Companies are starting to discover more and more each day that the marketing world is going digital. It used to be that a 5:00 pm radio spot for a commercial was gold now it seems the digital world is starting to take over. Ford recently did an online campaign for their Explorer using YouTube as well as swiping an envied 30 second commercial spot in the latest Super Bowl. Surprisingly for Ford, the YouTube videos and Facebook beat the activity on the site compared to when they release the super bowl commercial. With DVR now ruining hope for commercials and being able to download virtually any magazine or newspaper to your phone or iPad the concept of print marketing is becoming prehistoric. It’s slowly moving towards the direction where companies, like Pandora, have to make money off of selling their subscriptions without ads, which now means for one low price you can remove ads altogether. This works out well for Pandora since they’re being paid to place ads and remove them but for the one trying to tap into the advertising world this could be bad news.
This now leaves social media as your voice, your products outfit, how you dress and sell your brand. We’re going to take a look at some concepts to help you advance your brand through your Facebook page.
That’s just the way I am…
Now that Timeline has officially been implemented on Facebook take advantage of it! The cover photo is the first and largest thing your visitors will see on first glance. It’s always a good idea to check what your competition is doing and try to follow the trend and always, I mean always, try to add something to it that improves it, makes it you, and sets you apart. Make your brand unique and stand out in stature. Never, ever cut corners on any page. You want to create a reputation, even if you’re an artsy and fun company, that you do everything intentionally and with perfection.
Don’t use low resolution photo’s, don’t add sloppy text that’s out of alignment, don’t have pixilation going on unless it’s what you want and it’s done with the brand in mind. Also, if you’re going to use text, make it stand out from the background. It doesn’t make sense to have black font in front of a darker picture, if you have something to say might as well make it so people can see it! If you only have limited resources do the best you can with those resources, don’t try to be a graphic designer through using programs like Paint. I’ve had success using Adobe Illustrator (roughly $500) and I know there are several other graphic design programs that aren’t as expensive that will still get the job done when it comes to your basic design (logo design is $30 online).
You want the first “like” that you get on your Facebook to be impressed with your professionalism and carry that reputation through with every single new “like” that you get. Use your profile picture to carry your brand icon throughout your sites. Quite often I’ll go from a company’s main website to their Facebook page and it looks like two different companies, this will hurt you when it comes to integration and client carry over. It’s okay to have variety and uniqueness amongst your sites but your brand icon should tie it altogether.
Location, Location, Location…
A lot of businesses are just starting to tap into the Facebook market but have been running for several years successfully and are forgetting one major thing with their pages, their customers. You want to give your existing customers every opportunity to connect with the product. Every email that’s sent out, every business card that’s given out, every online advertisement, all of them, should include the social handle to your Facebook and Twitter at the least. Having 20 links on all of these would be counterproductive so be selective, probably just Facebook and one other for now.
If you don’t have a Twitter that’s fine you can start that up along with your Facebook, we’ll be doing talks later on how to expand that network as well. If you do have a Twitter established use that to bring people over to your Facebook! Post links and pictures and videos on Twitter that link people back to your Facebook page to watch. Now if those videos are embedded in YouTube then you’re getting views on three different social networks from one link! Tough to beat that!
Make sure your link icons are high quality on your main pages and make sure that they’re intentionally located. You don’t want to have small icons in the bottom right corner of your page. This means that people have to scroll down AND have 20/20 vision just to think about clicking your link. Icons that are easily viewable will result in more visitors to your social sites.
Gather some information from your friends, when they go to your home page what’s the first thing they see? You want to place your links in a non-distracting, yet distinct area that will keep people clicking. Make sure to add them to every page of your site not just the home page! You never want to have a visitor get to a place where they’d like to know more about your product but can’t figure out how to.
Please hold, your call is very important to us…
Facebook is different than a call center or a customer service desk because one, you’re able to get feedback when you want without waiting in line or on hold, and two, you can do it in your pajama’s. In today’s world customer service is synonymous with elevator music mixed with “you’re call is very important to us…you’re the next caller”. I can’t help but wonder if they purposefully pick that kind of music hoping you won’t be able to take it and just hang up, but we’ll never know for sure.
If you’re able to man your Facebook closely, or if you’re large enough hire someone to, then make it an interactive place. When someone posts a question on your page, answer it on your page! Give yourself the reputation that not only do you care for your customers but you’re also efficient and quick to offer help. It’s not even a bad idea to post in the about me section a schedule of when you’ll be “manning” your Facebook page, a designated time where people can get instant answers to their questions.
This same concept works on Twitter as well. Most customer support option cost money but if you can run your Facebook well then you’ll be able to avoid all of these fees and still offer top quality service. It’s also to implement suggestions. If people give you good feedback on your site then take it! Listen to your demographic; after all, they’re the ones giving you your paycheck!
You say he’s just a friend…
When starting out, Facebook can be a great way to branch out into the community. Currently Twitter has more to offer in this area with their TweetChats and hash tags that help instantly communicate with other like minded individuals in your industry, but if you don’t have a Twitter account you can do this with Facebook as well.
When commenting and “liking” it’s always really important to remain professional and keep in mind the golden rule, “Do unto others as you’d have them do to you”. If you’re going through one persons Facebook page and liking every comment and commenting on every post and constantly posting your own stuff you’ll be seen as spam by every person who then goes to visit that page. Rather than do that you’ll probably have more success attracting people to your sites if they see you contributing insightful comments on links and informative responses to peoples questions.
If you’re going to post something, especially on someone else’s page, make sure it’s extremely relevant to the page and it always is best to post it as an answer in response to someone’s question. When people see you reaching out to help others it will result in attracting them to your page as well. There are multiple categorized pages that you can “like” that will host different types of chats for you to participate in. Don’t forget when someone posts something on a page and you respond to it they’re notified, a great added bonus to bring them back to your page!
Make it happen…
Videos and photos are ten times more likely to be shared on Facebook than links and regular status updates. Keep this in mind. Make a list of videos and photos that you like on a daily basis and then write down why you like them, now try to implement these ideas into your own photos and videos. If you can create content to post on your site that is applicable and share worthy then your name will spread that much faster as you gain a relevant audience for your products!
We’ll get into more ideas on what exactly you can post later but it’s always good to build up a repertoire of sharable content. Also take notes of stuff that you do share, how well does it do, what gets shared more funny or informative? Paying attention to insights and analytics mixed with great content will expand your social sites faster than anything else.
These are just a few self starters for your Facebook! Feel free to post questions on our Facebook page and we’ll do our best to answer it!
