Facebook is an invaluable tool for small businesses looking to grow, reach out to existing customers, and acquire new ones. The marketer-friendliness of the social network is without a match, and the fact that more than a billion people use it every day makes Facebook place businesses can’t afford to skip.

But let’s say that you’ve recently opened a Facebook page for your business. You’ve set it up, added all the needed information, posted some content just to show that the page is alive, and you’re ready for the next step. That step is promoting the page, making sure that it reaches exactly the people you want it to reach.

Page promotion has a simple premise, but a realization process that’s more of a minefield than a yellow brick road. For that reason, here’s a list of five things you should always try to avoid when working to spread the word about your page.

  1. Making It All About Your Business

It might sound counterintuitive, but the easiest way to completely mess up your promotional efforts is to make your business’ page, and everything that you’re doing around it, all about your business. “But it’s a business page, a page for the business” you could say, and you’d be right. Partially right. Right about the part that matters less.

Yes, your business’ page is created for your business, but your business and all the online assets you develop for it have to be about the customers and what they want and need if you want to connect with them. The content you publish on your page should be relevant to your customers, not an internal memo you’d send out to your employees. Adopt a customer-centric point of view, even when the things you do are about your business.

  1. Being Inconsistent with the Branding

Your business’ Facebook page is the business’ storefront or booth on the social network. It’s a digital representation of a real-world business, and as such, it should be consistent with the branding of the real-world business.

It’s important to acknowledge that, yes, we are talking about small business, and branding isn’t always a top priority for them. But whatever graphic, textual, or value element you have that you’d like to connect with your business, make sure that you include the element consistently in every asset, including the Facebook page. You can’t have one logo for your store location, and a completely different logo for Facebook. Pick an image, and let it sink into your customers’ minds.

  1. Not Being Approachable Enough

One of the things that make Facebook so great is that the social network allows you to talk to your customers through your content and updates, and then they can talk back to your through comments. This can not only humanize your business, but also give you a chance to use the customer feedback to improve your products or services, as well as get more customers by using it as social proof.

But none of it will happen if your updates sound like press releases. You want to use language that says that your business is open to interact with its followers. And then when you get the chance to do it, your business should go for it. Respond to at least some of the comments you get on your Facebook. Always try to answer good questions, and never leave a bad comment with a reply.

  1. Thinking that Facebook Ads Aren’t Worth It

You can do a lot on Facebook by the sweat of your brow alone, without ever having to spend a dime. However, you don’t have to, and you probably shouldn’t.

Why? Because Facebook ads, the ads you can use to promote your page and its content on the social network, are nothing if not good value for money. Facebook gathers an enormous amount of data on its users. When you decide to use Facebook ads, that same data can be used, by you, to very accurately discover and target your audience. So you get the wealth of information for targeting, you get access to an incredible amount of people, and you don’t have to pay too much money for it.

  1. Being Afraid or Complacent

Finally, you should know that fear and complacency have probably killed more businesses than all the past recessions combined. And the same way they ruin your business, they’ll ruin your Facebook campaign.

Fear and complacency are two things that will motivate you do stand still. You’ll think that there’s no need to take risks because they’re either not worth it or you don’t really need to because everything is fine. You won’t try to differentiate yourself from your competition. You won’t try to increase your reach. You’ll stand still, and standing still is equal to death in business. So don’t be afraid to try out new things, and never rest on your laurels.