Facebook, founded in 2004, as of October 2012 already has more than one billion members who log on to the social network at least once a month. There are about 23 million active users in Italy, 14 of whom log on to Fb daily (Source: Facebook.com) mainly to stay in touch with their “friends” and companies that reflect their interests, receive their updates and interact with them.
We sign up on Facebook with a personal profile that, once personalized, will become our online image.
A Fan Page is the official profile of a company, venue or business to which users can subscribe by clicking “Like.” The main motivations for a person to include a Fan Page in their interest list comes from a personal/professional interest or connection to the company or brand.
Fan page among the most used tools by companies on Social
Although there are many theories about it and many experts tend to discount the importance of Facebook for a Brand, in fact the Fan Page remains one of the most widely used resources not only by companies, but also by professionals or curators of blogs and Web sites to enhance their influence on the Web; this depends mainly on three factors: in the first instance, the enormous audience reach that makes Fb the Social with the largest number of active users in the world; a second reason lies in the possibility to intuitively and immediately enter information about one’s business, upload multimedia content (such as photos, videos and links), customize one’s activities, notes and reviews; a third very valid reason is the opportunity to use different Marketing tools and resources that the portal itself provides.
Why create a Fan Page and myths to dispel
We will not go into the long-standing and unresolved debates about the usefulness of Facebook for businesses compared to other more “Professional” Social such as Linkedin, Google Plus or Twitter. The fact remains that Fb must, in our opinion, be part of a good Web Marketing strategy: choosing not to be there is itself a Marketing strategy.
To those who object that “There are mainly kids on Facebook,” we reply that in fact beyond 6 million Italian users Are older than 30 years old (Source: Facebook.com); to those who say that “people go to Facebook just to digress,” we reply that this is certainly true but that many large international companies and Non-Governmental Organizations/NPOs have their own Fan Page. Indeed, we could go on but what we would like to say is that Facebook’s main operation, by incentivizing and simplifying communication between people, results in exponentially amplifying messages; to simplify we could call it a kind of virtual megaphone.
How can a company use this megaphone?
Communication on Fb is basically based on conversation reproducing, to simplify, the famous “4 chats among friends,” and all users can directly or indirectly influence the choices of other users.
The word-of-mouth mechanism has always worked and still remains relevant today. A brand can harness this enormous potential for countless purposes, such as:
- Awareness: making one’s Brand known and improving its perception (Brand Sentiment);
- Promotion: advertise and inform about new products, services, events;
- Creating Relationships: building customer loyalty;
- Brand Evangelism: encouraging one’s followers to invite their friends;
- Produce Actions: invite the user to take an action (click, purchase, visit a page, etc.).
A winning strategy for promoting yourself on Facebook, useful tips
As we have seen so far, a Fan Page provides an opportunity to increase one’s visibility on the Web while establishing relationships with people, thereby increasing perceived value and credibility.
Creating a Fan Page, on a practical level, is really simple by following the steps suggested by Facebook’s guide; it’s another story to design and curate it optimally and take full advantage of its potential.
To be
success on social
, once the Page has been created and the editorial line defined, it will be important to keep the Profile active and in particular:
- Listen to what is being said about you not only on your page, but also “out and about.”
- Interact with users and subscribers to your Page;
- Respond to comments, criticisms, or questions in a professional manner;
- Produce quality content and update the Page;
- Engage the user and intrigue them to follow you;
- Avoiding Spam
Summing up what has been said, regardless of what the main purpose is that prompted a Brand to open its Fan Page, it is necessary to approach this medium by reviewing one’s communication strategy and style; the one who has the ability to understand the mechanisms underlying Facebook and knows how to turn them to one’s advantage will win.
