Perhaps it’s because once the page is set up they are left to ask themselves… now what?

The fact is, it’s easy to set up a business page. The difficult part is creating an engaging, entertaining and educational page that will benefit your followers.

Here are some tips for getting started using your new social media business page.

Identify your target audience. Before you can come up with a content strategy for your business page, you need to know whom you are trying to reach. It’s similar to asking yourself who is your ideal client? Don’t just identify your usual client, shoot for the moon and identify your IDEAL client. Know the demographic of this client, such as average age, gender, marital status, income level, etc. Then you create content that would attract them and keep them interested.

Start posting! I’m not a big fan of businesses just sharing what other people write, but if that’s all you can do right now, go for it! The idea is to just get started posting relevant items on your page.

Visit your competitor’s pages. Look at what your competitors are doing. Do you like what they are doing or not? Consider this when designing your own content strategy. It’s perfectly fine to get ideas from them and put your own business twist on it.

Like other pages. When using a business page as your business, not your personal page, be sure to like pages that are synergistic with yours. For example, if you are a local business, “like” or follow your area chamber of commerce and city pages. “Like” or follow local communities, churches, schools – any community or business page where your ideal client is likely to hang out. If you’re a restaurant, “like” or follow food blog pages – get the idea?

Engage with other pages. Now that you’re following other pages, share their posts on your page. Comment or “like” their posts. This will get your business name in front of THEIR followers and possibly lead them to follow you too.

Be mindful of self promotion. Self promotion is expected on social media. However, you have to remember that your fans are not there to be sold to every day. An occasional news piece about your business, a new product or service or a special you are running are all fine to share. But you should primarily focus on content that your audience wants, not what you want from them. Make it fun. Make it interesting. Make it something THEY would share with their friends. That’s the beauty of social media!

Spend thirty minutes per day. You don’t have make this a major endeavor, but you should do something with your business pages every day. Share a tip, thought, event or product every day. Like someone’s post every day. And always reply to comments and likes on your own page every day. Frankly, the more active you are on your business pages, the more visibility you will receive.

If all of this seems too overwhelming, then consider either buying content or hiring someone to create content and manage your pages. The investment will be worth saving you the time and energy it requires to truly get the most out of your social media business pages.