Why many publishers are now using Facebook in their social media strategy to connect with fans
There are 3 solid reasons for a B2C businesses to use Facebook over Twitter. First, Facebook has no limits on comments or posts. Twitter only allows for 140 characters. Messages have to be kept short (lots of fun for creative copywriters using the platform for promotion). Second, Twitter isn’t the most “social” piece of a social media strategy out there. With Facebook, you can directly invite friends or share content, like pictures or videos, very easily. Third, Facebook provides valuable analytics that go way beyond Twitter’s follower count.
They really “Like” me
When users click the “like” button on a company or product page, they are labeled as a fan. This appears on their personal profile page under “Favorites” and also in the list of fans on the company or product page.
This is an important step. Only fans have complete access to company or product profiles and only then can they interact by posting on that page.
Once someone “likes” your page, a clickable blurb about your page will appear in the section labeled “Recommended Pages” in the top right half of the news feed page of all of their connections or friends. This briefly states how many of their friends also “like” a particular page which in turn increases your social media influence. It’s comparable to a personal, positive review and is a way for new fans to easily connect with you on Facebook.
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Which brings us to social media metrics. The more data you’re able to collect during your campaigns, the better you’re able to see which strategies are beneficial to your social media strategy success. Facebook Insights are visible only to the page administrator. Data is collected daily and metrics are available the following day.
Here’s what’s included on the Insights Dashboard:
Fan Geographic and Demographics – age, sex, city, language if you have a sufficient number of fans, for all others it’s limited to country
Interactions this Week – total # of actions by fans in the past seven days including commenting, posting pictures or clicking “like” button
Fan Dashboard Graph – total # of fans / # of new / # of unsubscribes
Fan Interaction Graphs – # of interactions / post quality / # of posts / page views / click through rate (CTR) / media consumption / # of posts / # of reviews
For a B2C, there is no better platform for a social media strategy than Facebook. Millions of users log on to read their personalized “news feed’, post comments and reviews, share photos and videos, and even become “fans” of their favorite “pages”. They happily interact with each other and eagerly engage with companies and their products on a daily basis.
One publisher with great Facebook page is Southern Living Magazine. What social media site do you prefer as part of your social media strategy and why? Please respond below.
