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How to put your business on Facebook

Posted on 19 Mar 2009 at 17:49

Of the three social networks we're exploring, Facebook is probably the one where B2C (business-to-consumer) communication is most prevalent, and indeed encouraged.

It offers special 'fan' pages for businesses, brands and celebrities to announce their news and attract followers. Click here to see PC Pro's fan page.

As well as official fan pages, Facebook also gives normal users the opportunity to create 'groups' for like-minded individuals. Sometimes these will also be product- or company-based (you will find a group for Microsoft Office devotees, for example).

Among the main social networks, Facebook provides the least focused user population; you'll find everyone from pre-teens to pensioners, bankers to builders, and from IT professionals to computer novices. This, of course, makes it a great communication medium.

Connections between individuals need to be agreed by both parties, but with fan pages and groups a Twitter-like model is used, where anyone can subscribe and see the updates.

In fact, Facebook has recently had a makeover (its second in only a few months) which makes the whole user-experience much more Twitter-esque.

For good examples of businesses using Facebook, take a look at the savoury spread Marmite and the TV programme Shameless. They both get the frequency of updates and the tone of their messages just right.

FACEBOOK TIPS FOR BUSINESSES

Don't be stuffy
If you were to pick a handful of adjectives to describe Facebook, chances are you'd find 'fun' and 'informal' on your list. It's really important to remember this when publishing news and information, and when responding to users. If you make everything too formal and corporate you'll find your fan base quickly diminishing.

Encourage participation
Facebook users respond particularly well to games, silly videos, and competitions. "What colour should we make our next phone?", "Which celebrity should we ask to invent a new ice-cream flavour?", "If you could invite any person, living or dead, to watch a movie with you, who would it be and what DVD would you rent?".

These are the types of questions that engage Facebook users, and get them thinking about your product. And they will respond, you don't even need to offer prizes.

Put out the flames
One danger for businesses is that dissatisfied customers start to make derogatory comments about your products or services. Unfortunately there's no global search facility or API available with Facebook, so if someone happens to be complaining about your latest widget it's not always easy for you to spot it.

One way to partially mitigate this is to create and manage your own official fan pages for your products. By doing this, there's a chance that when people have a complaint they'll come to these official pages, so you can see and respond to their problems, and as the page owner you'll also have a degree of editorial control.

If you do find people slagging off your products in third-party groups it's best not to become confrontational - that only results in long and drawn-out slanging matches, exacerbating any negative feelings.