Facebook page: A powerful marketing tool or a passing fad?

TAGS: Facebook | Social media

Kevin Sung, Client Service Manager at Silverbean takes a look at the phenomenon of the branded Facebook page for your business and exactly what it is, what it can do, why your business needs one and looking into why it will not (currently) replace your company website.

What is it?

By definition Facebook deems a page as “A public profile that enables you to share your business and products with Facebook users”. This is the very simplified definition of what exactly a Facebook page is - Essentially it is a page for a business or organisation to gather ‘fans’ and allow them to receive updates, join discussions and even view photos about the business/brand they have become a ‘fan’ of.

What can it do?

The most simplistic usage of a facebook page is to ‘collect’ fans and use the status update feature to inform your following about the latest news and products of your business. The status update on a ‘page’ differs to that from a ‘group’ as the status from a page will appear in your ‘fan’s’ live feed whereas on a group it will not making updates via pages much more visible.

Beyond the usual photo updates and discussions that a business/brand can perform on a Facebook page there is a multitude of functionality within the page environment that makes it such a powerful tool!

Use your site updates as a status updates for your Facebook page

‘Facebook notes’ is an app which allows you to update your status with the entries from your RSS feed. This means any significant update or announcement you make to your site will automatically be updated with the title of your RSS entry with a link to the relevant page too.

Facebook Notes

Use your Twitter updates as a status updates for your Facebook page

Marry the two social media giants Twitter and facebook using this app for your facebook page. It allows the function of updating the status by pulling your tweets onto your facebook page.

Twitter app

Allow your users to interact with the brand using customised boxes

FBML allows you to get creative on a Facebook page by allowing the use of custimised boxes to contain html which you can display clickable images, anchor text, video and anything else html or FBML is capable of.

FBML

Additionally if html or FBML isn’t enough why not try out the flash application

Flash app

Control the video on your page

Using this posted items pro app will enable you to have greater control of how videos are displayed on your facebook page

Posted items pro

Demographic insight into your fans

Using the facebook pages analytical tools you can quickly see the demographics of your following making for valuable information when considering targeting your market.

Why Does Your Business Need One?

Exposure to potentially 450 million users globally and growing more everyday Facebook has become the biggest site in internet history.

Mashable.com writes:

“Facebook was the most visited site on the web for the week ending on March 13, 2010, surpassing even Google in week-long stats for the first time in history, according to Hitwise. The shift in user habits and audience targeting is palpable and it provides marketers, brand managers, issue advocates, and political campaigns today with an age old choice: Adapt and change or face irrelevance and extinction.”

Almost half-a-billion users each spend an average of nearly 6 hours per month on the site –using a social network that is tightly monitored and is mostly free of intrusive corporate messaging, spam, and over the top advertising making Facebook a ‘trustworthy’ environment for it’s users to engage with not only friends and contacts but also their favourite brands.

An innovative way of using a page is as a connection hub whilst also offering information pertinent to their consumers. They use the information as added value to have consumers create a connection with the brand.

Dell has done a great job with theirsocial media resource for small businesses. For Small businesses that want to utilise social media they can use the page as a place to gain knowledge and discuss about social media all while keeping the Dell brand fresh in their minds.
5 big firms who have received accolade for making a very impactful facebook page can be found by clicking here

Do Not Neglect your website!

Increasing fans and optimizing a Facebook page can be a very time consuming and addictive task. However those should not ignore their own website. Recently uni-ball drove visitors to their Facebook page instead of their website for a 10’000 pen giveaway.

This is an extreme case of prioritising your Facebook page over your company website but we should still look at why the there are still problems in doing so:

• Not all your target market is on Facebook: There exists a barrier to seeing your Facebook page that does not exist to seeing your website. This barrier is signing up to Facebook. If a person is not signed upto Facebook or has an account but does not use it then chances are they will not be able to engage with the page whereas they could go directly to your website.
• You do not own your Facebook page: Ultimately the page is still the property of the social media network and procedures and policies have and will continue to change which could effect the visibility of the page, status updates and other data.
• Missed SEO love: If you push your Facebook page during a campaign as opposed to your own website the potential backlinks that come from it will be directed to your page instead of your website!
• A Webiste can be far more powerful and engaging than a Facebook page

Econsultancy writes:

“Facebook's massive audience is appealing to businesses for good reason. So finding a way to tap into it makes a lot of sense. But businesses shouldn't underestimate the power of their own websites. A stellar user experience and compelling content/functionality are worth their weight in gold. A Facebook Page has inherent limitations, and businesses have far less ability to create unique experiences on Facebook.”

There are so many benefits of using a Facebook and the functionality and usage is constantly improving and being developed on both internally and by 3rd party developers. I believe every business should have a presence in the form of a Facebook page if only for the powerful demographic insight and if used correctly can prove to be an engaging and measurable marketing tool.

However it should not ‘replace’ your website’s place in your online strategy but instead work alongside it as a complimentary source of traffic, retention and feedback. If utilised correctly the Facebook page could just become your website’s most powerful ally instead of it’s replacement.

Kevin Sung is a Client Services Manager at Silverbean. If you have any questions or would like to discuss how Silverbean can help you achieve your online marketing objectives through a range of high quality services; please contact Kevin using one of the following.

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