http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/27514.asp

How will you attract new fans and engage existing fans?

1. Promoting Your Page

The tricky thing about Facebook Pages is that you can’t friend someone the way you can from your profile. People can elect to become fans of your Page, but only if they know about it. So you’ve got to spread the word organically (and keep doing it) to introduce people to your Page and to your company.

First identify contacts from your personal profile that are either business connections, people working in a field related to your business, or who would otherwise benefit from the information your company provides, and invite them to become a fan of the Page. Send a short note explaining what you want to offer from the Page (remember, people are thinking “what’s in it for me?”) and include a link to the Page.

Next, promote your Page elsewhere online by putting a Facebook Page button on your website to help others find it, spreading the word on Twitter if you’re there,  sending out an email notification, or putting a link on your business cards. Do whatever it takes to help people know that you’re on Facebook and you want them to become a part of your community.  Don’t forget to tell them WHY to come…but that will come later in this article.

2. Defining a Content Plan

What will you post?  How often?  This is so important to do up front, becuase as I’ve mentioned in Part 1 of this series, THE PRIMARY WAY YOUR FANS WILL ENGAGE WITH YOU IS VIA NEWS FEED.  If you are serious about this effort then take the time to set a plan.  This will change and evolve as you monitor your response, interactions and (hopefully) new business leads.

What Kind of Content? This is dependent on your business.  If you are an affinity brand like a radio station, then it’s easy to post content about your events, your content, your staff because people want to hear all about you … they feel like part of your community.   Pest Control, Accounting, Real Estate…well, it might take a little more work to come up with an effective plan for content management.

Encourage discussion among fans by asking questions like: “what’s your favorite product?” or “what could we do to improve our product?” Post updates weekly, if not daily and point your fans to any off-site promotions, such as giveaways hosted on different web sites.

And keep it fun! Nobody likes straight up business all the time! Zappos, for example, has crazy videos and posts that aren’t related to shoes, which is why their fan base is well over 21,000.

It will take time to build your fan base, so remember to keep sending out invites to new contacts asking if they want to become a fan of your business Page. Constantly promote the Page in any way possible, and keep your content fresh — give people a reason to check in on your page regularly.

Check your analytics: before long you should see a large portion of your website’s referrals coming from Facebook!

How Often Should I Post? This is also not cut and dried.  If you are posting entertainment stories you are posting once a day if not more.  If you are posting tax tips, then you want to keep frequency low.  Start at once a week and monitor response.  I’m not saying you can only post once a week, I’m saying keep your tax tips or car sale information to a minimum.  Post relevant news stories, fun tips, or anything related to your business category that is more light hearted.

Defining a publishing schedule for your content
This isn’t really a tip, but more of a best practice. By creating a calendar to guide your updates, you will achieve the following benefits:

1. You can spread updates out so that you carry on a persistent but unobtrusive dialog with your Fans. Post too often and your page updates will start being hidden, or you’ll lose fans. Too seldom and you’ll be forgotten. Try to mix up different update types – a status update, a Link, a Note, a Photo or video update.

2. By creating a calendar, you can also schedule moderation periods for comments if you feel this is necessary for your brand. Most Interaction activity (including comments) will occur within 24 hours of an update before it drops out of Fans’ news feeds.

3. By recording all activity on a schedule, it’s easier to map it against exported stats data from your page’s Insights. This can show you Total Interactions around different content types to gauge which gets the most traction/conversation, and track Removed Fans against certain update types.

Overall,  just get started by doing something … even if it’s only once a week.  You’ll be a social media whiz before you know it.

I recommend the following website for more learning, http://www.mashable.com.

I get asked this question constantly from friends, associates, clients and co-workers so I thought it would be a good post for this blog.  It will also prove to very handy the next time I get this question!

If you are thinking about setting up a Facebook Fan Page for your business, congratulations, you have just joined over 80% of business owners in your intent.

Facebook is the world’s leading social network, with over 450 million users and counting.  No one else comes close.

Beyond personal networking, Facebook can be a powerful tool for brands, businesses and charities. Let these resources help you get the word out and engage your fans.  This is just a “getting set up” blog.  As with anything, you evolve as you grow.  I would highly recommend integrating your social marketing efforts with your other marketing efforts.   Cox Media Group does a great job with this and my team can help you take your efforts to the next level – just give us a call!

Facebook Pages 101

Page v/s Profile: I’m going to start basic for all the newbies..so first things first…are you even on Facebook?  If not you have to first set up a personal profile.  Facebook Pages are different than Facebook profiles.  A profile is for you, Jane Doe, but your business can’t have a profile — it can have a page.   This is important.  If you don’t do it right, Facebook will find you and shut you down.

1. Go to www.facebook.com and set up a personal profile. If you are not the owner for the business fan page you are creating then have the owner set up an account or simply create a personal account for this purpose.  If your administrative assistant sets your business fan page up under her personal account, guess what happens when she leaves?

2. Now, set up your page. Once you’ve set up your personal profile.  Click or search for Ads or Pages.  Set up your business account following the wizard.  Facebook has a great help section if you get stuck.   You can populate your page with info that relates to your business in one place with a built-in potential audience:

- Overview of company
- Website and contact info
- Press releases
- Videos
- Blog RSS
- Twitter updates
- Company news and status
- Customer interaction

3. Facebook Domain

Vanity domains are really helpful in directing people to your new FB fan page – ex:  http://www.facebook.com/yourbusiness.  Learn more about it here – http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=896

4. Creating the Perfect Profile Picture

Facebook specs recommend that profile pictures should be 200px wide, while height can vary as needed. What is less documented is how the thumbnail that Facebook uses across the system is generated from this picture.

You’ll find the system crops images when generating a thumbnail, losing information around the edge. After some initial testing, we’ve determined that there’s a “title safe” area within all images. So when you create your profile image that’s 200px wide, allow a 12 pixel border around crucial information (such as typography or a logo) to allow for automatic cropping.  Also bear in mind that regardless of the shape of your profile image, Facebook thumbnails are square (with rounded corners), and sized based on the length of the shortest side of your image. So when designing rectangular profile pictures, make sure to keep your desired thumbnail imagery within a square boundary.

That’s it!  You’re done creating your Facebook Fan Page for your Business.  You will continue to tweak and add content as you get more comfortable, but don’t go crazy with design.  One of the most important things to understand is the overwhelming majority (over 95%) of your fans (once you get them) will not go to your facebook fan page.  They will interact with your via their news feed.  SO, it’s important to start thinking about the kind of content you will post or fan acquisition and engagement.

Stay tuned for Part 2!

Customers of Seattle-based bag manufacturer Tom Bihn are as passionate about the product as the company’s 22-person staff.

The company’s namesake has been designing and making bags for more than 20 years. He always has a sketchbook, regularly works on up to 10 designs at once and always sews the prototype of the new product himself, according to the company’s Web site.

Tom Bihn has a Seattle factory showroom/retail store that is open to the public one day per month. Otherwise, the bags are available exclusively through its Web site. The company’s social media presence is rich with customer experience about their products and photos of bag-toting fanatics all over the world.

What makes Tom Bihn’s social media efforts successful? Among the keys are product passion and that the social media networks are updated regularly. Engagement is going on among members on these platforms, not simply the company broadcasting promotional messages. Each social media platform has unique Tom Bihn content that doesn’t overlap with the other platforms the company is on, yet at the same time, they’re integrated and linked to each other.

“All of us at Tom Bihn are fortunate to work for a company that makes truly innovative and high quality bags — bags that we are proud to stand behind, bags that we use ourselves,” said Darcy Gray, vice president at Tom Bihn, in an email interview. “While Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, our blog and the Tom Bihn Forums give us an endless variety of ways to communicate who we are to our customers, we don’t think those efforts would resonate if we weren’t so excited about our company and what we do.”

Gray manages the Tom Bihn Facebook Fan Page, forums, blogs, Flickr and Twitter. She said updating them is a lot of fun and works on them whenever she checks her iPhone. Yash Khemani, a longtime customer and friend, is the master behind the Tom Bihn channel partner videos on YouTube.

She said engaging directly with customers began with the TomBihn.com forums.

“In 2006, it occurred to us that our customers and potential customers could get significant value from talking with each other as opposed to just with us. They could share their experiences of their Tom Bihn bags, offer advice for selecting the right bag to new customers, and post reviews/pictures of their experiences with their bags,” she said.

She said the company’s success on social media starts with their bags and that social media tools have given them more powerful ways to connect.

“Anytime a company is given more ways to directly communicate with customers, it’s an opportunity for growth. Tom Bihn designs all of our bags himself. Interest in a particular type of bag might encourage him in a certain direction,” Gray said.

For example, Bihn is in the process of designing, among other things, a personal carry-on travel bag and a camera insert. If we see a lot of interest in the Tom Bihn forums and on Facebook in the camera insert, it might influence the company to release that product first.

“We’re still who we’ve always been, doing what we’ve always done, we’re just able to be closer to the pulse of our customer base,” she said.

TomBihn.com’s user forums have been active since 2006 and have 1,823 members. Threads range from 30 to more than 700. Topics include company news, reviews, pictures and video and travel news. The company curates forum posts such as those of photos on its blog.

Blog Is Central Hub

The company’s lively blog is a mainstream hub of the latest company information. It features everything from e-mail reviews from customers with photos to timeline rundowns on new product launches to hints on new products that are top secret, but coming soon.

A-Ha Moments On Flickr

The Tom Bihn Flickr group has 278 items posted and more than 115 members. The stream isn’t just photos of people wearing their bags while traveling or at the airport. Informative photos show how much can fit inside a bag (and weight) and how items look once they’re in the bag. What’s also interesting are the user comments. Someone commented on a photo in the Flickr group that they had been looking everywhere for a photo of that exact bag and wanted to know if the bag was still available. Another person chimed in that they were also looking for that same bag.

Two Way Engagement on Facebook

Tom Bihn’s Facebook fan page has more than 500 members. There are posts to the wall a few times a week by both fans and the company. Gray posts status updates such as photos and links to new products, reviews as well as shipping deals. One post even calls for fans to submit questions they would like to ask Tom Bihn himself for an upcoming e-mail newsletter. The company also incorporates its blog posts and YouTube Channel videos into the fan page.

Demo Videos on YouTube

Tom Bihn has had its own Channel partner page since 2006. The page has received nearly 20,000 total upload views. Videos are uploaded about every two weeks and most clips have several hundred views. The videos are thorough demonstrations of a bag’s features — often by Tom Bihn himself. They cover topics including what he uses a particular bag for, items he fits in which compartments, accessories he uses with it and what the bag is made of.

Tweets are a Content Mix

Tom Bihn’s Twitter account @tombihn is a well-branded Twitter profile page with the company logo, photos of products and contact information. There’s a good mix of retweets, company mentions on Twitter, thank you messages for customers who visited its factory showroom, announcements of new product updates, and even travel regulation notices from the Transportation Safety Administration. Tweets also incorporate links and photos from the company’s blog.

Gray said that seeing Tweets (like these below) makes them realize that this feedback might have never made their way to them if email or phone was the only way of communication with their customers.

“You can’t go wrong with a @tombihn,” a Twitter user said.

Another tweet: “Rains like today in Chicago make me happy I have a good @tombihn bag, I’m soaked, but the computer is nice and dry.”