5 Simple Ways to Build Your Brand with the New Facebook

Facebook has been likened to the shop window of the 21st century  when it comes to brand awareness. Just as consumers increasingly research their purchases online to obtain the best deals, so too do prospective donors increasingly research nonprofits online.  So how we manage our social networking presence is of prime importance if we want to connect with all those ‘shoppers’ out there.

While it’s not my favorite ‘shop,’ I realize this is largely a personal rather than a professional thing (based on privacy concerns; check out this great post from Beth Kanter on the subject) and not what I know to be true for businesses – for profit and nonprofit alike.  So, love it or hate it, it’s still the largest social network around – on target to reach over one billion users — and can’t be ignored.

With so many ‘shoppers’ out there, Facebook is a powerful way to define and build our brand.  There’s lots of fancy things to do with Edgerank* and ads and apps. But since the complexity of ‘fancy’ may stop many of us from doing anything, let’s talk about a couple of simple things you can do to encourage folks to come inside your doors.

            If we want folks to shop at our organization we need to appear inviting.  We also need to send the right message about what folks can expect to experience when they connect with us. In 5 Ways to Perfect Your Facebook Welcome Image a marketing expert gives us some great tips to make our Facebook brand page stand out from the crowd.  He also gives some examples of what not to do.  It’s a good read, and I recommend it.  The for-profit folks are figuring this all out for us. We just need to steal their best ideas. I especially like:

            An important way to make your brand stand out is to create a custom welcome image that displays messaging to users who have not yet “Liked” your brand. Don’t think your brand needs one? Think again. When a user visits your Facebook page, she may see your wall but that’s not enough. A custom welcome image is a necessary form of communication. It’s the first connection between your brand and potential new fans who haven’t formed a strong opinion about your brand. It informs them about the benefits of “Liking” your page and joining your brand’s community. Explain the benefits of becoming a fan: exclusive content, live chatting, exclusive pictures and videos… These are great incentives for users to click the “Like” button and become a fan. Don’t expect your potential fans to guess why they should join your community – tell them. The more potential fans are educated about why they should “Like” you on Facebook, the higher percentage that will do so. Think of it as packaging. You spend lots of time and money making sure your brand’s packaging or image communicates who you are to customers – why wouldn’t you do that on your Facebook page?

            To engage fans, a brand should keep visitors on the page, encourage them to interact with the brand, and attempt to convert them into fans. (Check out the great “makeover” of the Project Runway welcome page in the aforementioned article).

            Content is the first step to using our Facebook presence as a gateway to our brand. It must be fresh, specific to the brand, and give the visitor a reason to stick around. The next step is to have visitors interact with the page and share what they’ve seen. When you’ve got time to have somebody give some thought to this, it would be a good idea.  Like every other messaging strategy we have, it’s imperative to develop a content marketing strategy and editorial calendar for Facebook (IMHO). It also means having good content curation skills and being able to engage with our audiences; we can’t just passively fling content garbage at them.

      As noted above, we can’t be passive on Facebook. If we want folks to interact with us, we must interact with them. This means getting busy with updates that drive likes, shares,
comments and links. In 10 Powerful Tips To Stimulate Facebook Fan Interaction we’re treated to some great advice about: (1) personalizing updates; (2) updating headlines; (3) adding relevant images; (4) defining consistency; (5) being constituent centered; (6) offering meaningful benefits; (7) being fun and creative; (8) providing indispensible information; (9) helping fans achieve their goals, and (10) being social ourselves. There are also good tips in 5 Ways to Increase Your Facebook Fan Engagement from Social Media Examiner. One of the best tips is to use calls to action to get your content shared.  So… check it out!

      We need to make it easy for folks to find us by putting our Facebook icon on all of our stationery, in our email signatures, in print ads, on posters and on every single page of our website and blog. Showing the world we have a solid social presence is an essential step to building our networks and developing closer bonds with our audiences.

            This is a topic unto itself and I encourage you to explore the internet for scads of information and great advice on the topic.  The important thing to know is that the changes give more control to users.  This means we have to be even more constituent-centered and put ourselves in the shoes of our users.  What do they care about?  What questions do they ask us?  How can we provide content that’s really helpful to them?  The more relevant we are to them, the more they’ll visit us.  And the more they visit us, the more likely we’ll rise to the top of their “Timeline”.  When we’re there, everyone on their network we’ll see us.  It’s ‘free’ advertising, but we do have to work for it. Here’s an article, Facebook Timeline for Nonprofit Organizations, to get you started.