4 Essential Facebook Page Practices

A Facebook page can be a great tool for your organization or cause, but only if you do it right. Most organizational Facebook Pages come together almost as an afterthought, as if a Facebook Page magically makes great things happen just by virtue of its existence. This couldn’t be further from the truth: just like with anything else, it takes thorough procedures and persistence to make your organization’s Facebook page work for you.

1. Get people to visit your page

This step is easily the most common sense step, and yet it’s also the one I see most people completely ignoring. In the case of Facebook, “if you build it, they will come” is a complete fallacy. It would be better to write it as “if you build it, no one will know unless you tell them”. Facebook estimates that there are already more than 4 million organization pages on Facebook; Without some kind of promotion, your page will be ignored and lost in the clutter before it even gets off the ground.

OK I understand. How do I get people to visit my Facebook page?

Treat your Facebook page like you treat your organization. How do you get people to come to your store? Most of those methods have the same application when it comes to attracting people to your Facebook page.

1. Talk about it

Tell your friends. Tell your family. Tell it to your business contacts. Tell the old lady on the subway. Then tell everyone to tell their friends, family, business contacts, and random encounters on the subway. Sure, it can be a bit awkward, but if you’re serious about your Facebook campaign, this is where you start.

2. Cross promotion

Facebook is easily the biggest social media platform out there, but it’s by no means the only one. Make good use of your Twitter account, LinkedIn profile, Squidoo Lens, and any other accounts you have and bring those fan bases to your Facebook page.

3. Advertising

This is the great Kahuna. The Great Dance. If you’re serious about using your Facebook page as a tool to grow your organization or cause, you’ll need to advertise. Facebook has one of the most unique (and profitable) ad systems I’ve ever seen, and if used correctly, it can be extremely effective. Describing how to advertise effectively on Facebook is a topic for another article (in fact, it will be published later this week!), but in the meantime, there are countless resources on the internet to guide you through the process; I highly recommend reading some of them before spending any money.

2. Get people to like your page

Getting people to visit your Facebook page in the first place is only part of the battle: the other big part is getting visitors to like your page once they get there. For those of you unfamiliar with the process, people who “like” your page on Facebook are similar to people who “follow” you on Twitter: once a visitor likes your page, any activity (status updates, new links, new photos) you have a chance to appear in that person’s “news feed,” which is where most Facebook users spend their time. A visitor “likes” your Facebook Page by physically clicking the “Like” button that will appear at the top of your Facebook Page for all new visitors.

I am sold. How do I get people to click the “Like” button?

This is an area where creativity pays big dividends. With apps like Static FBML (which allows you to create custom pages written in a modified HTML/web code language), the possibilities are literally endless, but I’ll give you a few of my favorites:

1. Create a “Target Tab”

Facebook allows page owners and admins to create additional “tabs” on their pages. “Wall” and “Info” are two default tabs that come with every Facebook Page, and by default, new visitors “land” on the Wall tab of your page when they visit. You do not want new visitors to come to your wall. Instead, use an app like Static FBML to create a custom home tab that introduces your organization, tells visitors what benefits they’ll get from visiting your Facebook page, and asks them to like your page.

Burt’s Bees and Red Bull are great examples of Facebook Pages that make great use of a destination tab.

2. Question

This is almost self-explanatory, but lest anyone be confused, I’ll explain: literally include the phrase “Please ‘Like’ our page!” or some variation of it on your page. You’ll be surprised how well going it alone can work.

3. Incentivize

Burt’s Bees and Red Bull also do a great job of providing incentives for visitors to like their pages. As with almost everything else in life, teasing works, and Burt’s and Red Bull make the most of it. They have very cleverly hidden great content, exciting photos and videos, and other amazing stuff under a semi-transparent layer that disappears once the visitor clicks the Like button. This method is highly effective, but only if you really have exciting things to annoy visitors with.

4. Bribery

Second in effectiveness only to teasing (see above), bribery can be an incredible tool for convincing visitors to like your page. Offer an exclusive coupon, free sample, or enter a grand prize contest, and force visitors to like your page to receive the products. NBC’s “America’s Next Great Restaurant” made great use of this tactic by offering something exclusive and incredible (a printable Buy One/Get One Chipotle coupon) in exchange for liking the show’s Facebook page. (Sadly, you missed the bus with that coupon: It was a limited-time offer used to build an audience before the show premiered.)

3. Post frequently

The main goal of any organization’s Facebook page is to keep the organization, brand, services, and products fresh in the minds of people who like your page. They won’t keep coming back to your Page on their own and won’t think of you without being asked to, so you must commit to constantly updating your Page with new and exciting things: status updates, links to blog posts, photos , videos, exclusive offers, etc., etc. If you don’t remember anything else, remember this: You have to keep it exciting, you have to keep it fresh, and you have to do it often.

4. Post correctly

Never, never, never, never use your Facebook page to directly promote your product. Post “Buy our new widget, only $19.99! It’s awesome!” it’s the fastest way to get Facebook users to do just the opposite. If your Page’s followers wanted direct mail, they would be watching commercials on TV, not visiting your Facebook Page. Instead, find things that are fun, interesting, unique, or beneficial that are tangentially related to your product or service and post about them.