Marketing Blogs
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by Matt Granfieldon Oct 6 |
Does your company need a Facebook page?
Want to know at a glance if your company needs a Facebook page?
In a 2006 survey of college students conducted by Student Monitor, Facebook was named the second most popular 'thing' on the planet. It tied with beer and was beaten by the iPod. In August this year research firm comScore officially declared Facebook the world's most popular social networking site, with a monthly unique visitor count of 132 million, versus MySpace's 117 million. Official figures claim more than 110 million active users.
Stats like that make marketers go weak at the knees, and when the cost of inserting a brand into the throng is zero dollars ($0.00), it's tempting to jump on the b(r)andwagon. Facebook fan pages and groups work well for some businesses and are disastrous for others. Here's a few things you should consider before diving in.
If you didn't create a Facebook page for your business, is it likely that someone else would?
Social networks exist to facilitate dialogue between passionate people. Their passion might be for a particular product, a cause, a celebrity or a football team, but they're all in it together and they want to find other like-minded people to share their feelings with.
If your business isn't the kind of organisation that people are passionate (or at least mildy enthused) about, creating a social network around yourself will only serve to highlight that fact. At best, you'll get a few staff members and cousins join, at worst, you'll quickly find out no-one actually cares, which can end up looking rather embarrasing. If you honestly can't envisage your clients or customers starting a Facebook group for your brand all by themselves, you probably shouldn't have one.
On the flip side, people also become excited about things they hate. If your brand is something people are passionate about for all the wrong reasons, they've probably already setup a Facebook page about you. If that's the case, Facebook is the least of your worries — you need to develop a comprehensive social media marketing strategy that engages your detractors, lets them know you're listening, makes them realise you care (presuming you care) and tells them what you're doing to solve the problems they're talking about.
Have you got the time and resources to make it work?
If you think your brand is something that people are passionate about (or will be passionate about), then you should definitely think about setting up a Facebook fan page or group. Go back and look at the stats at the start of this article again — Facebook is huge. Keep in mind though, Facebook is like a puppy — if you treat it nicely, feed it regularly and give it lots of love, you'll be rewarded with a friend for life; neglect it and it will come back to bite you.
If you do have active and passionate fans and you make the committment to setup a presence on Facebook to interact with them, they'll expect you to engage. If you set it up and then don't actively communicate with anyone you'll just disappoint the people who love you most, and that's not a way to win more friends.
On the flip side, don't try and setup a Facebook page because you don't have other more efficient web resources in place — it's not a substitute for an email newsletter, a professional website, a blog, a suggestion box or a help centre. If you use your Facebook page or group because you can't be arsed setting these things up properly, you'll start annoying people.
People will want to engage with you on Facebook like they would any other friend — they'll want to see your photos every now and then, they'll want to find out what you're up to, but if they want to sign up to your email newsletter they'll sign up to your email newsletter. Don't presume just because they're your Facebook friend they want to hear from you every day.
Are you afraid of losing control or looking lame?
Facebook is a public forum. Anything and everything you do will be stored forever for all the world to see and everything anyone else says about you will be duly noted. People who like you will let you know, but people who don't like you won't be shy either.
Even highly-reputable organisations like the RSPCA cop flack on their Facebook pages and it's not uncommon for critics to use them as a forum for complaint. If you're afraid of letting that happen, setting up a public forum on Facebook might not be the best idea.
In fact, if you're afraid of what people might say about you, you might want to just stay away from Facebook altogether because even creating a closed group can make you look like you have something to hide — use your organisation's intranet to engage your community, don't do it in public.
Facebook is incredibly popular amongst popular people because it tells the world just how popular they are. People love feeling loved and if you've got 400 friends on Facebook (or even 100), it's a good feeling. However, if you're a corporation, chances are you're going to look pretty lame if you haven't got many 'friends'. If you're worried about looking lame, don't join Facebook.
Examples of organisations with excellent Facebook pages
- Triple J — Nice interaction with fans, constant updates, lots of photos
- Big Cat Reality — Small business page built around a genuine community of interest (Scuba Diving)
- The RSPCA — Regular updates and real engagement from the UK organisation
- Fuck off Japan, Leave the Whales Alone — This highly active group is doing a great job of independently fostering discussion for their area of interest.
Examples of organisations who probably shouldn't have a Facebook page
- Facebook — You'd think they could do better, but their own official page is actually pretty lame; no interaction with fans.
- B105 — They're apparently the "#2" radio station in Brisbane, but in Septmeber 2008, only 44 people wanted to be their Facebook friend... Ouch.
- Sprite — Their page was clearly whipped up because their work experience kid had nothing better to do. It does nothing, goes nowhere and adds absolutely no value whatsoever to the brand.
Further reading
- Don’t trust an advertising agency with your digital media by Julian Cole at Marketing Mag
- The Five Biggest Digital Marketing Cliches by Mark Cregar at Advertising Age
What do you think?
- Do you know any organisations that are making the most out of Facebook pages (as opposed to Facebook applications)? What about companies that are making a complete crock of it? I'd love to hear your opinions.
In less than a month I've enticed 66 members and at least 10% of them are people I've never met (booyah!). However, I do feel a tinge of guilt every time I send a group email to 'all members' to mention something new at snobs.com.au that they may find of interest, or to TRY to get them to take part in a discussion topic I've launched at the SNOBS/FBgroup.
This point you made above: "If you honestly can't envisage your clients or customers starting a Facebook group for your brand all by themselves, you probably shouldn't have one".... has me quite concerned. Maybe I should only be sending SNOB/FBgroup messages to the 10% of people who signed-up of their own will/genuine interest - not because they know me.
I'd love some feedback/advice from anyone who's trialed FB for business. My group is here: http://tinyurl.com/4jraxt ... don't feel obliged to join, or anything ;)
PS: I just remembered! Marketing Mag's FBgroup is actually what lead me here in the first place! I'd heard of MM, had intended to visit, but it was only when I was setting up my own business FBgroup and searching others in the 'business' category that I found MM's and, well, the rest is history...
I look at my Facebook page <http://www.facebook.com/pages/Adelaide-Australia/mosaic-communication/21565373047> as a way to connect with and update potential clients, as well as to network and raise my business profile. I write regularly for The Advertiser, and upload all articles into an album on this page. I tend to send updates to fans once a week - Im not keen to spam them with daily announcements. My blog is fed through to this page, and I also upload interesting and relevant videos to my Facebook page (which is linked back to my website). I can check via the stats function how many people have viewed my Page each day. I can also use the Share function to post stuff from my Business page on my personal page.
In order to increase the number of fans that are linked to my site, Im always on the lookout for network opportunities. Im pretty strategic in that any friend that is added to my personal Facebook page also gets a reqest to become a fan of my Facebook business page. And while I dont have the numbers of say Barack Obama, they are growing steadily.
By the way, anyone reading this, feel free to become a fan of mosaic communication on Facebook!
The minor "guilt" I mentioned above is related to messaging all members of my new, business-related, FBgroup because Im sure some of them only joined to support me (or they clicked "accept" accidentally while drunk/tired/not wearing their reading glasses).
It was probably not very worthwhile mentioning here at all, because an individual can always leave a FBgroup after joining, right? In fact, my latest update about the group informs me that one member HAS already left! Hahaha.... I hope it wasnt my mum.
PS: Big fan of Seth, but wasnt aware of the freebie chapters you could get from that book (which has been on my must-buy list for weeks). Cheers!
Not sure if it is just me but when I tried to download that tip sheet for this article ie http://www.e-cbd.com/zakazukhazoo/resources/Does_your_Company_Need_a_Facebook_Page.pdf all i see are lines and a couple of boxes...... could just be the Mac playing games with me again too :)
Cheers
S
Cheers,
David
Thanks for your post.
You pretty much have answered your own question - while Facebook is an excellent tool for connecting with 'younger' generations, it comes down to being where your audience is. For Continki, well perfect - it is a very natural fit with Facebook with their demographic being the largest segment on Facebook.
For the 55+ market however, generally social networks are a 'foreign' experience; the net generally isn't digested in the same way as Gen X & Y consume it. Think banking, emails, news and well not much else. I'd focus on direct methods with integration on and offline (I know you said you were digital though). Social media needs 'community' and sometimes that just can't be created!
Let us know how you go.
Cheers,
Kate
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