Understanding Facebook changes

By Carolyn Kiser

The most recent Facebook update is a notable opportunity for companies and brands. The traditional company “pages” will now be similar to an everyday user’s profile page. This update will provide companies and brands more opportunity to interact with their fans, just as everyday users interact. Now, information brands post to their pages will now be put into the “stream” (i.e. news feed/status update). It is these channels that really ignite activity and conversations among users.



While this is a tremendous opportunity for brands, there also lies the danger. Only companies that practice social media etiquette can truly leverage this new opportunity. Let me explain. With more information being fed to a brand’s fans, it will be up to the fans to filter the information they want to see. So now more than ever, companies need to respect social media etiquette. If brands abuse this relationship and “pump and dump” information that is not relevant to their fan base, they will likely be filtered and ultimately “unfriended,” thus decreasing their fan base and tarnishing their brand image.

With that in mind, here are a few guiding principles for companies using Facebook fan pages:

• Be relevant: Don’t use Facebook exclusively as a promotional/advertising channel. Instead, apply some PR principles to determine what news feeds are worthy and relevant to your fan base.
  
• Talk and Listen: Make sure you are always having a two-way conversation with your fans. Know your community.
  
• Don’t ramble: People don’t want to read paragraphs of information. Be compelling and to the point. And don’t repeat, repeat, repeat.
  
• Be real: You have fans for a reason and they like your brand for a reason so it is important to stick to your brand guidelines and speak in your brand voice.
  
• Filter: As a general rule, if you would not want your message/post in the mass media, don’t put it on Facebook either.