A Facebook page is a great and necessary tool for start-up businesses, major brands, and small businesses on a budget; it's completely free, gives your brand a voice and a platform, and allows you to interact with your consumers in real-time. In fact, compared to other social media venues, Facebook users interact with brands a staggering 34% more compared to Twitter at 4% and LinkedIn at 1%. Additionally, 85% of your potential fans are on Facebook, while only 49% of users are on Twitter. Hence, you can’t afford not to be where the people are!
But with a daunting 800 million active users, how are you going to rise above the noise? How will you be different? Your content must identify with your audience, you must be relevant, and above all, please don’t bore us with your non stop promo codes. The generation of social consuming is here; it’s time to get excited about the vast possibilities of social media!
Here are 5 ways to get you started:
1. Identify Your Voice
Before you embark on any business endeavor, you outline your goals and direction, right? Of course. The same is true for your social media. Social networking is social-it’s streamlined, it has a rhythm, and heart beat. It isn’t a cold lifeless marketing arena for you to sound off your latest sale. Get together with your team and decide the Facebook persona you want to portray to your community. This will set the tone for the type of audience you will attract.
Client Anya Sarre is a celebrity stylist and has been featured in numerous major news and entertainment shows. Social media gives her the opportunity to humanize her mega-mogul persona and really connect with her Facebook fans. To best portray her accessible, friendly and helpful personality while still maintaining her style guru aura, Anya’s page features an app where users can actually ask their most personal style questions that Anya takes the time to answer personally!
2. Ask, Then Tell
Break the ice. Conversation starting questions are a great way to spark some chatter about your brand. It also allows you to relate your product to something of value and worth for your customers. You can even get creative and mix it up a bit-the more creative, the better.
With client Marina Del Rey Toyota, we put our fans knowledge of cars to the test with this question. As you can see, it sparked a conversation and left our fans with a positive impression of the brand.
3. The Ultimate Response
Whenever someone mentions your brand, reach out to them and thank them. This can also be an excellent way to cross-promote on your other platforms. If someone said something positive about your brand on Twitter, copy, paste, and share it with your Facebook community. Be sure to make the user feel like they’ve had a positive interaction with your brand. Positive experiences are often shared and liked. In fact, 57% of Facebook users have 100 plus friends, which means if you engage with one, you are getting the opportunity to engage with hundreds more!
For client Amrita Singh, we posted an image to Facebook that was tweeted by one of her followers. This not only cross-promotes your platforms, but truly showcases a positive interaction with your brand.
4. Go Deeper
Take your fans behind the scenes. Although you don't want to overload the wall with mixed messages, it’s okay to occasionally post about changing aspects of your company. Sales, new employees, blog posts, and pictures are all fair game. Just try to remember that you're there to deliver something of value and worth to your fans. People aren't concerned with your marketing efforts. People tend to share intimate aspects of their life on Facebook; brands should also open up, always in a positive light, making businesses more accessible and approachable.
For our own Facebook page, we wanted to showcase our new "Testimonials" subpage. We took the opportunity to highlight one of our employees in order to show a bit of the human side of our company while promoting the new page.
5. Be Relevant
When a news article breaks with something relating to your field, post it! Your fans will appreciate the fact you have your ear to the ground for them. Although it's not original content, it showcases your business as an active participant in the community. Again, be a place of value and worth to your fans. After all, you are the professional and an authority in your field.
For client Service Dogs America we posted this news article about a boy who wrote a book to raise money for his own service dog. The article is heart-warming and relevant to our client's industry.
6. Brag A Little
Don't be afraid to brag a little bit. If you're featured in a magazine, blog, a TV source, etc. let people know about it! If they already "like" you on Facebook, they will want to know about important press your business has received. Plus, it adds to your business's credibility and reputation, which in turn adds... you guessed it... value and worth to your business! Do you see a trend here?
Client Maya Brenner Designs was recently featured in US Magazine worn by actress, Cameron Diaz. This was an excellent opportunity to showcase the brand in a positive light. The more buzz that is created about your feature, the better you look as a brand.
The Bottom Line
As social consuming becomes the norm in our society, your brand needs to have an engaging voice. “Today’s consumers want to buy via advertainment, as opposed to advertisement,” explains Ashley Ranger, president of /excelamktg. More and more brands are discovering the power of social media as a customer service tool, brand loyalty builder and more, so start interacting now!
WARNING: Fans can smell spammy, impersonal, detached content from a mile away; you must actually engage with your community to see actual social media success.
Your Turn
What was the biggest takeaway for you? Which area can you improve in most? Did we miss something? We want to hear from you!
For more tips and tricks on Facebook, Twitter and other social media best practices, visit us at:
http://www.facebook.com/excelamkg.
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