How to Use Facebook for Business in Nigeria

There’s nothing bad in learning how to use Facebook for business in Nigeria. Facebook is a very popular social media, and when it comes to measuring the numbers of people using Facebook on a daily basis in Nigeria, the stats would be amazing. Before I talk about other users, I will admit that I am one of the active users in Nigeria. In fact, I visit Facebook every hour during the day, and check for any important information before I go to bed.

Obviously, the way people use Facebook varies from one person to another. While many people believe that Facebook is a place to look for old and new friends, chat, and do all sort of social activities, some believe that Facebook is just for uploading statuses and photos to gain likes and comments. Up till this moment, many people in Nigeria still believe that those who visit Facebook on a regular intervals are jobless, and without future. Of course, some may even call you names like “scammer” if you don’t have a means of telling them what you’re gaining from the giant social media site.

Previously I wrote about how LinkedIn can help Nigerian graduates secure jobs, and to my surprise, many of my university mates don’t even know what LinkedIn is all about. Although not everyone has time to stay on social media sites or look for job online, however, nearly all businesses would benefit if they can use social media sites in the right way. There are many ways to use Facebook for business in Nigeria. Some of the great benefits would be highlighted in the next few paragraphs.

Facebook can help you understand your market

Don’t expect me to tell you about your market in this article, however, the information can give you a succinct idea on how to go about finding out who your prospects are. I assume that you’re one of the people who use Facebook regularly for one reason or the other. Of course, you could be the person I was referring to in the previous paragraph (those people that use Facebook for chatting and photo uploads). If you really want to understand your market, the best place to know what people think is to get your business on social media. Since many Nigerians are very familiar with Facebook, definitely, the best thing would be to get the business on Facebook.

Now think about how people interact with your photos and status updates on Facebook and justify if all the comments you get on each photo are real all not. To be honest, when you upload a pretty image of yourself, many of your friends will like it and comment on it. On the other hand, if the image is unattractive, only few and intimate friends will comment on it. Comparing this with your market, if your business is doing pretty well, most people will like your page and share your updates on their wall. However, if the business is poor, or not the people’s choice, only few people will like your page or comment on your updates. In fact, some people may post irritating comments about your updates. With this, you can easily tell if you’re on the right track or not. Using this method, you can find a way to improve your business and beat competition.

Facebook can help know your audience

Another way to use Facebook for business in Nigeria is to understand who your audiences are. This method is quite similar to the previous one, but more technical. Let’s use a simple example to analyze how.

For instance, if your business is catering, and you regularly post updates on your Facebook page, you can learn one or two things about your audiences. Facebook page management tool helps you understand different things about your audiences. In the case of catering services, your audience could be women between certain age ranges. How would you know the people who really need your services if you don’t have a means to study them? That’s another reason why your business needs Facebook page. With this method you can know the people who like what you do. If 80 percent of your followers are female, definitely, you need to target more females in your advertisement than males. In fact, Facebook can help you know the age ranges of your active followers.  Don’t be surprise, 60 percent of your followers might be females between 18 and 22 years, whereas the active ones might be between 30 and 40 years. With this technique, you can offer something different for each age group, and make them active than before.

Facebook can help you keep in touch with your customers

What if your customers have been trying to reach you on phone for the past 3 days without success? What if they lost their phone and needed to contact you for important business deal? What if you lost your primary business line and couldn’t reach your major clients? There are many instances when customers would find it difficult to contact you. In fact, some technical issues can prevent them from reaching you directly on phone. In Nigeria, network issue can frustrate customers and force them to look for other business.

If you have a active Facebook business page, all these issues won’t affect your business at all. Since many people are using Facebook on a regular basis, they can easily contact you via your page and negotiate or discuss with you. One amazing thing i would like to write about is how you can turn$10 Facebook ad budget into huge success. However, before i publish my honest experience using the strategy, do check it out and share your opinion with me.

In my subsequent articles I will talk about other ways you can use Facebook to enhance your business. If you’re a complete novice, you might be wondering how this can be achieved with the Facebook that you know. Don’t worry, if you’re not sure whether you can do it, just use the contact form to send us a message. We will help you setup a professional Facebook page and manage it for a token amount. In the event that you have a business page that is not active, you can also contact us to learn more about how to boost your Facebook activity and get more customers.

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