will be subject to the whims of seasonality and economic ups and downs. You can plan for these risks either by building a strong savings lung, or having a part-time gig to supplement the varying income from the business. This resiliency will give you peace of mind.
At the beginning everyone is excited and ready to help. When help is needed, it’s hard to come by.
People want you to succeed, and as soon as you start will get excited for your success. However, not everyone is willing or available to help you when you’re in such need for help. What should you do? Find access to reliable resources to help you through the hard times, find mentors, find a business coach.
With all this in mind, you should now know that you will face unexpected challenges, and learn from every opportunity you have. These common challenges I mentioned are not the end of the world, and do not mean that running a business is impossible. Challenges and obstacles are there for you to improve yourself and your business, and once you get to such a point in your entrepreneurial adventure, you will be more than welcome at EGBI for training, coaching and support.
Learn how to promote your business to Spanish speaking consumers.
Celebrating success is our annual event, and we celebrate the achievements of our clients and their impact on the local economy. This year will be a special year for us as we celebrate our 15th anniversary with our vision that all businesses should be profitable, sustainable and assets to the community. We have been interviewing a client each week to share their success stories, with a total of 15 businesses. Veronica Trevisan is our last story as our event is this Friday!
Veronica Trevisan is owner of Napegados, a strategist with a proven special method to help Spanish speaking small business owners use social media and online tools. Her company also assist company’s wanting to reach Spanish speaking consumers, communicate with culturally relevant campaigns.
Below is a Question & Answer we recently had with Veronica Trevisan.
Q: How has your
career added value to your life? To the community around you?
A: I am independent of my own schedule. I can negotiate a contract and make my own decision. I teach my clients step by step through online videos that are practical.
Q: How long have you
been working with EGBI and how have they helped you?
A: I have been working with EGBI since 2011. I graduated from the EGBI business workshop series. I learned from Barbra and other experts. Also, I was encouraged to network with other great resources like the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce by Monica. I could get 1-year free membership from one of the chamber that support EGBI in their efforts. EGBI is always open to set up the appointments and help plan each business idea together.
Q: Tell us a fun fact about yourself.
A: I like to commute around the city with my green electric bike in my free time. I enjoy the weather in Austin. On my bike I am able to find beautiful places close to my home where I may never have realized was there in my car.
Q: What accomplishment are you most proud of?
A: My clients have a huge barrier to learn things in English. I train and teach clients in Spanish to remove language barriers for them. I solve the problem of their marketing problems and use technology to manage their business. Many of my clients have become my friends.
Veronica Trevisan is the last of the 15 clients we have shared stories about each week leading up to our 15 year celebration. If you would like to further encourage these businesses, think about using the products and services of our alumni. To do so, visit our CLIENT BUSINESS DIRECTORY.
Celebrating Success Luncheon is this Friday, September 6th, 2019. We are happy to announce it is SOLD OUT! If you have already reserved your seat and need more information about the event, please visit HERE.
Providing a professional painting and full remodeling experience.
Celebrating Success is our annual event, we applaud our clients’ achievements and their impact on the local economy. This year will be extra special as we celebrate our 15 year anniversary of our clients fulfilling our vision that all businesses should be profitable, sustainable, and an asset to the community. Leading to our big commemoration we have been interviewing a client each week to share their success story, with a total of 15 clients. Previously we featured Miranda Melendez.
Ramiro Martinez is co owner of MTZ Brothers Painting. His company provides high level of expertise, service, and professionalism that differentiate them from every other painting, drywall and remodeling company in the area.
Below is a Question & Answer we recently had with Ramiro Martinez.
Q: How has your
career added value to your life? To the community around you?
A: The main value my career added to my business is that as a business owner I need to wear different hats at the same time. It also allows me the freedom to spend valuable time with my family. I also have been able to help other members of my family; like my niece to whom I gave a laptop as a present. With that tool, she could improve her grades at school.
Q: How long have you
been working with EGBI and how have they helped you?
A: I have worked with EGBI since 2015. EGBI helped me to find alternatives and options on how to run a small family business company.
Q: What accomplishment are you most proud of?
A: The fact that I started my company in the last economic recession and since then we never stopped working has been one of my biggest accomplishments. We are A+ with the Better Business Bureau. Thanks to our customers, most of them repetitive, we could evolve. Nowadays we not only provide painting and drywall, but full bathroom and kitchen remodeling plus decks, as well.
Q: What is your greatest wish?
A: Providing our services nationwide is my greatest wish.
Ramiro Martinez is the 14th of the 15 clients we have shared stories about leading up to our 15 year celebration. Please continue to follow us to read more about the businesses we serve. If you would like to further help these businesses and others we serve, consider using the products and services of our alumni. To do so, visit our CLIENT BUSINESS DIRECTORY.
Celebrating Success Luncheon is two weeks away, on September 6th, 2019. You will not want to miss! If you are interested in attending, reserving a table, or sponsoring our annual event, please contact Monica Peña at monica@egbi.org and 512-928-2594 . More information about the event HERE.
