I’m heading down to San Francisco today to spend some time with my partners at YouTube and Facebook. Both of these companies have been great partners for the Windows Social Media team. We sync every few months to see what’s new and upcoming with the platforms. This trip we’ll also be focusing on FY10 planning and my Win7 launch plans.
My chums at Facebook recently shared with me some best practices for the new brand pages on Facebook and I wanted to pass those along. In case you haven’t familiarized yourselves with the new brand page layout yet I’ll give you the high level features;
1. Brands now have status update functionality. If you update your brand status it feeds into your fans newsfeeds (their homepage now) the same way the fans see the updates from everyone in their network. This is really cool.
2. Updates made on Brand pages now also feed the fans newsfeeds. This is cool too but can get overused. When the new brand page first launched I was getting a ton of updates in my newsfeed from Xbox. I love Xbox but didn’t necessarily want them filling up my newsfeed. I was sure XBox didn’t know that as a fan they were having this effect on my newsfeed but since Facebook amped up their viral feeds from brand pages it was becoming overkill very quickly. Beware how many times you are updating your page, you could be over-spamming your fans.
3. Tabs are organizing the content now. We are still getting used to this. One request we have for Facebook is to be able to rename the tabs, you can’t do this today. The ‘boxes’ tab is a weird name and not very compelling. This is where all the stuff brands used to have on their homepage went. Homepages are now the newsfeed.
Here are the best practices directly from Facebook for using the new brand pages on Facebook. Thanks Carrie.
5 simple things to consider:
1) Relationships take time – start small, learn and scale!
Having your posts show up in your fans’ homepage is powerful. Give your fans some time to adjust to this and don’t overwhelm them right away. There is no “first-mover” advantage in communicating with your fans. They are already your fans. How frequently should you update your Page? How frequently do you email your users? How frequently do you have something interesting to say? Just because it is seems free doesn’t mean it is – if you over do it, fans may leave and the cost is agitated customers. Start slow – say once every few days or weeks – when you have something interesting to share, and see what happens from there.
2) From monologue to dialogue – are you listening and responding?
The days of the megaphone are over. Do you write in a way that encourages fans to respond? Do you respond to their comments? Are you monitoring stats to try to understand how to optimize for your goals?
Of course, you don’t have to respond to each comment, but addressing general trends or recognizing contributions from fans may go a long way to motivating your fans to be evangelists!
3) “Brand-centric” vs. “Fan-centric” – what’s in it for me?
What’s the difference between an ad, a press release, and a post on Facebook? Well, for an ad, you paid for the consumer’s attention – so you it’s all about you. For a press release, the editor will filter and make the content relevant to his/her audience. For a post on Facebook, you have DIRECT access to your fans! While they are fans, if there isn’t a relevant benefit to them in the communication, it might feel like spam and you may have less fans!
4) Global brand has global fan base on Facebook.
Facebook is a global platform, with users in over 200 countries, available in dozens of languages, with over 70% of users are outside of the US. A typical brand’s Page has fans from dozens of countries using the site in dozens of languages. Consider posting items that have more global appeal vs. a local promotion. For the local promotion, send a targeted Update.
5) Promote to get more Fans!
Facebook’s “Become A Fan” Engagement Ad makes it super easy for users to become your fan with just one click without leaving their home page. You can also use Facebook’s Standard Ads to drive users to your Page to become a fan.
My last Facebook tip for today is my favorite Facebook blog. Check out Inside Facebook. Cool stuff.
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Great post! I’ll keep my eyes on this space to learn more about your discussions with Youtube and Facebook. The “New” New Facebook has so many opportunities for brands. Here are some tactical suggestions I thought I’d add to your strategic ones to help brands better connect with their fans:
Don’t recycle Twitter Content
The biggest implication is more ways to communicate, however, don’t take the lazy way out and recycle your Twitter messages; your fans are interested in you so give them more interesting stuff than what you are spamming to the legions on Twitter.
Create short URLs from your domain
If you are providing links to content you host, don’t bog your URL down in a mess of directories. Additionally, if you have to use a URL shortener like bit.ly or tinyurl.com avoid the random letters and make it your own. Simple is key, for example, a post from CareerBuilder.com offering advice for job seekers should read like this: “Tips to make your resume stand out to recruiters – careerbuilder.com/resumetips”
Provide “How-To”, not “Buy Me”
No one wants to see an advertisement in their news feed, that’s why facebook puts their ads on the side. Make your updates a source of information to help your fans make a purchase decision. Sorry Skittles, not much you can do here…however Guitar Center, pay attention. A great Guitar Center status update would read something like the following: “How do guitar strings affect the sound of your music? – http://bit.ly/GuitarStrings“