Facebook is great for exposure – it will help you grow a stronger relationship with your current customers and it will help you to reach your best prospects: your customers’ friends. However, you can’t think that by just setting up a page, people will find you, like you and buy from you.

You need to put time into it and make the page work for your business. Here are six ways you can take your page to the next level:

1. Have a nice looking page:

Yes, how your Facebook page looks matters. Think of it as the first impression many prospects will have from you. If it looks unfinished, you are telling people you don’t really care about how your business looks – and people will believe that you don’t care about your ­customers as well. Make sure your page has a good design and looks organized.

2. Create cool content:

People are on social networks to be social, so give them plenty of ­opportunities to interact. Post funny things and ask ­questions to your fans. You can do caption contests and “fill in the blank” posts – they are very popular and help to get fans talking.

3. Be conversational:

Posting a lot about your business deals is not branding, it’s spamming. The biggest reason people use social media is to connect with family and friends, not for business. So, connect with your customers and get them to interact by talking about things that happen in everyday life and what is going on around your community.

Show them new projects your shop is working on or ask your fans what they would do with a specific performance engine. It is ok if you post about your products and services every once in a while, just don’t do it all the time and don’t try to sell all the time – people don’t like to be told what to do and they won’t buy from you just because you told them you are the best in town.

4. Use apps:

The more options you give to your fans, the more they will interact with your page. Facebook has tons of apps you can use to promote fun. A great ­example is the Fan of the Week, a free application that motivates ­people to engage with your page by rewarding the person that interacted the most.

Other great apps to use are MenuTab, Involver and Woobox – the last two will help you to add all types of tabs, like forms, coupons, contests, Instagram and Pinterest. These are great to have your customers share photos of their engines, performance upgrades or just their day at the track.

5. Use the features in your favor:

There are many features on ­Facebook that small engine shop business owners can use to get more business. One of them is the “Offers” tab located on the status update box on your page. Facebook will then give you three types of offers to choose from: In-Store Only, In-Store & Online and Online Only. Choose the one that best fits you and follow the instructions.

Another less known feature you can use to get more business is the Facebook Check-in Deals – they work just like Foursquare specials and customers can get offers by just check-in at your place on Facebook. To setup a deal, go to the Admin Panel and click on EDIT PAGE. Then click on UPDATE PUBLIC INFO. On the left hand side, click on DEALS. Select the type of deal you want to offer and follow the ­instructions.

Check-in deals are great because they will motivate customers to keep coming back and because they help you to show up first on Facebook searches. Also, the deals are easy to track and you’ll have a better idea of how your social media efforts are working.

6. Work on the relationship:

Facebook is all about creating ­conversations. The platform is a two-way road, so you really need to talk to your customers. Make sure you reply to ­comments, ask questions and show the personal side of your business. Most of businesses don’t reply to fans or talk to them, so even if you do just a little bit a day, your fans will notice and they’ll remember you.

On Facebook, exposure is based on how much interaction and engagement your page gets (for more in depth info, see Facebook ­EdgeRank). The more you talk to your fans, the more they will reply and the more exposure you’ll get. In addition, by having a nice page, you will be building a strong relationship with your fans and keeping your business on the top of their minds.

So make sure you take the time to improve your page, talk to your ­customers and post things they’d like to see. That way, you’ll take your page to the next level and turn your fans into real buying customers!

If you have any questions about this ­article or about any social media ­channels, feel free to contact me at [email protected].