That Facebook thing

“I don’t really get into that Facebook thing…”, is something I hear often from business owners.  And that’s fine.

Unless you want people to know about you and/or your organization.  If that’s the case it’s time to wake up and get with it!  A little reading, a little experimenting and a commitment to participate daily in your own promotional plan.  Because if not you, then who?  

You’ve seen the stats and heard the buzz, right?  About the gazillions of people on FB, the mid-age demographic that is the strongest adopter group now, how FB is an integral part of the marketing plan as one of your ‘dialogue’ tools with interested poeple.

How does a good FB page look and work?  Check out these polished examples…

• http://www.facebook.com/washingtonpost
• http://www.facebook.com/Nissan

Pay particular attention to the use of good images and creative use of new Tabs at the top.  Make your own custom tabs using Static FBML.  This Mashable.com page does a great job of explaining how it works.  

Rule 1 = be intentional, have a plan, have a defendable social media policy

Rule 2 = choose to engage - don’t delete comments, answer them

Rule 3 = commit time - this is marketing, not aimless chatter

Rule 4 = keep it simple.  If you get stuck, call me. 

My personal FB is at http://www.facebook.com/rudykehler.  I maintain a few others including this one for HopeBC.ca, one for The Simplify Company and Simcolab Software Inc.  

The Advice Paragraph:

What you should tell your friends and children:
“Expect that everything you put on FB will be discussed at your next job interview.”

What you should tell your employees and volunteers:
“If your FB post occurred during working hours and/or includes references to this workplace, it better be part of our marketing plan.” 

Enjoy Facebook.  Then move on to Twitter…  :)