Social-networking site Facebook is displayed on a laptop screen.Dan Kitwood
Whenever anyone talks about participating in the social media, Facebook is on the top of the list. For businesses, the world's number one social networking site is especially important. After all, with more than 400 million users and growing, there is no better place to try to reach out to customers or clients. However, with so many new features and tools springing up, Facebook often resembles an online maze for business owners.
To sift through all the site has to offer, I sat down with a friend who works at Facebook. While I thought that I knew everything about Facebook Pages, which exist primarily to allow companies, celebrities, and organizations to connect with friends and fans, I learned three new things today that will definitely change the way I use Facebook to market.
It's all about the blank box
You know that blank box a the top of your Facebook Page that asks, What's on your mind? This is your window to online world. Every time you post a message in this space (your Wall), that message is shared via the News Feed (home base for Facebook users).
When this post is shared, everyone who "Likes" your Page gets the update. Since most users live on their own personal News Feed instead of travelling to your Page, concentrating your efforts on sharing ideas, perspectives, and information in this box is especially important (since you want users to comment, like, and share your post with their own networks, leading to a viral effect). Although the other tabs beyond your Wall might be useful now and again, they shouldn't be your number one priority.
A picture is worth a thousand words
On Facebook Pages, images are a great way to promote what you do. There are a couple of places to focus on uploading great pics. For starters, your profile photo should be something interesting (this image is also shown on the News Feed when you post). While you might want to protect this area as a location for your company's logo, keep in mind that your Page name (most often your company name) sits in text directly beside this image.
Therefore, you can play around with your profile photo and change it as often as you like to advertise new campaigns or communicate a new brand message.
Another place to promote pics is within your message. Directly below your blank box there is a tiny icon to allow you to easily add an image to your post. Better yet, work your way up to including video (which is directly embedded in users' feeds) to get even more traction.
Get inside information with Insights
When you choose to "Edit" your page, you will see an option to view Insights on the right-hand side. On this page you can see data about your fans. From determining male versus female visitors, to identifying top cities, to comparing your new fans versus your removed fans, this information is key to monitoring the success of your efforts. Within this area you are likely to find a lot of information that will help you to put a face to each and every visitor.
For example, the top fans on my page are from Toronto, not a big surprise, but the second most popular city is San Antonio, kind of a big surprise. Knowing information like this helps me to determine what kind of content to share. In other words, no matter what I write, I won't mess with Texas.
There's a lot more to succeed on Facebook Pages than simply following the three tactics above, but keeping these strategies in mind should help any business to stay on the right track and navigate these new online waters without too many obstacles along the way.