I've been using Facebook Pages now for around 3 weeks and must say that I am starting to get the hang of it. Hang of it? Well, what I mean to say is that I am getting into the habit of using it. Like many Social Media tools, there is no real rocket science behind how to use it but you do need to master the art of feeding it. And, on this score, I think I am getting the hang off it.
Let's compare how Facebook Pages fronts up to blogging and Twitter, my two preferred Social Media outlets.
Blogging, in my experience, usually involves the writing of articles of varying length associated with business topics of interest - at this moment its social media. Articles generally take between half an hour to an hour to write and may involve research on various websites. It often involves the uploading of associated images and the linking of text. If the blog is the cornerstone, or hub, of your Social Media activity, then you will have to be careful of its content and will probably write articles around core business themes.
Twitter, as you will probably know, only allows you to write 140-character entries. Generally speaking these are thoughts and observations on things you have seen on the web and often on Twitter. Some people write about one subject, others about many different areas that interest them (I tweeted last night about Andy Murray winning but earlier I tweeted about the search engine Bing). As its only text you have to create hypertext links to external articles, images or videos and many of Twitter's 3rd party applications give Twitter added 'zing' - applications like Tweetdeck and Twitpic, for example.
Facebook is different, though you could say it is trying to grab the attention of those using Twitter and blogs and to try to win them over. For businesses Facebook Pages offer an opportunity to speak to their target audience in their own back yard, using a platform that they're very familiar with. Companies have cottoned on to the fact that many of their target audience, especially the 20-40 year olds, have an account on Facebook and understand wall posts, indented comments, likes and the tabs which give the Facebook experience more appeal. That is why they are migrating in droves to Facebook. But some of them, with their huge followings or 'fans' still think in terms of broadcast media and haven't yet got what Social Media is all about!
I do like Facebook Pages.
I do like the idea of having my thoughts posted on a 'Wall' and have people comment on them. The neat thing about the Wall is that you can post articles which are slightly longer in length than on Twitter. I must admit that items I post on to the wall of Marketing Tom's Facebook Page are all related to Internet Marketing and are designed to offer short snippets of information with a link to the main source. Facebook makes it easy for you to quickly post on to the Wall. The information is selected for both clients and students of Marketing Tom Media.
By simply adding a link to a video, webpage, slideshare or even an image, it will upload the information directly to the Wall as a sort of caption and allow me to comment on it. This is great if you come across news articles or videos and want to include an image from the source and let people know what you think about it. This latter element adds to the richness of the experience.
With the 'new' design of Facebook Pages I also like the ability to add all manner of information that I believe will be of interest to my clients. As you can see below clients are able to view Digital Marketing videos (YouTube), the latest blog articles from Marketing Tom (Notes), they can leave testimonials (Reviews) and even get involved in a forum (Discussions). I must say that I do like the fact that I can find interesting videos, add them to my Facebook Page and people can comment or display that they like it within 'my channel'. It also allows me to cut out the noise and display content of relevance to my target audience.
I must admit that it is early days and some areas - Reviews and Discussions - are lacking in content. However, as a business owner I need to be aware that I have to not just add content on a regular basis to but also I need to work out ways that people will start to engage with the page. Like much Social Media part of the problem is trying to work out how to kick-start your community.
Over time I am sure that I will add 1 or 2 new tools but for the time being I am pretty happy with using the Wall, adding videos and lettting Facebook stream my blog articles. I don't see any of these tools (blogging, Twitter, Facebook pages) replacing the other but simply complementing them and, depending on the context, I will be able to select the correct tool.
Oh and one final thing, please sign up to the Marketing Tom Facebook Page today!
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