There’s a large misconception that engagement is the most significant aspect of a Facebook business page. This common message is so far-reaching that most online sources claim that high page engagement will result in increased brand awareness, stronger customer relationships and hopefully, perked profits. While engagement is imperative, it’s not everything. Every marketer and page administrator knows the importance and value of engagement, but few recognize what other components take precedence.
Here are 5 things that are often overlooked, but vastly more important than any Like or comment a page or post could receive. 1. Platform Relevance
Facebook is not a one-size-fits-all social network. Ultimately, it’s a great platform, but it’s not for every business. It takes both a resource and time investment to have a good Facebook fan page, most of which is spent trying to justify a page’s value through different measures of analytics. So before a business gets discouraged because page engagement is low and Insights’ reports show more red arrows than green, the first questions that need to be asked are, “Do I know where my audience is?” and “Is Facebook the best platform to be using?”
For small niche businesses, their audience often has a greater presence elsewhere. For example, for a young yarn company, instead of jumping on Facebook in hopes of engaging with a marginalized market, they would rather be best-suited on platforms like Pinterest or Raverly, a hugely popular online knitting and crocheting community.
2. Geographic Targeting
If a business has an increase in interest or sales from a specific region, why not fully pursue that opportunity? Just like customizing advertising messages to targeted groups across different locations, the content of a business’s Facebook page should mirror the same effort.
Taking advantage of Facebook’s geographic targeting feature is a great and easy way to speak directly to certain groups within a fan base. This feature is especially useful for launching region-specific campaigns and publicizing promotions for a narrowed audience based on region and language.
To activate the geo-targeting option, click on the button left of the blue “Post” button within the status update box; the button will have a padlock image on it and is defaulted to the “Public” publishing setting. After clicking, select “Location / Language” and enter in the country and language for the post.
3. Admin Management
Some companies have the whole team contributing to and managing the business’s Facebook page. Without a system or some solid guidelines set in place, Pages with numerous admins can quickly get messy. Comments can go unanswered, or worse, another page admin might post or respond to a user in a way that’s less than ideal.
The best way to manage a Facebook Page with multiple page admins is to delegate the tasks involved in managing the page, hold training sessions for employees and if possible, keep page admins to a minimum— two or three people assigned to actively respond, manage and update the page is recommended.
4. Infotainment
Good-looking content is a must in social media, but that content has to be entertaining as well. When scrolling through the News Feed, Facebook users have the choice to consume or ignore content. The content that’s consumed the most is the content that’s the most entertaining.
Infotainment can be best described as presenting information in an entertaining way. Investing either the time or money to create page content that’s worthy of a click is something that fans will take notice of, and as a compliment, share with their friends. If the business’s resources or creative ability are limited, taking a moment to be thoughtful about an image or video caption is an easy, less-glamourized form of infotainment that does the trick too.
5. App Integration
Hiring a media person, or team, to produce professional content for your Facebook page is expensive–
and not necessary. If a business wants great content on a start up budget, sacrifices need not be made. Applications like Instagram and Viddy are free, easy-to-use applications that allow self-produced photo and video content to feed directly onto a Facebook page.
Engaging with fans through Facebook can be extremely rewarding for a business. However, it’s important to understand that engagement is not won solely through interesting photos and asking a weekly scheduled question—it’s won through an active strategy and through focusing on the things that are more important.
Joining the crew in February of 2011, Chelsea Hejny is a social media forecast and trend writer for ShortStack, a tab designing tool that creates custom Facebook Pages. As ShortStack’s lead social media blogger, Chelsea focuses her research and writings on social media advances that influence businesses the most. Her experience in marketing proves to be the perfect complement to her passion for social media writing. You can read her blogs at www.shortstack.com/blog.