Basic Tips for using Facebook for Business, Organisations and Clubs.

Your Facebook wall is not a bulletin board merely for alerts of events and activities. It is a place for you to engage with your fans. Here are 10 tips that will help you maintain your Facebook Page.

1. Post Regularly
It can be hard to find time for Facebook, but it is worth making the effort to keep your fans engaged. Introduce a routine, add other admins and define a posting schedule. Two admins, posting at least twice a week each is a good start.

2. Content
Use a mix of content. Plain text alone won’t get you noticed. Use photos, videos events, notes and website links, especially your own if your website is up and running.

3. Check Daily – Don’t leave fans waiting.
If you are not active on your Page, then your fans won’t be either. Build the conversation, encourage your community of followers. Give credit where credit is due.

4. Increase the “talking about this”
Ask friends and family on Facebook to keep an eye on your Page and interact with it. Each time someone interacts with your Page, all their friends see it and this encourages other people to interact too. There is no point in having 1,000’s of inactive fans!

5. Comment AS your Page.
Commenting as your Page on other Walls means that you are seen by more people, Use your Page to network with other Pages, build relationships and collaborate to help each other. Show you are active in your local community by getting involved in online community conversations. Click the arrow next to the Home link in the top right-hand corner and Click “Use Facebook as Page”, click Switch!

6. Tag!
If there’s an opportunity to tag another Page, use it! Tagging doubles your exposure and builds relationships. To tag use the @ symbol before a Page name.

7. Create & Use events.
Many “empty” events are created but not used! It is important to use a photo, give a clear description and invite your friends. Ask other administrators to invite their friends too. (All pages should have at least two administrators and all administrators can invite friends to events.)

8. Use Notes

The Notes feature is one of the strongest applications that can provide high traffic. Include key phrases in your note and especially in the Title, as they will show up in google searches. Notes can be edited and re-shared over and over. Pictures, links and Tags can be added and then you can viralize your information with a click of a button.

9. Your online presence reflects your offline attitude.
Know how your Page is representing your business. If you are a business/organisation manager and someone is managing Facebook for you, do they have your businesses best interest at heart? Are they giving your business a good image? Are they even posting at all? Don’t presume, check! Respect Facebook Terms of Use and don’t condone unethical practices as your decisions reflect your professional reputation. A Business or organisation on Facebook with “friends” is the biggest mistake that amateurs make; it is a misuse of Facebook and a blatant disrespect of people’s privacy.

10. Be Social, Have Fun!
Don’t go for the hard sell. You are talking to fans – people who like what you do, respect them individually. Give them a reason to stay active. If it seems like too much hard work then maybe Facebook is not for you.

If you are thinking about getting started with Facebook or have set up the wrong way, keep an eye out for the next post.

What is Social Media About?

Welcome to my first blog post!  After a week of procrastinating I have finally started,  thanks to Breda Stackpool’s PerfecPlan4Life’s encouraging tweet: “Good morning, good morning, good morning! Prioritise 3 tasks today to get the week off to a great start!”

So what is Social Media? This is a question that I get asked pretty often as the question usually refers to my business I briefly explain that it involves using social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flikr and other media resources to help market a business.

However it is really much more than that!  For me social media is about the PEOPLE.  People use social media to help others and themselves.  We can keep in touch with friends and family but we can also choose to be informed and follow news on a whole range of activities, products, interests, causes and community events.

Social Media also gives everyone a voice, irrespective of colour, creed, financial background, age or nationality.  Anyone who is enthusiastic about something can start a simple blog, a Facebook page or Twitter account and connect with like-minded people.  New advances are making computer applications easier to use for people with disabilities, mobility issues and even for those people who profess to not knowing “the first thing about computers”.

We are generally social beings and like to feel connected; with friends and family, with our hometowns or local clubs and businesses.  This connection gives us a sense of place or belonging. As connected beings we can work together to inform and share, sometimes useless amusing information and other times, important and pressing concerns.  Social Media encourages truth and authenticity, false claims are quickly highlighted and shared but so too are the good news stories.

With the growing numbers of people signing up to Social Media sites daily it is an invaluable tool for businesses, organisations, groups and public figures to help share their good stories.  Many people start using social medai but don’t follow through. Don’t use it because everyone else is doing it but do it if it makes sense for you to use it as part of your overall marketing plan.

I’d like to give a big shout out to Niall Doherty for is help in finalling get it all up and running with wordpress!

Posted in Social Media by Karen McCarthy. No Comments