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By: Lisa Horn, CAS
Issue: January/Expo 2010

This article is the third in a three-part series on social networking and how to use the sites to your advantage personally and professionally. Click here to find the first article on Twitter, or the second article on LinkedIn.


Use these 21 tips for creating and maintaining your company’s Facebook presence.

The more you know about something or someone, the more you care. Facebook allows your customers and prospects to get to know your company better in a non-sales atmosphere. Building your company’s Facebook page isn’t difficult, but it does take attention and dedication. Follow these 21 tips, and you’ll look like a pro in no time.

1. Define your purpose.
Facebook is like any other marketing initiative, and you should have a purpose for using it. Determine goals you expect to achieve and outcomes you can measure to evaluate success. This is not to imply sales will directly come from using Facebook, as that’s not the express intention of social media. Rather, look at how you can engage fans (followers) in conversation, for example, as a way to extend your reach with customers. An example is PPAI’s Facebook fan page.

2. Build your page.
Facebook is intuitive, so building your fan page is as easy as following the prompts. Make sure to title your page with your company or brand name, include a photo (can be a logo for companies with multiple employees) and secure your user name/vanity URL (www.facebook.com/abc-company) once you reach the 25-fan minimum.

3. Write a compelling bio.
Under the photo area, there is a text box where you can write anything. This is the ideal place to include a compelling bio that summarizes what you do and how you do it. Keep it brief—just enough to capture a viewer’s attention. Then go into more detail under the info tab, where details on your company overview, mission and products are kept.

4. Consistently update information.
Whether you’ve uploaded a new blog post, hired a new employee or been honored by the local Chamber of Commerce, consistently updating your Facebook page is essential. This not only makes your company seem active and viable, it also increases the likelihood of engaging fans in conversation.

5. Stay on message.
Look back at your purpose for using Facebook and only post what is relevant to both your brand as well as customer and prospect needs. From status updates and notes to photo and video uploads, everything posted online affects your corporate reputation. Think before hitting “share.”

6. Have personality.
While staying on message is important, this doesn’t negate the need for showcasing your brand’s personality. Social media, especially Facebook, gives you the opportunity to humanize your brand. Stay professional but have some fun with it, too.

7. Add value.
Fans want to know “what’s in it for me,” so only post content that adds value in their eyes. For example, a weekly tip for integrating promotional products into comprehensive marketing campaigns gives you the opportunity to educate fans while showcasing your expertise. This tip can link back to a longer blog post or to your website for those who want more information.

8. Don’t sell.
Facebook, as with other social media, is about relationships—not hard-core selling. While it is acceptable to let your fans know about product sales and special fan-only discounts, it’s not cool to be constantly pushing product at people.

In fact, 70 percent of consumers who visit Facebook at least once a month and are a fan of at least one company or brand don’t believe they have given those companies permission to market to them, according to Customer Knowledge Is Marketer Power, a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting. Additionally, 40 percent of the more than 2,300 consumers don’t believe marketers are welcome in social networks at all. Don’t let this scare you away from Facebook. Rather, understand why people become fans so you can post content appropriately.

9. Share success stories.
When talking with customers about how you’ve helped them, ask for their permission to share their story. If you become an idea resource for your fans, it won’t be long before they come to you looking for help.

10. Upload photos and videos.
The old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” still holds true today. Much of the appeal of Facebook, as the name suggests, is in the faces posted in photos and videos. Start taking and posting photos of your business life—meeting with suppliers at a tradeshow, giving a presentation to a business group, taking a factory tour, attending a press check—to let fans see what goes on behind the scenes and spark conversation.

11. Encourage conversation.
Part of the beauty of Facebook is the interaction between companies and fans. Encourage fans to add content by posting comments, photos and video to your wall to create a sense of community. There is a setting that allows you to show only posts by you, only posts by fans, or both. Select both so everyone who visits your page can see both sides of the conversation.

12. Be responsive.
When fans post questions, comments, ideas or suggestions, be responsive. This is your opportunity to engage with fans and show that your company cares, listens and takes action.

13. Create events.
Next time you host an open house for customers, offer a webinar for new clients or hold an annual sales meeting for staff, create an event and invite the appropriate audience. Not only does the event automatically get promoted on your page, but it also shows up on your fans’ pages when they RSVP—for example, “John Smith is attending ABC Company’s Five Steps To Growing Sales In 2010 seminar”—so their friends see the update on their news feed or profile page, meaning more visibility for you.

14. Investigate apps.
Every day, more applications are added to help businesses enhance their Facebook pages—from promoting your blog and adding RSS feeds to incorporating testimonials and word clouds. Mashable.com has a vast library of articles on Facebook (as well as other social media tools) that can be helpful in finding what you need, including “30+ Apps For Doing Business On Facebook,” and “HOW TO: Find And Add Facebook Apps.”

15. Take a poll.Facebook is a great way to obtain quick feedback, and giving fans a chance to contribute to your decisions is just one more way to increase engagement and build loyalty. Not sure which products to include in a company store or can’t decide between two cool postcard designs for your next promotion? Poll your fans about what they like best and then make a decision—and post the results on your page.

16. Hold a contest.
Whether you want to build traffic to your tradeshow booth at an upcoming event or boost your monthly newsletter readership, contests are an effective way of getting fans involved with your brand. The real-time nature of Facebook makes it an ideal place for contest submissions, tracking updates and winner announcements (hopefully with a photo).

17. Promote your presence.
“If you build it, they will come” no longer applies. You must let customers and prospects know where you can be found. Include your Facebook page information on your website, e-mail signature, marketing collateral, catalogs, press release boilerplates, blogs and anywhere else you publish corporate information. Include an invitation to become a fan and provide a link.

18. Integrate with Twitter.
To simplify communicating with fans and followers, link your Facebook page with Twitter. Facebook-status updates longer than the 140 character limit on Twitter will truncate around 120 characters and then have a bit.ly link back to your Facebook page. Learn more here.

19. Allocate resources.
While Facebook may technically be free to use, you must invest company time and marketing talent if you want it to be a successful means of communicating with customers, building your brand and growing your presence in the market place. Staying educated on Facebook trends, maintaining your Facebook page and monitoring your competition is a full-time job—if you want it done right. Treat it as such, and you’ll reap the rewards only a loyal fan base can bring.

20. Be authentic.
While Facebook is a virtual world, the people behind the posts must be real and relatable. The last thing fans want to see is posts from the marketing guy or gal who just doesn’t get it. Authenticity is key.

21. Reciprocate.
Facebook is a social network, so be social! Join relevant groups and be an active participant in discussions. Become a fan of businesses inside and outside of the promotional products industry. Be the kind of fan you want to attract to your page.
Lisa Horn, CAS, is president of Irving, Texas-based Spark!, a boutique strategic communications agency that helps suppliers, distributors and other promotional products organizations build their brands, position themselves in the marketplace and get the publicity they desire. A 15-year industry veteran and former editor of PPB, she is a frequent contributor to Promotional Consultant.

Facebook Facts
There are more than 1.6 million active pages on Facebook, including 700,000 local businesses, which have created more than 5.3 billion fans. The average user becomes a fan of two pages each month.
Source: www.facebook.com

The average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook and writes 25 comments on Facebook content each month.
Source: www.facebook.com

Between December 2007 and December 2008, the total amount of time spent on Facebook increased by 566 percent—from 3.1 billion minutes to 20.5 billion.
Source: Nielsen Online, Global Index, December 2007 – December 2008.