Facebook

I’m kind of a big deal...
Facebook is the worlds’ largest social network where friends hang out, share images and videos,
discuss their interests and organise their social lives.
Facebook is a funny one. It’s the first thing people think of when they hear the words “social media”, and yet for business it’s the last thing I usually recommend. Here’s why:

• Most businesses exploring social media tend to be B2B (business to business) rather than B2C (business to consumer). Facebook is full of consumers but not many businesses.
  
• Facebook is where people go to be entertained and socialise. Fail to fit into either of these categories and you won’t fit in at all!
  
• Even if you are able to engage with people successfully on Facebook by being both social and entertaining, how do you then turn them into customers? After all, they’re not there to shop!
  

But, in the interest of presenting a balanced argument, here are a few reasons why you DEFINITELY shouldn’t dismiss it:

• There are about 750 million active Facebook users, 50% of whom log onto Facebook on any given day.
  
• Through their targeted PPC* advertising, you are able to home in on your perfect demographic in incredible detail. If your target audience is single women between 25-30 that live in Hull and harbour an interest in medieval jousting, Facebook PPC was made for you!
  
• If you are B2C and able to entertain and socialise whilst building commercial relationships with new clients, then you have probably found your most powerful route to market EVER! Seriously, we’ve worked with several lucky companies that fall into this category, and it soon becomes absolutely integral to their business (one even abandoned their website!).
  

For who
Facebook is a big deal for those organisations that tick the right boxes. The trouble is that these box tickers are few and very far between. Here are a few examples:

• Large B2C brands with strong consumer loyalty – companies like Coke, Red Bull, MTV, Disney, Starbucks and many other large B2C brands that have traditionally benefitted from strong relationships with their clients. These represent the largest fan bases on Facebook.
  
• Charities – People connect emotionally with charitable organisations and are often very keen to broadcast their belief in a particular cause. The Breast Cancer Awareness and The Breast Cancer Site fan pages, for example, have over 4 million fans between them.
  
• Small B2C companies with a strong front-man/woman – sure, they may not have the deep pockets of the big brands, but what they do have is remarkably close personal relationships with their Facebook network. As long as the individual representing the brand is able to approach it with a commercial mindset whilst maintaining these personal relationships, then it’s a dynamite formula.
  

So if you feel you could fall into one of the above then read on....

Personal Profiles, Groups or Fan Pages?

• Personal profile – the page dedicated to you, the individual. This is where 95% of activity takes place.
  
• Group – an area for members to share ideas and thoughts on a particular topic/interest.
  
• Fan Page – a page dedicated to the fans of a particular cause/organisation/brand.
  

So which should you choose? Well they each have their pros and cons but in almost all circumstances I would suggest a Fan Page. It is the only one actually designed with marketing in mind. The others are for more personal, intimate purposes, which does offer the advantage of being able to message people directly into their inboxes, but this is quite a spammy technique and far outweighed (in my opinion) by the superior functionality offered by a Fan Page - videos, email capture, music, games - even shops!

Tip top tips for Facebook Fan Pages

This is the important bit. You’ve decided you need a Fan Page, but just having one isn’t going to help your business. You need a clear strategy for both engagement with fans and then turning that engagement into cash. Here are some tips:
Incentivise likes – by hiding content to non-fans you can twist peoples’ arms into hitting the “like” button. This could be a discount voucher, entry into a prize-draw or practical/instructional content of some sort.

• Be creative - If you do offer prizes or discounts then why not request that people claim these via the wall? It will encourage conversation and expose the wall to their friends. On a landing page that we recently created for a fashion company, they advertised a competition but you had to click “like” before you could enter. After that they would announce the winner via the wall giving people a reason to come back time and time again to see if they were the lucky winner. Worked a treat!
  
• Use status updates sparingly – unlike the world of Twitter where it often seems the more inane and frequent your comments the more powerful you become, Facebook fans will not be so tolerant. Every time you update your status you are invading their personal space. Pointless, boring updates will soon result in “unlikes”. The best updates are short, interesting (funny, emotional or a bit controversial) and encourage user participation. Spread the like button far and wide – the more exposure your “like” button gets, the more fans you will attract. Blog pages are particularly effective.
  
• Learn from the stats – Facebook Insights is like a watered down version of Google Analytics. It will tell you the number of views, new fans, unlikes, etc. When you get up to decent numbers this information is fascinating. We started a fan page for Christmas Carols in December and hit 20,000 in three weeks. Every time we posted an update the activity would surge. We would see lots of comments, new likes and even images posted (particularly when we started “the best Christmas tree” competition!).Then Christmas passed and the fan base more or less plateaued out. At Easter Nick, being the friendly chap that he is, posted a “Happy Easter” message in five different languages. It bombed - 200 “unlikes” in 30 minutes! Painful but valuable data.
  

Facebook Actions

• B2C or B2B? - Decide if it is appropriate for your business.
  
• Choose your weapon – Select a Fan Page, group or personal profile depending on your objectives. 90% of the time a fan page is best.
  
• Customise - Design a bespoke tab for your fan page that offers something unique and incentivises people to become fans through hidden content.
  
• Quality not quantity – you need a steady flow of updates (at least one a week) but the message has to be spot on. You won’t get second chances.