[This post was originally written by Gunter Pfau of Stuzo | Dachis Group]
By now practically everyone agrees that Facebook is indispensable as a marketing channel. The marketing department has lead the adoption of Facebook within the org since the early days when Facebook Pages were first launched back in 2008. However, with Facebook burgeoning to over 600 million users, it’s time to think hard about a 360º presence for the organization rather than just marketing.
An organization’s Facebook community consists not only of potential customers, but also vendors, investors, potential investors, employees, potential employees, current customers, etc. In order to win, large organizations need to first focus on organizing as a social business – breaking down the walls between departments, appointing and empowering leadership to drive social initiatives, and developing processes and procedures that enable the flow of content and information freely between all stakeholders. Only after this foundation has been laid can a Facebook presence be designed through the social business lens to encompass the development of social experiences that enable connections with all constituents.
When looking at the practical Facebook Fan Page architecture problem, one can imagine the type of Tabs and experiences required for an organization to have a true 360º presence on Facebook:
- Introduction/Welcome: While the native Info tab on Facebook provides a great place to set community guidelines and expectations, it’s not an interactive experience that constituents can interact with. As such, organizations should build out an experience that welcomes the community and provides community members with an introduction and pathway to the different experiences throughout the Page.
- Marketing/Promotions: Marketing will continue to take center-stage within Facebook and each key marketing initiative deserves its own tab experience. To that end, it’s common and recommended for an organization to simultaneously run both an evergreen engagement program as well as periodic campaign based programs to drive ongoing consumer engagement.
- HR/Careers: Facebook with it’s vastly educated and varied global audience presents a tremendous opportunity for human resource departments. Every large organization should have a tab on their Page dedicated to talent acquisition.
- Customer Service/Support: Every organization that has customer service ingrained in their general business processes should have a customer service experience on Facebook. Whether there is a brand prescribed process for consumers to follow or not, social channels are fast becoming the first places where customers go to to complain when something goes sour with a transaction or product/service interaction. Without an internal process and social experience specifically developed to address, these complaints end up and get amplified on the Facebook Page Wall.
- Investor Relations: Very few organizations are thinking of incorporating an Investor Relations experience within their Facebook presence. While not of primary focus and a completely interactive experience, Investor Relations does have a place within an organization’s Facebook presence. Constituents should at the least be able to find the latest stock price, shareholder statements, and any other pertinent news directly within the Facebook experience.
The above are only some of the key constituents and areas within a large organization that deserve to be represented and have relationships cultivated within Facebook. As a quick homework assignment, go ahead and take a holistic view of your org, segment all of its constituents, and then evaluate if your Facebook presence mirrors your entire business. And for those not sold yet that your organization should have a 360º presence on Facebook, endeavor to find out how many of your employees, shareholders, customers, and vendors are actually on Facebook. I’ll start you off with a bit of anecdotal fodder to fuel the fire, consider the number of large organizations banning the use of Facebook within the workplace because so many of their employees are on Facebook. Once you know the real makeup of your Facebook community, let the data speak. If the data proves the above assertions to be correct, then design your organization and Facebook Page through the social business lens.