Small business blogs are filled with advice on how to get more “Likes” and engagement on your Facebook Page. By following this advice, you’ve hopefully seen the number of people reading and engaging with your posts steadily increase. Success! But is all of that engagement leading to increased sales?

There’s no direct path from a “Like” to a sale, so you must master the gentle art of shepherding your fans through your sales funnel. Use your Facebook page to develop relationships with your customers and make it easy for them to find links back to the content you create on your blog and website. Once they’ve arrived, you can guide them further through your funnel through cross promotions and well-placed calls-to-action, all in an environment you control. But it all begins with the “Like.” Here are four tips to help you make the most of your Facebook business page to drive more traffic to your site:

1. Post content that demonstrates the utility of the products or services you’re selling in a fun way. My favorite example of online viral marketing will always be BlendTec’s “Will It Blend” series. It’s not only humorous, but it made people want to buy a BlendTec blender. It also changed the way we view their competitors (“Yes, it has many cool functions, but can it puree an iPad?“). Post a snippet of your content to your Facebook page, and link it to the full version on your site, making sure your site includes a quick and easy path for making a purchase.
2. Create Facebook-exclusive offers. We typically think of these as discounts, coupons or other opportunities for your fans to save money, but that’s what everyone else is doing, too. Get creative – try packaging multiple products or services together to create a special Facebook fan-only product and encourage your fans to share it with their friends. Or partner with a complementary company and drive traffic to each other’s pages with special combined deals. Give your fans unique, exclusive benefits and demonstrate the value of liking your page.
3. Keep an eye on your Facebook Insights and adjust accordingly. Insights may not update in real-time, but it’s close enough that you can rapidly adjust posts you’ve made that are having an impact. If you see a post’s engagement start to skyrocket, consider paying to promote it to a larger audience. You’ll not only drive more traffic to your page, you should also see a lift in clicks on any links you included in the post.
4. Understand why people are liking your content. Posting fun content is a great way to gain your fans’ attention and interact with them. You may find, however, that those posts are getting far more attention than the ones that will lead them back to your site. Find a way to balance their appetite for fun and still drive them back to your site by taking your products and services a bit less seriously.

If you’re still in the process of just trying to get people to like your Facebook page, keep focusing on that goal. But keep these tips in mind as you post and, when you’re at the point where you can begin optimizing for sales, you’ll already be on the path to success.

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