The continued popularity of Facebook presents great opportunities for your company to engage with loyal customers. This engagement, most importantly, can lead to:
- Increased loyalty
- Increased business
- Word of mouth referrals
- Stronger brand power
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But Facebook isn’t easy to master. Attracting new customers, converting casual customers into your most loyal group of customers, and propelling your loyal customers into brand evangelists isn’t easy. What content to post, how best to communicate with your fans, and how often to post content are all basic questions and formulas you’ll need to work out over time. Every company is different, and so are your customers, so unfortunately there is no one-way of doing things on Facebook. It’s trial and error with someone behind the wheel monitoring the cause and effect relationship between different strategies.
While no company is the same, I have put together my top 3 mistakes most companies make, and hopefully they’ll serve as tips for how to improve your social media strategy.
1. Engagement is KEY
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If a tree falls in a forest and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound? This is the biggest mistake I see companies make on Facebook…posting content day after day, for weeks, even months!…and none of the posts have any engagement from their fans. No comments, no “likes”…nothing. Just chopping down trees one after the other with no one around. Nobody is hearing your voice! Social media is a function of engagement. Without people connecting, sharing, commenting, or exchanging, it falls apart. So if your Facebook wall is full of posts by your brand and you don’t see any engagement from your fans, it means your audience isn’t tuned in. The only way to grow your following is by getting your fans to engage so that their network sees the conversation and hopefully jumps in. Even though I order from Papa Gino’s at least twice a month, I never proactively thought to “like” Papa Gino’s on Facebook, but because I saw a friend of mine like one of Papa Gino’s posts, I said…”Hey, I like them, why not?” One click and I’m now a part of the conversation and one step closer to becoming a better customer for Papa Gino’s. It’s up to them how they want to do that, but now they have one more opportunity that they didn’t have before my friend engaged with them.
It’s an overflow effect, and once you get the wheels turning, it starts flowing over into other networks you can’t reach by yourself. You have to use your current fans to get to others, and the best way to do that, is to getting your fans to engage with your content. Tip #1, engagement is key.
2. Your company’s presence on Facebook is operating under a personal account
It happens more than you would think. And if you’re guilty, you need to change today. Create a page for your business and tell your “friends” to move over with you. You can easily post the link and explain that you’re moving to create better opportunities for customers to communicate and exchange ideas with your company, and you want them there!
There are a number of drawbacks to setting up a Facebook page as a personal account rather than a page, starting with not being able to market your page correctly and ranging to your inability to get valuable Insights data which monitors the growth and interaction of your fans. But most importantly, the ease of which new followers can “like” or follow you, is leaps and bounds ahead of sending a friend request. If your business presence is operating as a personal page, and your growth has been stagnant, it’s not a coincidence.
If you’re making this common Facebook mistake for your business, change over today!
3. Your “Wall” settings don’t allow others to post
I know the fear. This 3rd mistake most companies make isn’t an easy one to avoid. You don’t want anything negative going on your wall. The problem is, you’re preventing anything positive from going on your wall as well. And the fact is, most of the people following your company have said they “liked” you for a reason. The good will outweigh the bad.
Open up the doors to your Facebook business and let your customers ask, say or do what they want. You’ll have to be active in the conversation to keep it going in a direction you’ prefer, but there will be times where you won’t be in control.
The key will be to deal with the situation as you would if it were in your store. Resolve any conflicts in a timely manner, offer a resolution, and if the conversation doesn’t turn for the better, offer an off the record conversation to resolve the conflict. Give your phone number, name, a time to call, or an email address that can filter the issue.
If a customer came in a busy store and made a scene, you don’t raise your voice or deal with the customer in a way that is going to turn off the other customers. It’s the same visibility on Facebook. And generally with most issues, a store full of customers will roll their eyes at the customer making the stink…same with Facebook. If the person posting is out of line, don’t be surprised if your loyal fans step in and support you!
It’s important that you don’t let these unwanted possibilities prevent opportunities for positive exchanges between your predominantly favorable audience and your brand.
Open the wall and let your customers knock!