Posts Tagged ‘Facebook’

Facebook vs. your Brand Site

Monday, August 23rd, 2010 by David Morgan

400 million…500 million…..and still growing. Whether you “like” it (pun intended) or not—Facebook is dominant in helping companies build relationships with their clients. Look at the chart in the article below (thanks to AD Age…)—and with the likes of Starbucks having 12.7 million fans, and growing at almost 79,000 a DAY-you can’t help but consider facebook as a dominant player for customer relationship marketing.

The article in Ad Age today (http://bit.ly/aHknVx) indicated that most of these brands while gaining popularity with their fans on Facebook were losing audience on their web site. But look closer—each of these facebook “pages” are consumer products. And each is driven by a contest, sweepstakes, free offer, etc. Facebook is a great channel for customer engagement—but don’t lose sight of an integrated campaign. While most of the sites in the top ten mentioned above lost web fans, there still is room for the web site in a marketing campaign.

Walgreens, while building a Facebook fan base of more than 500,000, has seen no dropoff in traffic, which hit 6.7 million in July. Within Facebook, Walgreens is finding what works best are fairly frequent short updates, often ones that involve posing a question that prompts a response. Sites with e-commerce are using Facebook as an integrated campaign tactic-driving the consumer to the other channel—and keeping them engaged.

The moral of this story? I’d say don’t keep all your marketing eggs in one basket. Facebook is a force to be reckoned with…to be sure-but keep it in perspective of your overall strategy. Keep the customer connected with you, using whatever tactic is best for them.
Call us at Force 5 if you’d like some assistance. We’re here to help!

Do’s And Don’ts Of Running Facebook Business Pages

Friday, March 26th, 2010 by Nevin McElwrath

More and more businesses are moving to Facebook as a platform to reach new customers and communicate with existing customers. It is becoming increasingly important to set yourself from the pack in the world of Facebook business pages. Make sure you are getting the most out of your Facebook business page by following Force 5′s Do’s and Don’ts of running a Facebook page for your business.

Do: Post at least daily. A stagnant page will often be forgotten and be viewed as irrelevant. If you don’t have the time to stay within view of your customers, you more than likely will not be the first option they think of when they need your services.

Don’t: Send frequent mass emails to your fans. This could be viewed as a form of spamming and is often annoying to many users. Although this can be determined by industry, typically the limit is weekly – although we recommend monthly or quarterly.

Do: Post questions or conversation starters. Engage your audience and let the conversation and interaction drive the relationship. This will keep you relevant with your fans.

Don’t: Post personal information. This is more common than you may think. The line of business and personal life in most cases should not be crossed and is important not to blur. Create rules within your organization to help curb any chance of posting anything sketchy and of course use your best judgement.

Do: Ask questions about your fans. Market research can be tricky to gather. Facebook is filled with opportunities of gathering customer information to better know your core audience. Ask questions, create polls, engage your audience with thought provoking questions.

Don’t: Just post links. Mix your posts up. Ask questions, post links, post photos, post a news update, ask a question, comment on posts, etc. Don’t come across as a machine, mix your content up and keep your fans on their toes.

Do: Post various forms of media. Utilize photos, music and videos as a way for your fans to see “inside” your organization. Behind the scene insight is a great way to connect with your fans and gain trust.

Don’t: Sell something all of the time. Post your deals respectfully and without salesman clichés. Create a tab where fans can find the deals you are offering and don’t let “Act Now” posts dominate your wall. Let interaction do the driving.

Have questions? Post a comment below or on Force 5′s own Facebook page.

Tips for Creating your Company’s Facebook Presence

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 by Force 5

Facebook isn’t just for keeping up with old friends and family, sharing photos, and finding lost classmates. With over 125 million users worldwide your business can benefit greatly from this social networking giant.

Mari Smith, Facebook for business guru, and author of 10 Reasons to Use Facebook for Business, has stated that millions more will join Facebook in the coming months and years, and the vast majority will use Facebook primarily for business purposes.

So you agree that your company needs a Facebook presence, but you have no idea how to get started. Setting up a business page on Facebook can be a little confusing. So I’ve created the following list of tasks to walk you through the process.

1. Create a personal Facebook account. Business pages are created, accessed and managed from within your personal account.

2. Create your business page. This is actually a very easy. The registration process gathers all the necessary information to get started i.e. business name, description, mission, products etc.

3. Become a fan of your business page. You need to be your business first fan. Without a fan your page will not be seen when a search is performed.

4. Now get social!

a. Link your Facebook page to your website.
b. Link your blog to your Facebook page.
c. Invite people to become a fan of your page.
d. Search out related businesses and become a fan of their pages.
e. Finally, communicate.

i. The more valuable information you post on your business page the more likely you are to be found.

Creating your business page is only the first step. Now you have to make sure your page is accessible and populated with relative content. Following the items in step four above is a great place to start. With access to millions of users daily Facebook could become an invaluable marketing tool for your business.