The Big Three; A Series Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Saying that social media is the “hot trend” is becoming a gross understatement as business are jumping, sometimes blindly, to get on board. With the vast number of outlets to choose from, it’s no wonder that many businesses are overwhelmed by the prospect of having a functional social media strategy.

Never fear! There is some good news for those who need to get moving.  To easily establish an effective social media presence, just start with Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Through the next couple of weeks, The Reach Blog will be presenting a three part series on each of the Big Three social media outlets, starting with the Facebook behemoth, so stay tuned and get ready to dive in to the world of social media.

Facebook: College homework killer turned primo profile marketing tool.

Once a college network and profiling site used to talk to friends, meet people, and not study for that exam in the morning, Facebook has expanded to include anyone with a valid email address, making it the largest online profile site with 200 million users [1] worldwide.  That means huge audience potential for businesses and the first place to start a social media presence.

For businesses, Facebook offers Fan Pages instead of the tradition user profile, although they look and operate basically the same way. The goal of a fan page is to attract fans (your audience) and send out useful information for them that will keep them interested and thus supplement your marketing efforts.  Be advised: there is no trick to getting or keeping fans, it’s about having and maintaining a useful and informative page, so it is essential that your Facebook page is smart, interesting to view, and updating regularly.

Start small — create a fan page with boilerplate company information, contact information, and website details. Invite employees and clients to fan the page for a solid base, then start playing with the page. Seriously, play around.

Facebook is simple and intuitive to use, and chances are, you or several people in your company already use it. Put up some photos of employees or events, post some company news, and start discussions.  Try scheduling an update twice a week to start — like posting a press release to your Facebook site, or having different people comment on the wall of the page.

The great thing about Facebook is that it’s casual, so there is no need to stress about having perfectly targeted, promotional content all the time. By all means, be smart and sound competent on your page, but have fun! Posting innocent company shenanigans like the on-going foosball competition stats in combination with promotional content will keep your page interesting and attractive.  Also, Facebook is visual — so the more photos and videos you can use (that are relevant) the better.

Word to the Wise: Social media is about being more involved and open with business, but  NEVER post something on Facebook or any other outlet that you wouldn’t want blasted all over the television, radio, and newspapers, because that’s where it might just end up.

Check in next week for The Big Three, Part deux: Twitter.

-Kate Bachman

Tags: Add new tag, public relations, social media