Online Education

Facebook Events, in the relatively short time they’ve been around, have become a marketer’s new best friend. Companies use friend lists to target invitations, announce updates, and introduce new products. But although the system seems tailor-made for online marketing, it’s not foolproof: some companies still make costly mistakes that turn hordes of users away.

The most common blunder is event spamming—flooding users’ inboxes with event invitations and updates. Although it’s safe to assume that people on your list share your interests, that doesn’t mean they appreciate being sent ten Facebook reminders a day. Use your own preferences as a guide—take a product or service you like, and make an honest estimate of how often you want to receive their emails. For a relatively savvy user, a few times a week is usually acceptable. Of course, there’s also some market research involved; you want to know what your users’ lifestyles are and where daily emails fit into the typical schedule.

You also want to avoid putting people on multiple friend lists. Friend lists eliminate the need to click on one hundred names at a time, but it’s hard to control users. Many of them unknowingly put themselves in two lists that send them the same stuff, and this can be construed as spam—even if it’s not your fault. It’s good business practice to correct such slip-ups. Once in a while, verify your lists and weed out any duplicates.

Perhaps the most important thing in using Facebook Events is relevance—and that’s something even the most experienced professionals miss out on. It’s tempting to create an event for everything that happens in your company, as it shows up on the feeds of everyone who’s invited. But it can easily go the wrong way when you start posting every single update as an event. As a rule, create events only for actual events, such as a product launch or sale, that takes place somewhere your users are familiar with and where there’s a purpose to confirming their attendance (e.g. freebies for people who actually show up).

Facebook Events no doubt have their place in marketing, but like any other tool, they’re only as good as the people behind them. Use it to better target your message and reach more people with less effort, but back it up with market research—and put at least an equal amount of work in crafting good content that will keep people coming.

Years ago, the catchphrase for online marketing was that content is king. Although photo and video blogs have carved their own place in the market, good old writing remains key to many platforms, including social media. Facebook allows you to post a variety of content—and if you want results, that variety is actually encouraged—but much of the community action that drives Facebook marketing comes from readable material.

Facebook’s fast-paced nature means that you don’t approach your writing the same way as you would a blog. Keeping it short and sweet is always a good rule, but when your audience is continuously scrolling, you also need to get their attention and warrant a second look. The first rule to Facebook writing is to weave in eye-catching words. Traditional writers may warn against loud adjectives and unusual words, but on Facebook, these are your main attention-getters. You shouldn’t pepper your writing with them, but they should be there to catch readers’ eyes.

Another rule that sets Facebook apart is the margin for opinion. Expressing your own opinion on a business platform is traditionally discouraged, but social media gives you a lot more leeway. In fact, opinion posts are the most effective way to generate conversation on Facebook. You don’t want to come on too strong, but you want people to feel that you trust them with your thoughts. If you’re not sure how to go about it, do it the other way around: elicit people’s opinions on a relevant issue, encourage exchange, and participate in it as needed.

The tag feature is a simple yet powerful networking tool. By letting people know when you’re talking about them, you’re inviting them into the conversation and eliciting even more meaningful exchange. You can do this with your fans, or even with similar businesses. The latter is a great way to network, especially if you’re new to the business and want to get noticed. Keep providing good content and you’ll find yourself tagged as well—and therefore getting more traffic.

Finally, you want to maintain an intimate, personal tone throughout your Facebook page. This doesn’t mean talking about yourself, but getting rid of the corporate façade and taking on the role of a friend. You can involve employees in posting, talk about company operations, and even discuss unrelated topics from time to time. It takes some getting used to especially if you’ve worked with traditional marketing for a while, but over time your writing becomes less forced and much more effective!

Promoting your page is one thing; getting people to genuinely like it (i.e. not just click the Like button) is another. Websites and Facebook pages that get the most love are those that are frequently updated with meaningful content. Not only does it keep your site active and the community engaged, it also tells readers that you take the time to write up posts that are as useful as they are fun.

So what kinds of content work best? It depends on your audience: some people respond well to photos and videos, others might prefer links to interesting articles that they can discuss with community members. Others don’t have time to read anything longer than two lines, so simple updates may be best for them. Here are some ways you can populate your Facebook feed and what they can do.

External feeds: If you have an existing blog or Twitter account, it’s simple enough to set up a feed that cross-posts your material from Twitter or your blog platform onto Facebook. The option is available as an app on your Facebook admin page. One thing to remember, though, is that this can easily flood your readers’ pages and cause them to opt out of your news feed. This is especially true for Twitter. If you post dozens of times a day, you may want to just pick the most popular ones and link to them manually on your page.

Links: Get a feel of what your audience is interested in, other than your product or service. Use this information to share material that might spark conversations. Do you have a blog on green living? Try posting a link to an article on new environmental legislations or a radical new product. This not only helps build a community around your page, but also sends the message that you’re really interested in your topic and value your readers’ input.

Social interaction: On days where you don’t have much to say—and even on days when you do—you should maintain a presence in other Facebook pages. You can Like a reader’s post or photo, comment on an interesting (and relevant) update, or share something that someone else has posted, making sure to give them due credit. Every time you do this, an update shows up on the user’s page and links back to yours, giving you more traffic. It also gives you a more approachable image and strengthens the feeling of community you have with your readers.

When your page is up and ready to go, the first thing you want to do is get word out about it. Facebook makes the first few steps easy by allowing you to share it with your own social network, using the “suggest to friends” option on your admin page. Although it’s possible—and tempting—to suggest your page to your entire friends list, it probably won’t be appreciated. Start with friends you communicate with regularly and whom you trust to be interested.

Much of the publicity you will get from your Facebook page might actually come from outside Facebook. The most likely source is your own website, where you can link people to your Facebook page for easy updates and commenting. The Like box, which you’ve probably seen in other websites, is a great way to generate traffic without interfering with the flow and design of your website. The beauty of it is that people don’t have to open a separate tab to like you on Facebook; the button’s right there and they’re even automatically signed in.

A similar feature, the Like button, allows people to like individual posts in addition to the entire website. This is especially useful for blogs or sites that follow a similar format with frequent updates. As mentioned earlier, you can have the button read Like or Recommend, depending on the level of formality you’re going for—the wording doesn’t change the function. Don’t think of these two as mutually exclusive; you can have the Like box and the Like button at the same time, provided they don’t clutter up your page.

You’ll also want to bring traffic to specific pages on your website, such as those that contain important updates or links to contest information. One way to do this is through the Activity Feed, another page feature you can add to your site. Here, users can see what other people (usually those in their network) have liked or commented on. This creates inbound links to popular pages, increasing internal traffic to your site and driving up your rankings.

Most of these features rest on users being logged in, or able to log in, when they decide to like, comment, or take some other sort of action. In most cases their computers will log them in automatically, as mentioned above. Otherwise, you’ll want to add a Login button in an intuitive place, such as the top of your sidebar. Remember, people have short attention spans online, and you want to make it as easy as possible for them to like you!

If you build it, they will come—except when you’re on the Internet. With well over a hundred million sites live, the competition is fierce among websites, blogs, and more recently, Facebook pages. Owners of these pages have to get more and more creative by the day if they want to stand out. The first thing you want to do once your page is up is to add content that will draw people in, and hopefully make them stay.

Your first image

A profile picture would be a logical place to start. Unlike individual users, you’ll probably want to stick to one picture instead of changing it around, except when really necessary. Your choice of picture should therefore adequately represent you and be something your fans can associate with. Logos, or at least an image showing a logo, would be appropriate for businesses and organizations. Websites and freelancers can also use logos if they have one; otherwise, a picture of the creator or the person himself is usually appropriate. For physical products, you can use a picture showing the product itself, either on its own or in use.

Adding information

Next, you want to fill in some information about your page. The “Edit Information” page will show different options depending on your classification. If you have over 25 fans, you’ll also be able to pick a user name. None of the fields are mandatory, but some are highly recommended for credibility. For brick-and-mortar businesses, these are usually those that have to do with location, including city/town, zip code, and address. URLs and author names are important for blogs, websites, and freelancers. Don’t feel obligated to fill in every field; too much text will clutter your page and make important information less prominent.

Words and photos

Finally, you’re ready to add content—something you’ll be doing regularly once you’ve got a steady flow of fans. It’s always good to have a buffer of ideas so you don’t go long periods without updating. Text works well for everyday updates, but if you’re making an announcement for an event or sale, it’s usually best to add in a picture so it draws more attention. You can also link to relevant articles or websites, or post albums for events and new products.

As we’ve mentioned, your content will probably take up the most of your time and effort. Every time you post something, you want to make sure it’s relevant to the page—although it’s okay to talk about random topics, you still want to have a coherent theme going on. Once in a while, take time to browse through your page and see if you’re on the right track.