8 Things To Consider In Your Facebook Branding Strategy
These days it seems Facebook is an integral part of any company's online branding strategy - and in many ways that's because it's true
. You can hardly watch a commercial anymore without being directed towards the advertiser's Facebook page. Some may argue it's gone too far - who seriously needs to keep in touch with the latest news from their preferred brand of hand sanitizer? Or laundry detergent? But people still do.
There are many that also say that this over-reliance on Facebook is not a good thing - that you should focus on keeping content on your own website in order to maintain control of it. Yet individuals still run many aspects of their business through Facebook, and large companies still spend millions on attracting more fans. While the negatives may be obvious, the potential is still far too great to ignore. This has led to Facebook becoming almost like an essential extension to your website - or the other way around for some - and has changed the way you go about branding your online presence in a number of ways.
1. Create A Point Of Contact
You can view Facebook almost like a meeting place or cafe - somewhere people frequent, come together and get to know each other in a relaxed setting. Your Facebook fan page provides the opportunity to see your company or website within that social environment and can make them more inclined to want to know more about you. A custom landing page is an essential thing to have - it doesn't have to be complex, but it should simply greet the person who comes across it and make them feel welcome. Provide the feeling that getting to know you will be good for them, and avoid any strong promotional messages.
2. Become More Personal
People don't go on Facebook simply to be sent updates, but rather to keep in touch with their friends, family and people they genuinely care about. That means you have to learn how to network with them better, and get to the stage where you can communicate as if you were friends. That means you're free to use less formal language, talk in the first-person, share candid family photos and even make spelling mistakes every once in a while - anything that proves you're a real and interesting person will make people want to know you better.
3. Reduce Your Promotion
On your primary website your products, services and the things that typically make you money are often the focus. But if you do the same with your fan page, you will not get very far at all. People will be hesitant if it looks like all you're going to do is talk about what you're trying to sell them. If you think of Facebook as a place to find new friends and treat them as such, people will eventually become more interested in what else you have to offer them.
4. Provide A Sense Of Exclusivity
You can treat your Facebook fans almost as if they were members of a club - a group of people that have special access to content they would not be able to get anywhere else, but without them having to hand over their email address or other important details. The updates you send don't have to be overly formal or descriptive, but more in the style of snippets from behind-the-scenes of your business or life as well as occasional glances at upcoming developments or other features that make your fans feel like they're part of something special.
5. Share Content Worth Sharing
This has always been one of the first rules of marketing online, but when it comes to your Facebook presence it can become even more important. With so many people plugged into the network, a great piece of content can go viral and reach thousands more people once enough of your fans share it and give it enough momentum - so it can be well worth making sure that any significant updates you share with your fans have the potential to spark that initial interest.
6. Offer A Platform For Feedback
So many of the features found in Facebook - the ability to "like", comment, take part in polls - are geared towards giving people an opportunity to post their feedback. As an owner of a fan page, you have the ability to offer all these features to your fans and get a sense of what they do or don't want. This could be in the form of entertaining quizzes designed to engage them and maintain interest, or could be used in subtle market research that allows fans to feel like they're playing a special part in product developments or other upcoming features you have to offer them.
7. Allow Users Interaction With Content
Not only can you share content with fans, but you can also allow them to share content with you. This could be as simple as allowing them to tag themselves in photos taken at an event, or post their own photos or videos on your wall. The latter is often posed as a challenge in which they have to post an image of themselves doing or wearing something in particular, and in return they may have a chance to win a prize or simply be given the chance for exposure. This provides them with a platform of expression as well as a closer connection with you, and they truly feel like they're participating by playing an active role in the content of your fan page.
8. Provide A Social Website
Many of the features that Facebook offers can then be transferred across to your actual website, giving your fans a sense of familiarity in what may be a new environment for them. First there was the "like box", but now "recommend" plugins to list popular posts and even Facebook-powered comment sections are starting to appear more often. These last two are features that are usually provided by a regular blog, but now more people are choosing to opt for the Facebook version instead to maintain that social presence.
by: Brent McCoy
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