I keep getting the “your blog has Twitter, do you have any Facebook info?”
Before today my answer was, not really which is a shame considering the amount of time I spend on the site. I love Facebook. It’s a great place to tell your company’s story, share success stories and start a conversation. I’d tell any company, large or small, to go make a Facebook fan page. Why? Everyone is on Facebook. Duh.
With that said, here’s how to create and run a Facebook page:
- Create an actual page so you have functionality where your audience can participate too (to upload a status, pictures, etc). Go here to make an official Facebook page.
- You need to create a company logo or put brand specific information in a format accepted as a profile picture.
- Edit your profile information and add specific keywords. Use words relevant to your location, the general terms that define your services (daycare, recruiting firm), etc. This is the hard part: think about how people look for your industry and the questions they ask to explain your business in the information section.
- You MUST link to your corporate website.
- Update daily. Twice a day if possible. Think about current events relevant to your industry to generate content.
- Once you build out the page and get in a habit of updating it at least 1x per day, put a link to your Facebook page in your corporate standard e-mail signature. You want everyone to be a fan of your page.
- Do contests with your customers to refer fans to Facebook. If it takes buying a few $25 gift cards and giving away one each day to the person who gets the most likes on a post, that’s a good investment and one that pays off.
- Facebook ads are not a good investment. Unless you have a lot of money to spend ($100,000+), they aren’t worth your time.
- Post your website content on the page with commentary that starts a discussion.
- Ask a lot of questions. They want to talk to you, that’s why they became a fan of your page.
- Post contests and discounts. It’s another big reason people are becoming fans on Facebook.
What’s your favorite brand owned Facebook page right now? Anyone besides the giants like Skittles and Starbucks?