More and more businesses are using Facebook as a central pillar in their customer communications strategy. After all, it makes a lot of sense — as a free service, it can complement other services from your Internet marketing company, leaving you more money for SEO costs.
Facebook is a global phenomenon with seemingly everyone using their account to keep up with friends, family and business colleagues. A Facebook account is a great way for a business to appear approachable, friendly, and a part of those same social circles. Additionally, Facebook can be a great way to reach out to a wider audience, as when one person ‘likes’ your business’ status updates or becomes a fan of your page, this can be displayed to all of their friends, and then to their friends and so on, leading to exponential growth in exposure.
However, these very benefits can also be pitfalls, as negative publicity from a poorly managed Facebook account can spread just as quickly. Check out these tips for how to manage your business’ Facebook account.
- Don’t spam your followers with too-frequent updates. Nobody wants their news feed clogged up by business statuses that drown out communications from friends and family. Try to limit you updates to news about offers, new products, or genuinely interesting developments.
- Encourage people to “like” your page. Use special promotions and offers to entice friends of your fans to like your page themselves.
- Be short, snappy and to the point. Facebook is designed for short quick updates, and so those that require users to click the ‘see more’ link are less effective. Keep your communications to the length that will display fully on news feeds.
- Advertise your Facebook page off Facebook. For Facebook to be effective, your customers and market need to see it. Advertise your page on your website and in brick-and-mortar stores so that people know to look for it. A Facebook-only voucher or offer will maximize your uptake.
- Don’t be heavy handed with comments. Many of your customers will use your Facebook praise to talk about products and experiences that they liked, which is great for publicity. However some may also make complaints or raise issues. Don’t be tempted to delete ay negative comments – people will notice! Instead you should answer the comments in a professional manner, politely correcting any misconceptions or errors, and make a genuine effort to solve the problem. Remember – the world is watching!
- Include the information people are looking for. Make sure your Facebook page links back to your website, contact details and a brick-and-mortar store address if you have one.
A business Facebook account is certainly a valuable marketing and publicity tool. But if it’s managed badly it can backfire on you and end up harming your business’ image.
Among the PR firms who work with Facebook’s in-house PR team are Burson-Marsteller & MDC Partners’ owned Hunter PR.