I hate Facebook so much that today is the first day I’ve been on it for, like, 3 weeks. I have a community manager, so I don’t need to worry too much about it, but still…I feel like I can’t make the time for it, even on a personal level. (Did I miss it? Not at all!)
However, I am sick of sucking at Facebook, so though I may loathe it, I also want to be good at it. I want a happy little community of smiling faces, just like in the photo. So, as part of my ongoing education, I just skimmed a great new eBook from HubSpot called Facebook Page Marketing. (See my other post for examples of 5 companies that are using Facebook creatively—and to great effect.)
Now, we already know lots of basics about Facebook: engage, push out interesting and useful content, have a personality, blah, blah, blah. Those aren’t being repeated below. Instead, I want to share 9 common sense things I learned in the eBook that are easy to overlook—or that you might not have thought of in the first place.
1. Use the Wall to build a sense of community with your fans. Interact with them in non-promotional ways.
2. If you want to grow your fan base, try using ads.
3. The number one reason people become fans is to take advantage of promotional offers.
4. Post on the weekends and in the mornings if you want more engagement on your page. Optimal posting frequency is about every other day (yes, this surprised me too!).
5. Experiment with different types of content—videos, photos, video blogs, etc.—to figure out what engages your fans.
6. If you really want to generate conversation, one of the most popular topics on Facebook is…Facebook.
7. Create custom landing tabs that allow people to subscribe to your email list or include a call-to-action.
8. People become fans of a brand for 3 reasons:
- The brand directly invited them through their email or on their website
- They saw an ad
- They were referred by a friend to take advantage of a promotional offer
9. Find your customers on Facebook by taking advantage of their ad platform. You don’t actually have to launch an ad, but go through the process. Because their ads are highly targeted, the process will allow you to learn how many people fit your target demographic.
Image by Flickr user peyri (Creative Commons)
Google+
