Positively Informed

Facing the facebook facts

By Alana McGillivray

There are lots of articles and blogs out there about how to get the best from facebook and what it can do for your business. So I’m not going to write yet another one. I will highlight and link to some of these articles, but instead, let’s focus on the most important elements that you need to be aware of and get right.

Why do you want to be on facebook?

If your answer to this question is “because my boss told me to” or “because everyone else is on there” then now is a good time to think about the different ways facebook can be used and whether it’s right for you.  Primarily facebook is about engaging with people (they could be existing or potential customers) and having a conversation with them.  I’m going to assume that if you’re reading this blog, you’re in the tourism, retail or hospitality industries, so I’m going to focus on how facebook can be used for these types of businesses.

• Letting people know what’s going on – give them reasons to visit

If you hold events, or have something unique to talk about – tell people! You’ll be surprised what people are interested in. Facebook is a great way to give your business a bit of personality.  Some good examples:

- Wellington Zoo     – Interislander     – Roxy Cinema

• Asking questions

This is a great way to grow engagement, and make people feel like they’re part of the conversation. You can ask specific things, like feedback on new products or services, or general questions.  There’s a great new free ‘Questions’ tool you can use for this too.  Some good examples:

- Tourism New Zealand    – Grab One 

• Sharing photos and videos

Facebook users spend a lot of time on the site – averaging about 20 minutes each time they go on there. They enjoy looking at photos and watching videos, so if you’ve got strong or interesting imagery or video, this is a great place to share it. Here’s a couple of examples:

- City Gallery    - Area 51

• Competitions and promotions

Facebook is also a great channel to promote any competitions or other promotional discounts that you may be running. Another good way to reward your facebook ‘likers’ that some businesses do, is to run facebook-only promotions.   Here’s a couple of examples:

- Rydges Wellington recently promoted their Live like a VIP competition on facebook and got lots of interaction.

- Urban Harvest frequently do ‘Tasting Box’ giveaways on facebook; in return they get lots of comments on their page from people who won a box.

It’s important to be aware that any competition or promotion you do must adhere to facebook’s Promotions Guidelines. 

So the above shows you some of the different things you can use facebook for, but the secret to success is to try to do a mixture of the above; don’t just stick to one type of update or you risk boring your audience. 

Page vs profile. What’s the difference?

When facebook first launched, Pages didn’t exist and the only way to get a presence on the site was to set up a Profile. Since then, Pages have been set up and are the best option for a business wanting to use facebook.   

With a page, it’s easy for people to ‘like’ your page, they don’t need to be approved like a friend request on a profile. Once they’ve liked your page, they’ll get your updates in their personal newsfeeds.  They can easily interact with your page, upload their own photos, comments or share your updates with their friends too. Just make sure in your settings you’ve allowed other people to post on your page.

Facebook recently published a Facebook Pages Guide (PDF) that you can download.  It’s a really easy-to-use best practice guide with examples of what other businesses are doing and how to do it best.  Facebook also has a lot of information to help people build and manage pages, which you will find in the help section in the footer of their site.

Size isn’t everything. Are your customers really on facebook?

There’s no doubting that the size of the audience on facebook is simply phenomenal. As of May 2011, it was the number 1 site visited on the web globally and has 500 million active users (1 in every 13 people on earth)! Source: Digital Buzz Blog 

Within New Zealand, different social networks are popular across different age groups. The chart below from Colmar Brunton highlights some of the differences.

It’s also worth remembering that many corporations and government departments ban facebook access at work. So if you’re planning to target corporate clients, facebook may not be the best way to do this - these people can only get onto facebook in the evening and when they do it will be to ‘socialise’ not to do business.   

Demographics of social networks in NZ

Popularity of Social Networks in NZ

Source: Colmar Brunton

You’re on facebook, but how do you get found?

So you’ve decided that facebook is right for you and set up the page for your business – now how do you get people to like your page?

Use all your existing channels to tell people that you are now on facebook. This could be a ‘Like us on facebook’ link on your website and in your emails link (you can download facebook icons here), a flyer on your reception desk or shop counter and any other marketing channel you use already.

Advertise your page on facebook so that people who are already logged in will see your ad, then it’s an easy click to like your page.  You can set your own budget – the minimum spend is just $1AUD – and target your ads to particular geographic locations and even interests. Check out and download the Facebook Marketing Guide May 2011 (PDF) for more details on how to do this.

Keep doing those updates on your facebook page as they’ll continue to show up in your likers’ newsfeeds, and if they find something interesting, funny or relevant they will be more likely to share it to their friends, and then their friends may decide to like you too.

Many of your are already using facebook, so if you have any tips or examples you want to share, go ahead and add them as a comment below!

June 2, 2011 at 3:59 pm Leave a comment