By Alan Mariasch
An online platform with more than 1 billion users of all ages and social classes, of which 76 million are Brazilians (2nd country in the world in number of registered). Increasing levels of digital inclusion in Brazil, with 36% of the population already owning smartphones and 83 million people who already have Internet access.
Knowing all this, it is possible to say that the communication and marketing potential of Facebook may not be well used by the corporate world. But how do I disclose my company in this powerful tool called Facebook, and how do I relate in the most appropriate way with my stakeholders who are there?
1- Make yourself present: Would you buy something from a company which has no website? For something similar happens with Facebook, especially for B2C organizations (business-to-consumer, companies that sell directly to the final consumer). All great companies, and those that want to be great, already have their fan pages. What are you waiting for?
2- Add content: With the overdose of information to which we are exposed daily, it is difficult to stand out on Facebook with merely advertising posts, such as “Buy our product, it is great!”. They are likely to be ignored or hidden from user’s feed. It’s time to offer something more: a funny banner, a curiosity, a promotion, a novelty, a tip, etc…
3- Fast answers: Forget the “reader’s letter” section of newspapers. You do not have much time to answer your Facebook fans, especially if it is a criticism or complaint. If you delay, they can share it with their friends, and this can make the snowball grow exponentially.
4- Targeted advertising: Facebook is one of the main online tools where you can make advertising targeting your audience by location, age, gender, interests, etc, reaching specific niches to capture likes for your fan page and/or support posts, increasing its viralization.
5- Use with moderation: OK, you do understand the enormous importance of Facebook for your company and will begin to post frequently. Be careful! Fan pages with several daily posts can annoy users and take the risk of becoming unbearable. Do you like to see your feed contaminated with a single subject?
6- Planning is required: Anticipate yourself. Make monthly schedules with special program on commemorative dates and distributing posts evenly during each week, so you do not stay too long without communicating with users or do not post excessively.
7- Invest in quality: Researches done by Facebook itself indicate that the visual content is what stands out most in the network, when compared to those with only text. So if you have not mastered design tools, do not venture into Paint: hire a professional to create your banners and you will see results.
8- Stimulate viralization: Understand your target audience. Do they like a more complex content or are just looking for fun? What is their age group? The equation of a viral post is complex but goes through a few key factors: time of posting, originality, humor and awareness.
9- Benchmark: Study how your competitors use Facebook. It is also important to analyze successful cases of the network, even those from other segments. It is vital to be always aware of new trends in the Internet and frequent changes in Facebook, which constantly adds (and removes) tools, changes layouts, updates rules, etc.
10- Measure the results: All this work will only make sense if you measure its effectiveness. Analyze your posts, excluding from the next schedule those with low returns and investing in those that succeeded. Carefully study the statistics provided by Facebook to optimize your results: times when more fans are online, involvement rate of posts, growth in number of likes, etc.
* Alan Mariasch is a PR account manager in Race Comunicação
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