Facebook is an interesting species – it’s got the most users (by far) of any Social Network out there – yet – when you chat with Social Media professionals and marketing reps, there’s a collective head scratch when it comes to maximizing the potential of ‘the Book’.
Facebook is still a more ‘personal’ space – whereas Twitter is very social and community-oriented, LinkedIn is outstanding from a professional standpoint, Facebook remains that place where you keep in touch with your old buddies from High School, you waste half your day looking through photos of that one guy’s bachelor party or fight off your Mom’s invitations to FarmVille and Family Fued (sorry Mom).
One of the biggest obstacles is how to overcome the issue that Facebook remains, for many, a very personal space. And, even if you have built a community around your brand or business via your ‘Like’ page, the question remains, “How do you get people interacting with you, and maybe more importantly, with each other”?
I’ve been wondering how to capitalize on the 1,200+ ‘likes’ of my personal blog, Life Without Pants, and after attending a session at the latest Social Media Breakfast in Chicago, here are 10 key take-aways and ideas you can and should be putting into action when it comes to effective Facebook marketing:
1. Ask Questions
This was by far the biggest takeaway from our discussion at Social Media Breakfast, and it’s the one thing I’ve seen as most effective in my own Facebook marketing and even personal interaction. Questions are calls to action, you are explicity asking your community to answer something, which makes it much easier to actually get a response and see interaction. Instead of using Facebook as a pedestal to shout opinions from, ask questions and let your community do the opinion sharing.
2. Don’t Give People Too Much to Think About
Facebook isn’t a blog – if you’re throwing too much at your community, if you’re posting updates with multiple questions and several links, you’re going to lose them. The best way to illicit response is to keep things simple and tackle one thing at a time. You may be crowd-sourcing feedback on many different topics or promoting a lot of different things, but space out your PR and don’t give people more than they can (easily) handle.
3. Understand Your Audience
If you’re Facebook account is anything like my own, it’s probably made up of very different people from who you’re connected with on Twitter, LinkedIn, and other places around the web. It’s important to know WHO you’re talking to before you do any talking. If you’re automatically feeding your Twitter stream through Facebook, my advice is to stop. Take a little extra time to craft your marketing strategy on each platform to meet the culture of that specific community.
4. Stay Consistent
As with everything else you’re doing online, consistency is the single most important thing. Yes, life will get in the way. Yes, they’re are other more pressing projects that come up and force you to push Social Media to the back-burner. But, since you know those things will indefinitely come up – start planning for them. Social Media Marketing takes time, just like any other form of marketing you pursue, with third party applications like HootSuite and others, it’s easier than ever to schedule your Facebook updates in advance. If you can’t be present, take advantage of the tools out there. Set it and forget it…
5. Post Exclusive Content
Your Facebook ‘Like’ Page wall should NOT be a regurgitation of content. Yes, you can and should use your Facebook wall to promote current projects but it needs to be more than that. Run a Facebook-exclusive contest, instead of simply feeding your latest blog posts to your wall, post things manually and pair it with a question that gets people talking. While maintaining brand consistency is important, keeping things ‘fresh’ on every channel is what makes me want to follow you on Twitter, read your blog, AND connect with you on Facebook.
6. Target Your Ambassadors
If you have a Facebook ‘Like’ page already set up. Ask yourself this: Who are my ambassadors? Do you know who your most active Facebook community members are? That guy or gal who ‘likes’ just about everything you post? These are the people you need to specifically target and interact with. In the marketing world we talk a lot about building brand evangelists. Why? Because people (you and I) are much more likely to trust our friends, family, and colleagues than we are to pay much attention to a brand. Target your ambassadors and let them do the promoting for you.
7. Be Yourself
This applies to everything you’re doing on the web and it really is as simple as it sounds. Your fans/likes/followers don’t want to talk to a brand – they want to talk to an actual person. We, as humans, want that human interaction – so yes, even if you’re a clothing retailer, it’s OK to poll your community on how many more centuries it’ll take for the Cubs to win the pennant. Be funny, be engaging, be you.
8. Create Alliances
This is something I’ve done and know many others who have tapped into this concept of building ‘strategic alliances’, Facebook ‘tribes’, whatever you want to call them. Basically, I’ll promote and ‘like’ your Fan Page and recommend it to my personal community with the understanding that you’ll do the same for me. Use your current community and friend-base to your advantage!
9. Focus on the ‘Big Picture’
At Social Media Breakfast we talked about this in detail. Take Starbucks for example; instead of focusing on everything directly Starbucks related on their Facebook page – they focus on the love of coffee, they focus on the concept of the ‘third place’, the home away from home. When you go to a coffee shop, it’s usually about the experience - you’re meeting a friend, conducting a business meeting, or have your headphones on, listening to your favorite tunes getting things done. Rather than using their Facebook page as a sounding board for deals and announcements, they focus on that overall experience, and, for the most part, let their ‘likers’ do the talking. If there’s a concept or idea you can focus on outside of your brand – take that and run with it.
10. Respect Privacy
As was mentioned initially, for many, Facebook is still a very private place – it’s important for you to recognize and respect the privacy of others – don’t go spam their inbox, don’t send a mass message to all of your ‘likes’ every day – don’t post on your wall 100x per day. If you’re trying to piss people off and lose your ‘like-base’ by all means go ahead. Promote tastefully and respect that for many, Facebook is their personal space on the web.
Facebook doesn’t have to be the “What the hell am I supposed to do here” platform. There’s a lot of value to be had from a personal and professional standpoint through each channel.
What are you currently struggling with on Facebook? What’s worked well for you? What advice would you give to those reading here?
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“If you’re automatically feeding your Twitter stream through Facebook, my advice is to stop. Take a little extra time to craft your marketing strategy on each platform to meet the culture of that specific community.”
LOVE this. I couldn’t agree more! It’s not appropriate to automatically post your tweets to FB and vice versa because they are two different platforms. I really prefer not to use Ping, Hootsuite and the like. Thanks Matt!
You’re going to confuse a heck of a lot of people if you’re posting your tweets on Facebook. A lot of folks don’t have a clue what “RT”, @soandso, any of the Twitter lingo means. There’s going to be some overlap, of course – each doesn’t have to be entirely exclusive, but each should, in my opinion, be approached as an individual platform with a different community base.
Thanks for the comment, Nicole!
Thanks for the actionable advice. I’ve been neglecting our Facebook page lately, mostly because I have a hard time separating that platform being a “friends-only” venture.
I think a lot of people are in that same position. That was a main hesitation/obstacle brought up during our discussion at Social Media Breakfast this week – Facebook is a more ‘private’ network for most and thus, is more difficult to tap into…
Agreed, this is a problem I think many older folks struggle with when joining Facebook for business reasons. Zuckerberg’s generation (us) started using Facebook in college for the sole purpose of sharing photos, videos, and connecting with friends (past and present).
Most of those folks (us) don’t have much interest in interacting with businesses on Facebook, or so it seems. Yet so many people are trying to push that. I’m curious to see if the pendulum starts swinging more at some point.
An interesting point was brought up during our discussion earlier this week in that the ‘older’ demographic is the fastest growing and often times most-active on Facebook. (Here’s a – slightly dated – article that talks about Women over 55 being the fastest growing demographic on Facebook: http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/02/02/fastest-growing-demographic-on-facebook-women-over-55/)
Take my Mom for example, she’s on their all time (usually inviting me to play Family Feud) – and ‘older folks’ are often times more willing to ‘like’ something or to engage in conversations with business. Whereas us younger folks may have more desire for that personal interaction – other generations are interested in talking TO that company, or are more receptive to a ‘brand’ talking to them…
Yeah, that’s definitely interesting. My mom and dad have no interest in Facebook (maybe my mom), but I see lots of people their age using Facebook for various reasons.
The fact that the old demographic is the fastest growing is the part that’s amazing. It started off as a hub for college kids and now it’s this mainstream communication channel for all ages. Crazy!
I’ve been wondering this same question myself for a few months, so thanks for bringing it up. And all these tips sound great in theory. But do we have any case studies of them working?
I hear lots of people talking about Facebook fan page success and such, but like me, I feel like nobody has actually seen much measurable results.
Anybody know of any case studies showing these 10 ways (or others) actually producing results on Facebook?
Agreed. These do sound good in theory, but putting them into effective practice is much more difficult. This was the primary topic of our discussion at Social Media Breakfast – and something that I’m trying to figure out myself. With 1200+ fans of Life Without Pants, you’d think sparking discussion would be a non-issue, but it’s pretty quiet over on my ‘Like’ Page.
Starbucks is one example I cited in the article above – they are doing a lot to really tap into the ‘community’ spirit surrounding the ‘third place’ mentality and experience people associate with going to a Starbucks.
Another example of a company doing extremely well is Sears, who had a representative at our table during SMB. They’re engaging with fans, asking questions, etc. But, again, they have 100,000+ likes and are a very well known company.
Last example of something that I saw as extremely effective was Trent Reznor’s “How to Destroy Angels” answering fan questions on Facebook during the release of their EP: http://www.facebook.com/howtodestroyangels (click on the DISCUSSION tab) – this was a great way to generate a lot of buz and interaction within their community.
The question is: How does the ‘little guy’ do it? Foiled Cupcakes here in Chicago is a shining example (http://www.facebook.com/foiledcupcakes) of engaging with fans on Facebook, but I’d be interested to see other case study examples of those who have used Facebook strategically, or better yet, a company who has scrapped their actual website in favor of a Facebook page.
Ah, thanks for the case studies. I agree with you, though, the real question is how do smaller companies like Foiled Cupcakes use Facebook to their advantage. And they are a great example of doing so!
I don’t think scrapping the actual website in favor of a Facebook page is ever a good idea. You want your own home base that isn’t dependent on a third party.
Really solid breakdown here Matt! I’ve seen a lot of articles that weakly touch on these topics but this is a great check list. I wish I had more ways to offer “exclusive content” though…ideas on this would be great.
It’s tricky, no doubt. Exclusive content doesn’t HAVE to be “exclusive” but can be more or less repurposed. When I post a Life WIthout Pants article on Facebook, I typically pair it with a question in an effort to spark conversation ON my Facebook page (because I know a high percentage of people won’t click through, but they will, or may, respond to a question or comment on Facebook (because they don’t have to go anywhere) – it’s all about keeping things simple.
I’ve also had some success with running contests, and have seen that work for others – that require people to “like” or comment on something in order to enter. Cheap? Maybe, but getting your foot in the door is half the battle.
I’m happy to bounce around ideas that are more specific to your business – if you ever want to chat, feel free to drop me an e-mail.
I think exclusive content is a good idea, but it’s also good to repeat your content from other networks. You can’t assume everybody is interacting with you on every channel. I think it’s best to repeat messages to ensure you reach the wider audience.
I’m busy helping a real small company, a restaurant in the centre of Amsterdam to be more visible on Facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=240310475784&ref=ts
Matt,
Great summary from the conversation at SMBChicago on Tuesday. While I can’t actually quantify results, I can attribute new contacts I’ve made as a result of my business page on Facebook. To me, being in the real estate business, establishing personal relationships (including some ambassadors) in my local market is of much greater value than how many fans (likers?) I have, the number of comments people make or the number of likes my posts get.
I’ll continue to try to expand on the sphere of people I can reach via my Facebook pages by offering focused, relevant content and taking the online experience offline and draw in new likers.
Hey Tim. Thanks for the comment my friend. For me, even after writing this and our conversation on Tuesday, Facebook is still very much the “I’m not quite sure what to do with it” platform. I’ve personally found much more “ROI” with Twitter and LinkedIn when it comes to ‘Social Media Marketing’ but like you, I’m going to make a conscious effort to be more active and engaging on Facebook. Cheers!
I’m currently considering starting a FB page for my business – e-commerce website selling iphone and ipad gear and accessories. I would like to use it as a sounding board to ask my customers what they would like to see improved in our products going forward. Do you think this could be a good marketing move? At the same time, I am a bit apprehensive the page may become an outlet for negative feedback for customers who may have been unsatisfied with our product or services. Any advice on this?
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