March 19th, 2012 by Sten Franke
Facebook still is the most underestimated platform for corporate communications. This may sound odd, yet most companies and brands don’t exploit social media platform’s potential sufficiently.
A research by Recommend.ly shows 82% of all facebook fanpages are updated less than 5 times a month. A surprisingly low number. Even worse are accounts of local businesses. Only 6% of them engage in conversations on their fanpages.
Facebook study: Fanpages in March 2012
Furthermore, Recommend.ly found out that on average 91% of comments of facebook fans remain unanswered. As a basis of this analysis 1.7 Mio. fanpages of enterprises serve.
Most companies apparently don’t know how to use their facebook account, these results show.
The conversion into new timeline gives reason to expect better. It forces businesses to reflect on their facebook strategy. Indeed ever more companies evaluate the challenges the social network poses.
Starbucks' Facebook Fanpage
Allfacebook.de reports 8 Mio pages have switched to the new design in the first fortnight. I.e. “of the 37 Mio pages with more than 10 fans (December 2011) 20% shifted to the timeline voluntarily”, experts say. Further it reads: “The remaining 80% hopefully are planning the makeover right now.” Otherwise on March 30 there will be a rude awakening: At the end of this month all pages are converted automatically. Futurebiz offers a worthy tutorial.
6 steps to change your fanpage successfully:
- Adapt your cover and profile image
- Create highlights and allocate pictures
- Look through and highlight past posts
- Prepare your community management to the new communication channels
- Optimize tabs
- Evaluate Concepts for campaigns à integrate your chronic
April 15th, 2009 by Mo
Original Article by David Nelles
Okay, we’ve seen the missing willingness of few marketers to get into dialog with their target group in social networks. Now, it’s a fair turn to give these execs some rules on how Facebook can also work for them. Through my research, I’ve come across a really meaningful “manual book” for Facebook on mashable. Based on this manual: The five pillars for a successful Facebook Fan Page.
Networking
Connect your online appearances. Utilize you existing network presence to additionally fill out your Facebook Fan Page with life. With this strategy, you can be absolutely certain that your target group – which already actively involves in other web appearances, has an easy access to the Fan Page.
Cooperation
Use existing Fan Pages for own purposes. Why make something new, when existing pages are functioning quite well. Cooperate with existing brand evangelists. The best example is the actual cooperation between Coca Cola and its brand fans.
Information
Don’t be an advisor or exclusive information giver only to your supporters. Give also other users advises, which they can get out of your Fan Page. With this strategy, you can increase the brand image outside your own fan group. Hence, Dell plants itself as advisor for Facebook users in the application of social media for small business.
Added Value
Increase the attractiveness of your Fan Page through special offers or winning contest. Winning contest can encourage user’s engagement, which can boost engagement in the corresponding Fan Page. Good examples are Adobe , Ben & Jerry´s and Old Navy.
Relevance
Look for your target group. A proper targeting is a must for a successful fan page. Not all brands would get strong fan community like Apple&Co. Hence, a relevance check should always be in foreground of a Facebook initiative.
The following strategies should come out of the five pillars: At the beginning, an extensive targeting must make sure that the corresponding brands i.e. the products do fit into the Facebook target group. Once this process comes out with positive result, it’s helpful to check if there are big fan pages, which are worth to cooperate with. After a possible cooperation or own initiative, it’s quite important to link the fan page with the rest of the brand’s web appearances as to forward the traffic of the existing internet appearances into the fan page. In the end, the success of each branded community – be it on myspace or Facebook- depends on the quality of the contents. The content of such community must show a real added value. This could be winning contest or special offers and even promotions, which increase the user’s engagement in brand communication.
March 30th, 2009 by Mo
Original Article David Nelles
Users as brand evangelists – as multipliers of brand messaging in social media? Yet, marketers and communications execs perceive this reality as threat. Although, at the same time marketers don’t actually have any control over their brands in social media.
The success of brands in social media starts out solely through users and their engagement. Coca Cola does seem to understand this concept. The Coca Cola’s page in facebook.com has by now more than 3.3 million fans and it becomes the second largest fansite in this network. However, the success story was not initiated by any Coca Cola execs, but instead the idea originated from three normal users, just plain simple coke fans.
the Coke page, which totals 3.3 million “fans,” wasn’t even created by Coca-Cola, but by a pair of Los Angelenos who just love Coke. In late August 2008, aspiring actor Dusty Sorg was hunting for a Coca-Cola fan page he could join on Facebook. He didn’t find one that seemed legitimate so he hunted down a high-resolution digital image of a Coke can, uploaded it to Facebook and made a page.
However, a change in facebook Terms of Use last November made the creators of this fanpage quite worried. The Zuckenberg network specified that a fanpage, which devotes itself to a concrete brand, may do so only if it’s operated by someone authorized by the respected brand. Therefore, facebook offered Coke the choice whether to take over the fanpage or it will be closed. If one considers the analogy of losing control and social media, then one would likely assumed that Coke would have decided to shut the group down. Even one of the fan page creators commented quite negatively.
“Everyone has this vision that if something like this happens, the big company will send you off to Guantanamo,…”
Yet, Coke surprised the audience in this case. Coke resolved the task not by closing the group or by attempting hostile takeover, but instead Coke sought the dialog with group’s creators and even agreed to help and support the maintenance of this huge fanpage. Hence, the fanpage is given the aid of Coke’s interactive team Dusty Sorg and Michael Jedrzejewski. With this approach, Coke as a brand has shown how important it is to support fans in social media. Had Coke decided for hostile takeover or closing off the fan site with more than 3.3 million fans, it would have resulted in massive reputation risk coming from the huge brand supporters.
After the first bumpy ride in the area of user generated media, Coca Cola seems to learn its lesson. Coke has understood to utilize on users as brand evangelists, rather than to intimidate loyal fan communities in user generated media. The American beverage producer pursues with its decision the long lasting of dialog with the target group. Therefore, marketers of other brands should take this great example to heart and support their fan communities in social media. Such approach would deepen the relationships between users and brands, boost trust and loyalty as well as the sustainability of brand image.
