Facebook for business
The what, where, how and why.
What are the implications of using Facebook as a marketing tool?
The Do’s and Don’ts. (It’s all about to change too! As of Sep 2011… We’ll update once we’ve got our heads round it)
What Is Facebook?
Facebook is a website where you can create a personal or company page to share stories, pictures and videos with your friends, family or customers. Think of it as your own private website (You can choose to make your content public). It is ‘The Social Network’ with 600m users and growing.
Facebook has different ways to interact with its users via Profiles, Groups and Pages. A smart breakdown here.
Total Users c. 800m
Lead User Age Group 29% 18–25 Year Olds
Gender Split 55% Females
Geo Majority 24.2% USA (UK 5%)
Full Stats here
History
Incorporated in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with roommates and friends in a Harvard University dorm room, they moved to Palo Alto, California the same year. Within a week of launch fellow students the Winklevoss twins accused Zuckerberg of copying their idea called the Harvard Connection. They subsequently settled for a suggested $120m. Since 2004 the site has grown rapidly with month on month growth peaking in 2008 at 178%. Facebook is a privately owned company with key shareholders; Zuckerberg, Sean Parker ex Napster, several investment firms, employees, various celebs and the original dorm room members (Albeit many not on speaking terms). Recently valued at $10bn (Dotcom Bust V2 here we come?), Facebook now gets more traffic than Google.
How is it used?
Companies and individuals use it to stay in touch with their contacts via Groups, Pages and Profiles (More in our Blog). It incorporates a number of features and apps that have different functions. The main feature is the News Feed where your friends can post links, images, videos etc. The photo feature is the most popular where you can upload and share your photo albums. You can also manage events, join groups with like-minded people and play all number of games or built in apps.
Why use Facebook as marketing tool?
- It’s free. It’s EASY
- Your competitors are!
- You cannot ignore 600 million potential customers/partners/team members
- People are starting to use the Facebook search bar as a search engine. If you haven’t created a page for your company, you may never be found.
- Google loves social content. Facebook pages now get indexed in search results affecting your Search Engine Marketing / Optimisation campaign
- You get the opportunity to create a personality; chat, share, comment, show case your voice and personality. Humanise your brand and make it more approachable
- You can specifically target a demographic via Facebook Ads
- Sharing your blog via Facebook provides another inbound traffic source for your site. Better SEO
Top Tips – The Do’s
- Once you have over 25 ‘Likers’ on your Facebook page, you can secure your very own vanity URL. This way you can easily suggest people visit your page name i.e.www.facebook.com/StrictlySocialMedia rather than a sequence of letters and number
- Your Facebook page updates will appear in all ‘Likers’ news feeds, so make sure the content is interesting, relevant, fun, visual, entertaining and fits your brands tone
- Use video and images– We eat with our eyes
- Measure what works via Facebook Insights which provides a deep analytical understanding of your ‘Likers’
- If you have installed a Facebook ‘Like’ button on your site, there is a greater selection of analytics
- Keep It Fresh – Don’t let your page go stale. Comment, encourage users to discuss and update your details!
- Make Your Life Easier With Facebook Aps – Facebook has a multitude of apps that can help your page be more interactive. Here are our top 4
- Social RSS or RSS Graffti – Automatically pulls any new blog posts into your Facebook Page
- Promotions App – Facebook has recently changed its rules and regulations and all promos need to be done via 3rd part apps
- SlideShare App – Share your presentations of your page
- Polls – Easily create polls and share with your facebook friends or likers.
- Facebook Terms & Conditions – Make sure you are familiar with the Ts&Cs and that you are not violating them. Every now and then we hear horror stories of pages being suspended without notice. All ‘likers’ disappear and reinstating the page is a difficult process.
Top Tips – The Don’ts
- Don’t duplicate EVERY Twitter update on Facebook. Twitter and Facebook are different. Twitter is a continuous stream of conversation but the Facebook News Feed is very different. If you update Facebook too frequently it can fill News Feeds and appear spammy which is irritating. If you annoy your ‘Likers’ they may hide your stream
- Don’t let your page die, you MUST update your content regularly. Not doing so is a sin on any social platform. Out of date links, phone numbers, addresses are a big no no
- Don’t stop your community sharing posts, comments, images or videos
- Don’t ignore negative comments and avoid being snarky like Nestle did (See below). Social media has given a voice to all consumers, positive and negative feedback is all valuable feedback. It depends on how you deal with this that can either have you smelling like roses or like yesterday’s trash. People need to feel valued, listened to and acknowledged when voicing a complaint. Glasses Direct had a fantastic and simple way of responding to a customers’ complaint by saying sorry.
Nestle made a massive social faux pas. They started by deleting negative comments and whoever was managing their Facebook page just turned into a rude, obnoxious and offensive person. Read more on the Nestle Social Media Disaster
Interesting Facts
- The average user has 130 friends (Michael Jackson and Homer Simpson are the most popular pages)
- South Korea is the fastest growing country
- Middle East countries occupy 6/10 of the top growth spots
- Half of California are on Facebook
- People spend 700bn minutes per month on Facebook
- Mobile users are twice as active
- Facebook have never explained the feature ‘Poking’
- 700m photos were posted over New Years’ weekend 2011
