How I Use Facebook

Learning the difference between personal and business pages.

I am a boring facebook friend. I marvel at the antics of family members, comment on baby pictures and give sporadic updates about the shiny items that have caught my eye. I am in awe of those with active personal pages and massive friend counts. Like many of you – who has time?

Yet I do digital marketing strategies and have run countless successful campaigns for my clients on facebook. Social search is the next wave of required marketing skills just as page rank is part of the marketing mix. Matching the medium to the target is what I do. And I know what demographic I fit into!

Business Pages are Different than Personal Pages

Most businesses fall into the trap of thinking their business facebook page is the same as a personal facebook page. On our personal pages, we post about ourselves…me, me, me – with people (for the most part) we already have a connection with.

Would you interact with a brand if all they did was bombard you with their latest business information? Would you send a marketing mail out that announced your latest business partnership? No – because you recognize that there is little value to the recipient or a call to action. So don’t do it on facebook.

After running multiple marketing campaigns using facebook with multiple software applications and administering more pages than I care to count, here is what I have learned.

Facebook Reality

1. Facebook is a tactic not a strategy.

2. Social media is just that – a media and needs to be integrated with all your other touch-points and communications.

3. Stand alone marketing, communications, public relations and social media campaigns are a thing of the past – integrated marketing communications is happening now.

The Facebook Business Page Don’ts

1. Don’t re-create your website. Facebook is a different medium with a different purpose and form of interaction. Keep it simple, keep it graphical and interactive and find your business voice.

2. Don’t be a broadcast page. There is no real point in putting up an informational facebook page that drones on about you– don’t be the party boor who drones on about their latest merger. Have a social media strategy and integrate it into your corporate communications strategy.

3. Don’t assume your marketing intern will be successful because they have a smokin’ personal page with 673 friends. If you believe, as I do, that social search is a critical part of your marketing communications – put it in the hands of your senior marketers. If they need support or training on the skill side – hire a contractor.

The Facebook Business Page Do’s

1. You need a promotion plan for your business facebook page. Unless you work with a big brand with a budget to use television ads to drive traffic to your facebook page – your page will linger in “nice” page purgatory.

2. Know the difference between “nice to have” and “need to have” applications. There are loads of free applications – and they are fun to have on your page. Then recognize they will do little to drive likes, comments or interaction. Put up a graphical welcome page, add your twitter feed, a map and your blog – you get full marks for using fbml tab makers. Then call an integrated marketing communications company. It’s not about software skills – it’s about marketing skill.

3. Concentrate your efforts on the need to haves. You need to have content to;

   1. Drive likes. The larger your audience, the larger the chance of having your content shared. If you don’t have the in-house capabilities or resources, use a firm that is skilled at running marketing campaigns and has the skills to implement multiple social media techniques. Ask them for examples. If they run facebook photo contests that rely on wall “likes” for voting – throw them out!

   2. Drive comments. Social search is about likes and comments just as organic search is about back-links and content. Your facebook content has to be rich and engaging enough to compel people to comment. Asking questions is better than posting statements.

   3. Leverage contesting, cool giveaways and all those marketing and couponing tools you use in the face to face world. And do them often. Translating marketing tactics to facebook is a part of an integrated strategy.

Personal facebook pages are NOT the same as business pages – Now go forth and market…..