Once your brand has a following on Facebook (large number of ‘likes’) it’s important to be consistent with its updated content, or wall posts. These posts need to be well-written and inspiring in order to encourage engagement from your fans. When a brand establishes an engaging presence on Facebook, it promotes its social credibility and strengthens its social media personality. Your fans will begin to look forward to the content that keeps their interest.

Here are some ideas for engaging Facebook posts:

1. Make ‘Em Laugh – a joke or funny fact post can really get some comments and conversation started!
2. Ask Questions – the “Questions” feature in Facebook allows a brand to foster interest in something current and relate it back to their product or service.
3. Listen – brands need to post what their fans want. Searching for a brand-related keyword using Facebook’s search tool and specifically select “posts by everyone”. This can give you insight to what people are conversing about.
4. Share Knowledge – brands should be educating their fans (about anything that can be related back to the company, product or service in any way), because people love to learn, and love to pass on their newly-acquired knowledge to their friends! Here’s a tip: if you’re sharing a link, full-length URL addresses get more clicks than shortened ones!
5. Be Personable – people know there are actual people behind the brands they love.  Sharing things that will show the personality behind your brand will allow your fans to get to know your brand better.

Before every post, ask these questions of yourself in order to make sure your brand is getting the most potential out of each post:

1. Why would a fan want to read this?
2. Is the language appropriate? Brands that speak informally, or write the way a person speaks, are usually very successful.
3. Can this be scanned and understood in a newsfeed? Make it short! Concise posts get way higher engagement than long, descriptive ones!
4. Is there anyway to incorporate an image, video or link with this post?
5. Is there a way to word this to foster more feedback: comments/likes?

Questions? Please comment below, we will be happy to answer them.
Check back soon for our next post!

We already know that when a person clicks ‘Like’ they are, from that point on, connected to a Facebook page. The number of ‘Likes’ a brand’s Facebook page has is representative of their Facebook marketing success. While a custom tab that immediatly engages a user  gets them to WANT to ‘like,’ there are other strategies that lend to a brands success. We’re in the business of helping brands get to the Like so here are some simple strategies for ‘Like’ acquisition:

1. Photo tagging is a great feature to take advantage of on Facebook. If your brand hosts/sponsors/attends an event, upload photos to your page and encourage your fans to tag themselves. The tagged photos will appear on your fans’ walls and ergo be seen by their friends. You could also encourage people to upload photos of themselves “with” an aspect of your brand (a product or a store location, for example) and tag your brand. The friends of the fan who tagged your brand in photos will view these photo posts.

2. Status tagging is very popular among brand Facebook pages. If you work with an organization that also has a FB page, you can post with a link to that page by simply typing the “@” symbol and the name of the page. The post will go to the organization’s wall (attracting its ‘likers’) as well as your wall.

3. Install a ‘Like Box’ or ‘Like Button’ on your brand’s website. The ‘like box’ on your site allows users to see how many FB users ‘like’ your brand (and if their friends do). It also allows them to see your recent posts, making that content do double duty. Finally they can ‘Like’ you right from your site.

4. Use ‘like buttons’ with your sites content. When a person clicks the ‘like button,’ a link to the content appears on their wall.

5. All of your employees should suggest your page to their friends. The can simply click ‘suggest to friends’ (under the picture on the left). Employees can also list your page as a place of employment on their personal profiles, which will then appear on their walls.
   

Remember, what gets onto your fans’ Walls is seen by their friends and is a great means of personal recommendation!

Questions? Please comment below, we will be happy to answer them.
Next post… Learn some tips for making your Facebook posts engaging!

In our last post we chatted briefly about Tab/ Page content but didn’t dive too deep. We told you it needs to be engaging and valuable to users. That pages should include something fans want to share or an activity (like polls, virtual gifts, sweepstakes etc.) that users will want to participate in. Finally pages should give your fans a chance to be heard, and show that you are listening.

A good Facebook page is a custom page that is tailored to your brand and your users. The best part of building a custom page is that it is custom, you can do what you want and engage fans the way your brand does elsewhere. We’re not going to leave you hanging with just that, we’re sure you’re looking to see some specific examples. Look no further! These examples have worked amazingly well in the past:

1. Have a Pre-Like blocker (some call this Fan Gating). Get users to like your page to see its valuable content, special offers, or engaging features.
2. Offer a special promotion or discount to those who like your page.
3. Offer a free sample to those who like your page. (like Biolage did with their Love Biolage page and the massive demand quickly exhausted the available samples)
   
4. Showcases your newest product, service, coming product lines, or unique initiatives taking place on or offline.
5. Provide users the opportunity to sign up for your newsletter, continue to expand your relationship
6. Sweepstakes always work great!

Pureology's Custom Tab gives visitors a chance to win a product sample of their product

Below are some additional tips for brands from our CEO Mark Stutzman:

1. Always provide unique, high value, and relevant content, offers, and tools on your custom pages and in your status updates.
2. Facebook is an engagement environment, leverage the strengths of this unique setting and be sure you are speaking with your fans. Learn from user reactions to your page and posts and continuously tweak your presence and messaging.
3. create consistency between your Facebook page and other marketing objectives (online and off)
4. Even though you can build a Fan base quickly on Facebook, your relationship with Fans is not a sprint! Take the same time, care, and effort you put into other communications and channels and maximize the value of this incredible marketing tool!

Questions? Please comment below, we will be happy to answer them.
Next post: Wondering what else you can do to get more Likes? Check back soon to read about some other strategies.

Most Facebook users have Liked at least one, if not many, brands on Facebook. Liking brands is a critical component in the Social Marketing process. Consumers Like your brand, you reward them with value, you open a conversation with them, you take action based on that conversation, and brand loyalty grows!

While some brands are currently providing an engaging experience for Facebook users (and a reason to like them), they are the minority. Most brands drop new page visitors on their Wall where they see a stream of brand and user provided posts. If they take the time to read the posts they might find enough value to click Like, but chances are they will be on their way and the opportunity is lost.

So, if Like acquisition is job one, what strategy can accelerate your Likes? The best way to start is with a custom Tab / Page for your brand. Custom Tabs / Pages need to be engaging, you need to provide users with valuable content, give them activities (polls, virtual gifts, etc.), provide content they want to Share, show them you are listening and give them a chance to be heard. Tabs/ Pages also need to be easily updated and tracked to ensure you are providing the best user experience possible. For a few examples of Custom Pages check out the DV Page Manager gallery here.

Moving forward, think about Likes in two ways:

1. The first step in Customer Acquisition, and;
2. A critical step in customer retention.

When a user clicks Like, you are in a relationship and have a potential customer (Customer Acquisition). If they were already a customer (outside of Facebook) you now have a conversation that can easily expand your relationship (Customer Retention). The Key: give them a reason to like you; give them a unique experience!

Questions? Please comment below, we will be happy to answer them.
Next post: Wondering what you could put on your brand’s custom tab? Check back soon to get ideas for tab content.

At Digital Variant, we not only help your brand launch awesome ideas that take advantage of the social landscape, but we also help you understand it in the process. Below is the deck that we use during our Social Media training sessions read more…

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Redken 10,000 Blondes

When Redken (A L’Oreal Company) wanted to introduce a new line of Blond Hair care products to consumers they turned to Digital Variant for help. We immediately showed them the power of Facebook Applications and how a well constructed campaign can have reach both on and offline. Our campaign focused on collecting 10,000 Female Blond Facebook app users all that offered their images up for us in a photo montage to be created for Redken marketing purposes.
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