The Facebook Newsfeed Advantage: The Seven Steps of Facebook Marketing That Fuel Success and Performance in Social Media

Drive Action DigitalThe perfect storm of social media engagement entails having an appropriate brand presence on Facebook. There’s no way to avoid 500million active users.  So before we delve into our seven steps, you must first take the plunge and create a Facebook Page for your brand.

Now that you have a page, and perhaps a few fans. What’s the next step?

Here are seven that will guide you to success:

1. Be Consistent: regular updates ensure a sense of connection between your brand and your fans.   If you decide to post each morning at 9am, your fan base will come to expect this communication like the morning newspaper.  Don’t deviate, add unique content, and you’ll succeed in becoming part of your brand advocates daily routine.  Give this job to someone in your organization. Ensure that they have the appropriate access to content, and support from management. If you don’t have the bandwidth internally, outsource your updates.  If it helps, define anchor events throughout your business year, and write the posts in advance.

2. Ignore the competition: A few months ago I sat across from one of the largest professional sports leagues in the world. I’ll call them League A. At the conclusion of our meeting with League A, they admitted that they were jealous of the Facebook Page presence of another professional sports league that I was working with, we’ll call them League B.  The comment was particularly amusing to me because League B had been obsessed wtih the percieved success of League A.  My point here is that nomatter what you do in social media, as in life, you must focus on what’s best for you and your brand.  The competition is different, I promise. Focus on your fans, your own brand and your own conversations. Never mind the competition. Chances are they’re not doing it correctly anyway.

3. Get viral: Make sure your content on your Facebook page is viral and distributable. If there has been customization of the Facebook page, make sure your fan base knows about the customization.  Allow your fans to post content on your wall.  Ask them to share content if they like it. Facilitate the conversation, set the precedent of sharing content.  Even offer content from your competition on your Facebook page.  As long as it’s pertinent and adds value, your fans will love you forit. You will become part of your fans newsfeed along with their best friends, college roommates, and spouses.  You’ll gain trust, and create life long advocacy.

4. Engage; Talk TO your fans, please do not Talk AT your fans.  They have taken the time and effort to “like” you Facebook page.  Make it worth their while. Don’t spam their newsfeed. Offer your unique view of the world. Offer your brand opinions.  Your brand must have a perspective on the world. Own that perspective.  Offer insight.  Don’t just post an article, add your take on the article.  Don’t just offer a sale. Offer it, than ask for feedback. Is this what they want? What can you do to make it better? They will tell you if you ask properly.

5. Offer Something Unique: Ann Taylor recently offered a unique dress via their Facebook page. The offer was only good to fans of their page, and only for a limited time.  The dress was made from scrap material, and they only made 500. Result? It sold our in hours. I think those fans will check in daily for new limited time only unique dress sales, don’t you? Zowie.

6. Give Fans a Reason: Think about the sites you visit daily. Why do you go back? CONTENT. The content is relevant and interesting. You learn something. You become “in the know”….let your fans into your brands inner circle. Share some interesting behind the scenes details. Think about the show Dirty Jobs. Why is this show a success? Because people LOVE to know how things work. Show your fans how you make your products. Share where your brand gets inspiration to create your products. JCrew doesn’t try to sell a shoe on their Facebook page. They tell you what’s “behind the design”…what inspires their designers. Tap into what makes your brand unique ,and then open that all up and let it shower down on your Fans. They will gobble it all up.

7. Be a Curator: Last year I met with a very large organization that had (still has) a HUGE Facebook following. They’re a household brand name (hint:they killed the radio star).  During our meeting we were conducting a mini social media audit, reviewing how often they were posting to their wall.  I was shocked to see that although they had millions of followers, they only had a few comments to each post.  What was the reason? They were posting on average 10-15 times/day!  They weren’t giving their fan base time to comment, let alone leaving time to read the content they were blasting down their throats.  Slow down. Take a breath, and post high quality content that will engage, offer something unique and give your fans a reason to come back tomorrow.

Stick to these seven steps of Facebook Marketing and you’ll be able to create the perfect storm of Facebook Marketing for your brand.