Last week I shared with you a few tips on creating a Facebook Strategy for your SMB, to help you achieve your marketing goals.
This week, I want to follow up on that blog by sharing some examples of the types of campaigns and activities you might want to consider including on your Facebook Page. Of course these campaigns need to be tied to your strategy and have measurable metrics in place. (see Facebook Strategy Tips for SMBs from last weeks post).
Who’s the Boss?
When setting your Facebook Strategy you may have decided who will be the point person, responsible for posting on the site. This person is referred to as the “Page administrator”. Although you can have more than one Page administrator, be clear as to who is the “boss” – the person responsible for posting and managing the entire site. If you have too many Page administrators, you run the risk of each of them writing in a different style, posting on similar topic and ultimately creating brand confusion on your page. Before you launch the page, establish a clear set of roles and responsibilities for your Page administrators.
Do They “Like” Me?
Regardless of whether you have a lead gen or increase brand recognition Facebook Strategy, you need to build audience for your page. One of the best ways to build audience is to give them something of value in exchange for a “Like”. You might want to consider a competition or contest to entice new “Likes”. Please note that Facebook has rules and regulations for running contests on their platform and a very hefty price might have to be paid for holding a contest without their consent.
Will You Come Back?
In between your campaigns, you need to keep your audience engaged. One of the best approaches is to create variety with images, polls, questions, videos, links, message clips, company or customer news and also industry news. Your Facebook site needs to be “alive” with a flurry of activity. By using a variety of media, you’ll keep your audience engaged and help you in setting up the stage for the next campaign.
Show Them You Care
Although it a simple idea that if someone comments on your Facebook Wall, you answer them, unfortunately on many sites it’s not always the case. So make sure you treat your Facebook Wall like you would a phone or email message from a potential client – get back to them as soon as you can.
Set Policy for Customer Feedback
Facebook does not shut down or turn off. Particularly for SMBs focused on consumers, who may visit your site at anytime day or night, you need to set a policy for your company regarding feedback response times and how to deal with negative comments. You need to decide if you can accept one negative comment, two, three or if one is already one too many. There are lots of schools of thought on this, but you will need to take a company stand on how to deal with customer feedback and inform your agency or internal page administrator how to deal with customer comments and when or if negative comments are to be deleted.
Value Equals Sharing
Social media and particularly Facebook are all about sharing. So as a business you need to think about what you can offer your audience that’s of value to them, but that they would want to share with a friend or colleague. For example, you might want to share an eBook, an exclusive offer, a cool competition, amazing industry news segment, trivia, etc. If they value what you’re sharing, they will return the favour by letting others know and providing them with the same opportunity.
Leverage Facebook Insights
Facebook Insights is a set of analytics that tracks usage and interaction with your Facebook Page. It is available for free as long as you have over 30 Likes. Leverage the Insights data by seeing how people are using your Page. What content is of most interest? What types of posts interest a particular audience? What is just not resonating? Once you see how your audience is behaving you can adjust your Page activities accordingly.
Be Consistent
Just like all of your other marketing activities, make sure the look and feel as well as the messaging, graphics, colours, etc. are consistent across your corporate website, Twitter feed, LinkedIn site, email signatures and your Facebook Page. The more your audience sees your consistent branding, the more brand recognition you’ll receive and therefore the better chance of success.
I hope these tips have helped you explore a few ways to reach and grow your audience through this powerful online marketing tool.
What types of campaigns are you running on Facebook? Have they been successful? How do you engage your audience between campaigns? What is your biggest challenge on your Facebook Page?
CreativeWorks Marketing 