Susie Bowie

susie@CFSarasota.org

The Business Face of Fan Pages:

Finding Your Place in the Facebook Frenzy

Come visit us: www.CFSarasota.org

We connect people who care with causes that

matter.

•your name.•your business name.•your role there.

When I hear the word Facebook, I immediately ______________.

And who might you be?

“I hear YouTube, Twitter and Facebook are merging

to form a super-social media site:

YouTwitFace.”

− Conan O'Brien, The Tonight Show, June 2nd, 2009

…But this approach to social media doesn’t work anymore.

What we’re doing today

• Social Media Savvy• Who’s using Facebook?• Getting Set Up• Your Audience & Content• Attracting Fans• Measuring your results

If you have a question that may benefit the larger group, PLEASE ask.

If you have a question that may only have value for you, please see me after the session. We’ll talk then.

What is social media? Let’s start at the beginning.

Social media is SOCIAL.

Social media—like other forms of media—insists that you ask, “Where does my audience live & what do they like?”

Like dating, social media involves TIME and TRUST.

It’s not if you’re going to playbut when you’re going to play.

Social media is not a billboard for your business’s announcements.

We’re officially begging

you to buy stuff from us on Facebook. Now

be quiet.

At its most basic sense, social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content.

It's a fusion of sociology and technology, transforming monologue (one to many) into dialog (many to many) and is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers.

Social media has become extremely popular because it allows people to connect in the online world to form relationships for personal and business uses.

Social Media Positives

• The tools are free.

• It’s pretty easy to get started. Anyone can.• It provides a way to reach new audiences.• It provides a new way to connect with existing audiences, more informally.• It’s a great way to drive web traffic.

Guess what? You can also listen to your audiences.

= FREE MARKET RESEARCH!

Aren’t there dangers?

•“People can say bad stuff about us.”

• “Oh, wow, look at the time!”

•“No plan, no power.”

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Current Facebook Stats

• More than 350 M active users (103 M US-based users). 50% log on in any given day

• More than 3.5 B pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared per wk

• Average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on FB

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Current Facebook Stats

• More than 700,000 local businesses have active Pages

• Pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans

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• Fastest growing population on Facebook is women 55 years +

• Over half of all users

are ages 25-54

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4 Questions for Every Facebook Fan

Page:

1. Who’s your audience?2. What’s your content plan (What are

you posting? How often? Who’s in charge?)

3. What are your social media guidelines/ policies for employees?

4. How will you measure success?

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Audience• Primarily male or female? • Age?• Middle class? Wealthy?• How do they talk?• What interests do they have?

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Content Plan• Post often, but not too often. • Conversational tone, not formal• Post to individual FB profiles and to your Fan page • Use a variety of post types: video, links, photos, status updates• One person should oversee SM plan, encouraging others to participate

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Types of “Value Added” Posts

• Quotes, Tips, Factoids & Did You Know’s

• Questions (Informal polling)

• Fun but relevant links to videos & multi-media (yours or not)

Promoting Your Facebook Page• Offer value.

• Link from your website home page.

• Link from e-newsletters & all electronic communication.

• Include “become a fan” on all printed material—menus, business cards, newsletters, rack cards, etc.

• Make other (trusted) employees administrators

• Encourage others to visit you with special contests & discounts

Suggest to Friends

Facebook Etiquette

• Viral is good…and really bad. “Delete” doesn’t always work once it’s out there.• Would you want your mom to read it?

• Resist the urge to be inappropriate.

• Think before you post.

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Social Media Guidelines• For you.• For your fans.• For your employees.You need written social media guidelines in your employee handbook.

• Be honest.• Reflect your business values.• Respect privacy. (of clients, customers, company trade secrets)• Don’t be mean. Ever. • Only share the truth.

(See Kodak, IBM, Intel SM policies)

It’s common sense. But you need to write it down.

Look at 3 things:1. Tone.

Totally negative, neutral, seem like they could be

talked to?

2. Influence. How many followers, friends, subscribers do they

have?

3. Frequency. Is this a standalone argument / complaint or does

there seem to be a trend brewing?

-Carie Lewis, Humane Society of United States

So what if people DO say bad things

about your business?

Personal vs. professional

• Totally separate profiles

• Personal profile with some work

• Personal profile with mostly work

Check out Kivi Miller’s blog post & slide share. Compares 3 nonprofit approaches. (See reference bookmark.)

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Measuring Effectiveness“If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere.” -Frank A. Clark

• Track referrals to your website Google analytics is free.

• Observe activity Facebook Insights measures fans, comments, likes, clicks & changes over time

• Survey your clients, members, customers (Ask “How did you hear about us?” Offer Special discounts for Facebook fans)

• Unique visitors• Unique page views• Length of time on the page• Bounce rate

“Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell.”

− Seth Godin

Let’s ConnectSusie Bowie, Communications Manager

susie@CFSarasota.org941.556.7104

On Twitter: @NonprofitSRQOn Facebook: Community Foundation of

Sarasota County