How Organizations Can Use Facebook to Engage Constituents

conviojames · August 2007

A how to guide for using existing Facebook functionality to engage constituents

tommy Spann · November 2007

This article from MarketingSherpa has some good advice. Whether your organization is building a custom application or applying a more "light touch" strategy with Facebook, there are some good tips in here.

http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?id=30182

I've copied some of the tips here with abstracts in case that article disappears

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SUMMARY: Joining an online social network such as Facebook can put you in touch with millions of like-minded professionals around the world. It also can serve as a powerful marketing tool.

Yet, marketing yourself and your company on Facebook takes a special approach. Social networks are designed to foster human interaction, not to promote products. In this tutorial, we show you how to create the best profile, how to network to extend your relationship and how to use applications to build your company’s brand.

Remember the saying: “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” Facebook can help.

“Facebook, to me, is more like the relaxed setting. I don’t look at it as totally business as much as I look at it as relationships,” says social media expert Andrew Kaplan, CEO, MediaMensch Networks. “Really, where does business take place? Does it take place in the boardroom or does it take place on the golf course?”

Founded as an online social network for college students, Facebook is now open to anyone and has evolved into a community of 46 million members. It has been growing by 3% a week since January, with the 25 and older demographic the fastest-growing segment.

To get some Facebook marketing tips, we talked to Kaplan and Neil Patel, Chief Technical Officer, ACS, a social media marketing and search engine optimization agency. They suggested several strategies to build your personal and business brands on the network.

3 Strategies to Market Your Company

Marketing your company on Facebook is closer to traditional Internet marketing. You can build brand, drive Web site traffic or sell products.

-> Strategy #1. Build your brand with applications

Facebook is an open-source application. This means that it allows any capable programmer to create an add-on for the site.

If you decide to create an application and it’s useful or entertaining enough to be adopted by many Facebook users, then your brand will gain fame.

More than 6,000 applications have been built for Facebook, and more than 100 are added every day. Their functions vary greatly. For instance, a simple application adds a “friends” drop-down list on your profile for fast reference.

The key is to identify a useful or fun way so you or your company can contribute an application that will boost your brand’s image. If your application is deemed “cool,” other Facebook users will suggest it to their friends and your brand will spread.

-> Strategy #2. Buy an ad

Facebook Flyers Basic allows marketers to buy and create banner-like advertising on networks.

Quick start:

o Go to Create a Flyer, which has easy-to-follow directions

o Pick a theme

o Select a title

o Write the body copy

o Open a preview window to see the ad before it’s posted

Ad content could include information about your company or even a link to your Web site. It could link to your Facebook profile. If you want to generate orders for a book, for example, you could link to a landing page that sells it.

Here are the guidelines:

- Ads can contain text or images, but no animation.

- For every $5, your ad will be served 2,500 times a day, with increments running up to 50,000 flyers per day for $100, for as many days as indicated (up to 30).

- You can specify if you want your ad to serve all types of Facebook users or to users on a specific network. If you are holding an event in Atlanta, for instance, you could specify that the flyer target only the Atlanta, GA, network.

- You can specify the gender and age group of the users you want the ad to reach.

- You don’t have to be a member of a network to advertise on it.

-> Strategy #3. Pinpoint your advertising targets

Facebook recently started offering Flyers Pro -- a cost-per-click advertising system that offers sharper targeting for Flyers. These follow the same guidelines, but marketers can choose to target users based on:

o Keywords in their profiles

o Declared political views

o Relationship status

o Education status

o Their workplace

Marketers bid on the CPC ads by selecting their maximum price per click and their maximum daily budget.

According to Facebook’s site: “A higher max price per click increases the chance your ad will be shown. We discount clicks on your behalf, so you may pay less than your max price depending on the current demand for your ad's audience.”

Useful links related to this article

Creative samples from Facebook:

http://www.marketingsherpa.com/cs/facebook/study.html

Facebook Enthusiast - a blog for Facebook users:

http://www.facebookenthusiast.com/

Quicksprout:

http://www.quicksprout.com/

ACS:

http://www.acsseo.com/

Media Mensch:

http://mediamensch.com/

Facebook: