Beloved and detested and highly addictive, Facebook is apparently the 4th most visited website in the world. Despite waves of controversy, like Obi Wan Kenobi, it has been struck down and become more powerful than you can possibly imagine. As a social media platform for marketing and customer relations it can be invaluable. Here are Ikroh’s Facebook trivia and tips:
Did You Know…?
Facebook was originally set up in 2005 by 24 year old Mark Zuckerberg in his college dorm as a network for American university students. It was originally “The Face Book” but after a huge rise in popularity, the company shelled out $200,000 to buy the “facebook.com” domain name in 2006 and let the rest of the world in.
Over 30 million users access the network via mobile phones – approx 12% of the 250 million members worldwide.
The Facebook movie, “The Social Network” is currently in post production, to be released in October 2010. It is based on Ben Mezrich’s book, “The Accidental Billionaires”, with the screenplay written by “The West Wing” creator Aaron Sorkin, directed by David Fincher and starring, amongst others, Justin Timberlake. Yikes.
The Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory ruled in 2008 that Facebook was a valid method of serving court notices to defendants – a world first to proclaim that a summons posted on Facebook would be legally binding. Can you imagine the comments on that post?
Recent privacy tweaks and concerns don’t seem to have made a dent in its popularity – though a “mass exodus” was scheduled on May 31st of this year, only 36,500 pledged to quit. The final numbers are unknown but 36K is still a tiny proportion of the network. It’s hard to quit, evidently – it’s just so moreish…
Using Facebook For Business
Adding a Facebook page or group to your business’ online profile is easily done, easy to maintain and easy to personalise with hundreds of applications to choose from. If you’re just getting started in Social Media Marketing, you might want to think about the following:
- Info – Add your company’s address, phone numbers, website and blog URLs and a good, succinct overview of what you do and the services/products you provide. People aren’t going on Facebook to read an essay, so keep it to the point.
- Photos and videos – Facebook is a great platform for photo sharing, with apps to import flickr feeds, slideshows, YouTube vids, presentations and montages.
- RSS feeds – Use the many RSS applications to import blog posts, tweets and any feed you have running to add to your content.
- Status updates – Keeping updates regular, interesting, and finding that fine balance between professionalism and personality makes for a good wall. Posting things that will encourage interaction between you and your ‘friends’ will help spread your visibility across the network.
- Make friends – Search for keywords and through groups with similar interests to find people who might wanna be your buddy.
- Linkage – Put a “find us on Facebook” type badge on your site, your blog and any other online platforms you use, to help people join your network. Similarly, your page should have clear links back to your site and targeted landing pages.
- Promote – Many companies run exclusive promotions just for their Facebook fans, giving an incentive to become one. Facebook is also a great place to hold polls, quizzes and competitions – its clientele have been conditioned over the last five years to expect its content to be fun and frivolous.
- Make Yourself Useful – Post answers to common customer questions, give tips and ideas related to your services, announce new products and events.
- Customer Service – Your Facebook page can be a perfect place for gaining online customer feedback, either by naturally occurring opinions and comments, or through polls and questions directly to your audience. Disputes and queries can also be resolved either through the messaging, chat or wall interactions.
- Advertise – Through Facebook PPC advertising or just on page.
- Get a URL – “Vanity URLs” are available once you have over 25 fans on a page, eg www.facebook.com/yourname to make your page easily remembered and found.
Social Media Marketing, like SEO, can be a slow-building enterprise, but well worth the effort if done carefully and effectively. Facebook is obviously one of the leading social networks around today, and can’t be ignored when conducting a social media strategy, but as with all marketing, PLANNING is the key to a good result. Start off by working out your goals and aims, and realistically how you intend to achieve these. Ikroh’s blog has plenty of posts regarding all aspects of online marketing to help you get started.
