The invention of social networking sites over the last several years has hit the world by storm. If the average person has not heard of these numerous websites, they are probably living in the Dark Ages. As mentioned in the first part of this series, one of the most popular to come down the pipe is www.facebook.com. According to their website, Facebook is a social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family and coworkers. Focusing on actual communication with people, instead of the endless personal webpage accessory and customization utilized by the competition, Facebook’s popularity and membership grows exponentially each month.
Probably the most advantageous facet of Facebook is its use in business applications, especially for corporate communication and public relations. Enter the Facebook Fanpage: a way for an entity to not only communicate news, events, advertising and a message; but also track demographic metrics in monitoring who is interested in their establishment. With a fan-page, the possibilities are endless in terms of communicating information to a very wide audience.
For the layman, the basic premise of Facebook is quite simple. A user has a “Wall” for communication of messages, pictures, web links and videos between people and organizations. It is a simple time-descending news feed that is updatable day or night, with the option of fans to comment. For example, if the administrator of the page wanted to update on a company event, they could type a message detailing who, what, when etc. This will then show up on all fan news feeds of the entity. Above the “Wall” are several tabs used for information. These tabs entail subject matter as follows: Info, Photos, Discussions and Events. The Info tab gives basic information such as address, phone number etc. The Photos tabs detail all of the photos posted on Facebook, and also includes any fan photos. With the Discussions tab, there is an option for fans to discuss topics in an internet message board fashion. By posting a topic, others can comment and share their experiences. The Events tab is a customizable calendar used to track events the organization host. Other types of tabs are also available for customization.
On the page, there are also permanent ways to communicate information that won’t be on a descending feed. On the left-hand column there are several features. The most important is posting links. A section box is available to post links to web addresses to connect to the entity website, press releases and such of that nature. The box shows the top three links, with an option to see more. Below the links box, is another box detailing events. Fans can go to the Events tab mentioned prior to see the full list.
When using a fan page as an administrator, an ever larger amount of options are open. Facebook offers full demographic information on all of the fans that joined the page. The site keeps track of age groups, gender, top geographic locations and even page viewership in forms of percentages. With these tools at the hands of a public relations professional, the possibilities are endless to use in conjunction with the entity website and other communications networks.
Once learned and a fanpage is created, it can be quite a tool for any public relations professional. Other than Twitter, Facebook is the fastest growing social networking site on the internet. With over 300 million users, and at least 50% of users logging in every day, the website is a powerhouse (Ref www.facebook.com). It is highly suggested an entity fan-page run in tandem with the website homepage. Posting dual links on both pages should increase over-all viewership. Posting pictures, press releases, event benefits, exhibits, workshops etc. can all be main focus points for the page. The only thing limiting it is the administrator’s imagination. It is also highly suggested for fan-page optimization that a dedicated professional be able to update on a daily basis or at the very least every other day.
Stay tuned for the next installment on social networking for Public Relations professionals: Twitter!
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