How to Save Face… Book

Guest Blogger: Robert Checkal, social media guy, Flash Communications

Once upon a time Flash Communications had a group on Facebook. It was before the dawn of fan pages and it was… lacking. Times were tough and no one could really maintain it. But, Flash Communications’ recovery is finally on track. However, it really is a lot of work to ensure myself and the other students are creating valuable content for our end user. That’s where the always lovable, sometimes laborious PR plan comes in. We’ve put together a plan with objectives, promotional tactics and even monthly content ideas.

To be honest: Facebook fan pages aren’t relevant to the end users unless there’s something of value on them for the target audience.

Too many companies have them because they assume simply having one will somehow increase sales. Just because you’re online doesn’t mean you’re valuable.

So the focus ultimately comes back to the audience. Being intuitive enough to determine what content users would appreciate and being able to make adjustments as needed can be cumbersome. But stay on it!

Here are three tips for keeping up with your audience to make your content valuable:

1. Engage a discussion! Obviously, people like to add their input. You could be loaded with content, but you don’t know what people like until you ask questions. Even if it opens you up to criticism, it’s an opportunity to continuously improve.
2. Be transparent! People want to see other people succeed. When you put a face behind your people, you aren’t left with the cold, meaningless company logo; you’re left with warm personality from the very basic core of your organization’s structure. Yes, this means photos and videos. Don’t be scared; show some color!
3. Talk about industry topics! Every industry is going through the same thing, so why not converse about it? What’s working? What could be better? If you’re the conversation leader, people have a reason to come to you.

Finally, monitor your Facebook regularly. Ask people what they want, and give them the things they want but didn’t think to ask for.  Good luck to you, and if you want to see how we’re doing it at Flash… uhh… click on Flash.