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Facebook Pages for Business

Best Practice Guide

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Facebook Pages for Business

Best Practice Guide

Published May 2012

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Contents
1. Introduction ..................................................................... 5
1.1. 1.2. About this report ....................................................................... 5 About Econsultancy .................................................................. 6

2. Facebook statistics ........................................................... 8

2.1. 2.2. 2.3. 2.4. Facebook usage ......................................................................... 8 Facebook pages ......................................................................... 8 Facebook in business ................................................................ 8 Facebook demographics ............................................................ 9

3. The business case for investing in your Facebook pages .............................................................................. 10 4. Getting started ............................................................... 12
4.1. 4.2. Setting your goals .....................................................................12 Basic apps you should add to your page ................................... 13

5. How to make a Facebook page ...................................... 14

5.1. 5.2. 5.3. 5.4. 5.5. 5.6. 5.7. 5.8. 5.9. 5.10. 5.11. 5.12. How to create a killer Facebook Timeline ................................14 How to use the Admin Panel ................................................... 22 Personalised views for fans ..................................................... 24 Displaying your content .......................................................... 25 The Activity Log ...................................................................... 27 How to create a fantastic Facebook app .................................. 28 How to create a wonderful user experience ............................ 45 Make Facebook your social media hub ................................... 53 How to create compelling content for your page ..................... 59 Moderating the conversation .................................................. 78 Putting yourself on the map .................................................... 82 Dont be afraid to experiment ................................................. 88
5.12.1. Tools to track your success ...................................................... 88

5.13. Turn your Facebook page into an f-commerce site ................. 92

6. Measurement and ROI .................................................. 93 7. Case study: Macys ......................................................... 97

7.1. The Timeline ........................................................................... 97
Page 3 Facebook Pages for Business A Best Practice Guide

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7.2. 7.3. 7.4. 7.5.

Functionality and design ......................................................... 99 Visibility and SEO .................................................................. 101 Content ................................................................................. 103 Customer service and page management ...............................107

8. Checklist ....................................................................... 108 9. Resources and further reading ..................................... 111

9.1. 9.2. 9.3. 9.4. Econsultancy reports ..............................................................111 Econsultancy articles ............................................................. 112 Econsultancy training ............................................................ 112 External resources ................................................................. 112

Facebook Pages for Business A Best Practice Guide

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1. 1.1.

Introduction
About this report
This guide to Facebook pages will help you understand how to optimise your brands presence on the worlds biggest social network. Facebook pages are incredibly useful to businesses as a means to engage consumers. They can be used to grow revenues, support customers, extend marketing campaigns, generate extra web traffic and boost brand awareness. Creating the perfect Facebook page for your business takes time, planning and resources. But judging by some of the success stories, it is worth it. There are many different approaches and tactics that can be employed to win at Facebook. This guide will examine the variety of ways in which Facebook is being used by brands, and aims to define best practice in this space. By following our Golden Rules you will soon be on the road to Facebook success. With more than 50 recommendations and 80 examples of real world Facebook pages, this guide should provide you with plenty of ideas to help you support your brands aims and objectives.

Facebook Timeline
On 30th March 2012, Facebook switched all existing brand pages to its new Timeline format, replacing the Wall with a more visually appealing format. The timeline update represents a significant change for brands and marketers using Facebook as part of their social media strategy. In the past, the emphasis for Facebook marketers was on custom apps and landing pages, which could easily be set as the default landing page for any or all visitors. The new Timeline format means that pages are now limited to a maximum of 12 apps. You can still direct visitors to these, but only via a dedicated URL. All other visitors will arrive directly on your Timeline. This may seem to make life more difficult for marketers, however it actually offers a more personal and useful experience for users, and encourages best practice and community engagement by brands. Weve completely updated this report to reflect these changes, with a complete overview of Timeline which includes optimisation tips and best practice, all backed up with lots of examples and screenshots from brands that are really making the most of the new format.

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1.2.

About Econsultancy
Econsultancy is a digital publishing and training group that is used by more than 300,000 internet professionals every month. The company publishes practical and timesaving research to help marketers make better decisions about the digital environment, build business cases, find the best suppliers, look smart in meetings and accelerate their careers. Econsultancy has offices in New York, London, Dubai, Singapore and Sydney, and hosts more than 100 events every year around the world. Many of the world's most famous brands use Econsultancy to educate and train their staff Econsultancy hosts over 100 events a year, including conferences such as the Online Marketing Masterclasses, Future of Digital Marketing and Digital Cream as well as regular Roundtables, the annual Innovation Awards and a range of social events. Econsultancy.com attracts 300,000+ unique users per month where they access reports, read the blog and take part in discussions in the forums. Econsultancy members can link up with other members and digital suppliers through our directories, as well as find a new job or new digital talent using the job listings. Some of Econsultancys members include: Google, Yahoo, Dell, BBC, BT, Shell, Vodafone, Virgin Atlantic, Barclays, Deloitte, T-Mobile and Este Lauder. Call us to find out more on +44 (0)20 7269 1450 (London) or +1 212 699 3626 (New York). You can also contact us online. Join Econsultancy today to learn whats happening in digital marketing and what works.

About the authors

Matt Owen is Social Media Manager at Econsultancy, a keen blogger, writer and occasional musician; he manages and produces content for Econsultancys social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and more, engaging with more than 100,000 users daily. You can follow Matt on Twitter (@Lexx2099) or connect with him on LinkedIn (http://uk.linkedin.com/in/mattowenweb). David Waterhouse is Head of Content at global social video platform Unruly Media and a member of the IAB's Social Media Council. You can follow David on Twitter (@davidwaterhouse) and connect on LinkedIn (http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/david-waterhouse/6/712/595). Chris Lake is Director of Product Development at Econsultancy, an entrepreneur and a longterm internet fiend. He currently oversees the company's editorial and social media strategies, is the co-programmer of Econsultancys bigger annual events (JUMP and FODM), and is a cheerleader for innovation within the organisation. You can connect with Chris on Twitter (@lakey) or LinkedIn (http://linkedin.com/in/chrislake).

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Contributing reviewers
Our thanks go out to the following industry experts whom we invited to peer review this Facebook pages guide. Their contributions are greatly appreciated Adarsh Rangaswamy has worked in various e-commerce marketing roles in the retail and leisure industries. You can follow him on Twitter (@adarshry) or find him on LinkedIn (http://uk.linkedin.com/in/adarshrangaswamy). Erin McDonald is a dedicated Social Media Manager who is passionate about creating unique digital campaigns and growing organic communities online. Find her on Twitter (@LadyEz) or LinkedIn (http://uk.linkedin.com/in/erinhmcdonald). Jan Rezab is the CEO of Candytech a Facebook marketing company focused on managing and monitoring social media presence for brands and media companies Candytech runs a portal called Socialbakers, the biggest resource for marketers to find out about interesting Facebook statistics. Rishi Lakhani is a Search Strategist who works with a range of Big Brands on SEO and Online Marketing, including Social Media Strategy for Search Integration. He takes active interest in the UK and International Search Community. You can find Rishi on Twitter (@rishil), or at his blog Explicitly.me.

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2.

Facebook statistics
Facebook is huge. Here are some useful numbers to help you understand the scale of the opportunity, while hopefully convincing the boss that this is something worth spending a little time and money on. This list contains the latest information available in each case. For more information, you may also be interested in our Social Media Statistics report.

2.1.

Facebook usage
Facebook had 845 million monthly active users at the end of December 2011. [Source: Facebook Pressroom, March 2012]

2.2.

Facebook pages
The average user is connected to 80 pages, groups and events. [Source: Econsultancy Facebook Innovation Briefing, April 2011]

2.3.

Facebook in business
65% of companies use Facebook as part of their marketing strategy. [Source: Econsultancy / Guava UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report, May 2011]

2.4.

Facebook demographics
The median age for Facebook is now 38, up from 33 in May 2010. [Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project, June 2011]

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3.

The business case for investing in your Facebook pages

You can set up a Facebook page for free, but if you want to do things properly it is going to require a budget. It takes time and effort, and potentially people power, if you want to get the best out of Facebook. If dont have a budget, but are looking towards senior management buy-in, then use this handy cut-out-and-keep business case. These points will help your internal presentation in trying to convince the boss to put resources towards Facebook as an engagement channel. Its not expensive. Setting up a page is cheap. A lot of the apps are free. In time you may have to commit more resources, but that would be a sign that you are winning. Its viral. Thanks to the many apps and newsfeeds on offer, Facebook provides you with the perfect tools to connect to its huge user base. Its incredibly sticky. Facebook recently overtook...

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4.

Getting started
In this section we will give top tips about the things you should think and put in place before setting up your Facebook page. For example, you should set some goals and targets. These will to some degree determine the approach you take, and will help you shape the design and functionality of your Facebook page (or pages). We will also recommend some of the basic apps that you can use to create the perfect page for your brand.

4.1.

Setting your goals

So to begin with, you need to ask yourself what you want to achieve. Involve your team and figure out what you want to do. There are plenty of options. For example, brands are using Facebook to achieve the following objectives: Build and...

4.2.

Basic apps you should add to your page

Adding the right apps to your page can immediately transform it. You can improve functionality and design to create a special experience for your Facebook visitors. Since the introduction of Timeline for brands in March 2012, there are fewer functional apps available for businesses, with the emphasis on creating original apps and content. This will surely change over time as more development takes place. For the moment, we have identified a few basic apps that you should think about adding to your page. Log into Facebook before clicking on any of the following links. 1. Static iFrame app There are a number of iFrame apps available; including the popular Static HTML app, but the Static iFrame app is one of the best. It enables you to easily create custom landing pages for Facebook using a WYSIWYG editor. You can upload images and code using HTML directly within the app. The app has recently been updated to include the new wider Timeline format. 2. Twitter This app could save you a...

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5.

How to make a Facebook page

In this section of the report we will focus on every aspect of your page and give best practice recommendations and tips on how to achieve your business goals. We will show you lots of screenshots and examples to shine a light on how other brands are using Facebook.

5.1.

How to create a killer Facebook Timeline

First of all well take a step-by-step look at Timeline, with notes on ways to optimise each element to really engage your audience. The image below shows Econsultancys Timeline page. Lets run through the default features that you will need to address.

Images
Your Facebook page now requires two main images. Firstly, a Cover Photo:

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5.2.

How to use the Admin Panel

Whenever you set up a Facebook page, you will be given an option to add other Admins that is, people who can manage your page for you. Adding new admin personnel is easy: Example 6: The Admin Panel

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5.3.

Personalised views for fans

Its also worth noting that Facebook provides a variety of personalisation options for visitors to your page. These include targeted ads, and information about the visitors connections who already like your page, or who have interacted with the page recently. Heres a screenshot from the Io9 blog page:

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5.4.

Displaying your content

Facebook Timeline also allows you to feature your most engaging content in new and interesting ways. Once youve posted a piece of content on your Timeline, mouse over the small icons in the top right corner of the post and youll see several options.

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6.

Measurement and ROI

Perhaps you will follow our suggestions and build a fantastic Facebook page. But then what? Well, no doubt your boss might ask you about how it is performing. Has it all been worth it? Has the money and time you have put into the project been well invested? You might have 25,000 fans, but what is the value to the business? The bad news is there are no simple answers, no profit and loss sheet to easily equate exactly how much cash you have spent and how much cash you got back. Why? Because social media assets such as a Facebook page offer a lot more value than can be written down on a balance sheet. These include...

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Tip 2: Think big

To judge the success of your Facebook page, you need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Here are a couple of things to consider: Set yourself a decent amount of time for your Facebook page to achieve its goals, whatever they might be. like a fine wine, it needs a decent amount of time to breathe. Look at your overall business performance over that period, rather than just the simple metrics of your Facebook page. Judging such things as how many fans you have or how much traffic has been driven to your e-commerce website from your Facebook page is one thing, but also take into account such things as improved profits, customer satisfaction and sales.

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7.

Case study: Macys

To help give you a clearer picture of what we are talking about, we have conducted a case study of Macys Facebook page. In it we will look at exactly the same areas we explained in the report, with screenshots to help highlight exactly what we are talking about. With five million fans, it is clear that retail chain Macys is doing something right with its Facebook page. A strong brand like Macys will attract these kinds of numbers by virtue of its reach and brand awareness, but there is a lot to learn from the way it engages with its community on Facebook. Lets look a little closer.

7.1.

The Timeline
Macys Timeline has a great cover image, showing exactly what the Worlds largest store is all about. Example 65: Macys Cover Photo

In addition, Macys uses every social media best practice in the book when creating content.

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All of the posts on the Macys Timeline have large, clear images, contain links to the Macys website with clear calls-to-action, and ask users to engage by asking for questions and feedback. Example 66: Macys Timeline updates

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Finally, Macys have also taken time to...

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8. Checklist
This comprehensive checklist of best practice issues and their associated success factors can be used to audit your Facebook pages. In the grid below, we have compiled a list of tests for each area we have looked at in the report to give a readily accessible overview of the points to consider, with space for you to record your sites performance, either on its own or against a competitor.

Best Practice Issue Getting started

Success Factor
SAMPLE 1. 2. 3. 4. Sample Sample Sample Sample Sample Sample Sample Sample Sample

Tests

Optimising your apps

SAMPLE

5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

User Experience

SAMPLE

10. Sample 11. Sample 12. Sample 13. Sample 14. Sample

Social media hub

SAMPLE

15. Sample 16. Sample 17. Sample

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18. Sample 19. Sample 20. Sample 21. Sample 22. Sample 23. Sample

Content

SAMPLE

24. Sample 25. Sample 26. Sample 27. Sample 28. Sample 29. Sample 30. Sample

Customer service

SAMPLE

31. Sample 32. Sample 33. Sample

Moderation

SAMPLE

34. Sample 35. Sample 36. Sample 37. Sample 38. Sample 39. Sample 40. Sample 41. Sample 42. Sample 43. Sample 44. Sample

Putting yourself on the map

SAMPLE

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45. Sample 46. Sample 47. Sample 48. Sample 49. Sample 50. Sample

Experimentation and optimisation

SAMPLE

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9.
9.1.

Resources and further reading

Econsultancy reports
Social media statistics Global: http://econsultancy.com/reports/global-social-media-statistics UK: http://econsultancy.com/reports/uk-social-media-statistics USA: http://econsultancy.com/reports/north-america-social-media-statistics

State of Social Report 2011 http://econsultancy.com/reports/state-of-social

Quarterly Digital Intelligence Briefing: Social Data http://econsultancy.com/reports/third-quarterly-digital-intelligence-briefing

Social Media Management Systems Buyers Guide http://econsultancy.com/reports/social-media-management-systems-buyers-guide

Value of Social Media Report http://econsultancy.com/reports/value-of-social-media-report

Social Media and Online Brand Monitoring Trends Briefing http://econsultancy.com/reports/social-media-and-online-brand-monitoring-trends-briefing

Social Media & Online PR Business Case http://econsultancy.com/reports/social-media-online-pr-business-case

Facebook Innovation Briefing http://econsultancy.com/reports/econsultancy-facebook-innovation-briefing

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9.2.

Econsultancy articles
101 examples of f-commerce The ultimate guide to the Facebook Edgerank algorithm SEO tips for Facebook pages Which Facebook marketing metrics matter the most? 10 excellent examples of Facebook Brand Timelines Facebook's six tips for Timeline transition Five tips for using Facebook for customer service Why do people follow brands on Facebook?

9.3.

Econsultancy training
Facebook for brands A complimentary course to this guide. You'll be shown the practical elements to creating your Facebook Timeline and be equiped with the confidence to build your brands community, engineer campaigns and broaden your social media strategy.

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