How should PR professionals use Facebook

It’s hard to believe that Facebook is only seven years old, as it is such an intrinsic part of today’s culture. With more than 600 million active users, it is a resource that PR people need to use, and use well. But as it is such a unique social network site, it’s not good enough to replicate content that’s already on websites or Twitter feeds. If you're going to use it, commit to it, update it and interact with "friends" regularly. 

First, it is important to recognise exactly what it is and what it can do. It is a way of taking part in conversations with consumers, in a personal manner. So be prepared for negative comments and deal with them honestly, as this will make you and your brand look engaged, honest and interested.

Here are top tips to ensure you use the full potential that Facebook offers you and your clients.

Using Facebook professionally:

Use software to manage your page: It’s hard to keep track of what comments you’ve seen and what you haven’t, or manage a Facebook page among a team without tools to help.

Invest time: The return from Facebook only comes from fan interactions – and you need to spend time posting relevant content and listening to achieve this. You need to ensure you have the resources and time to invest in your community.

Be engaging: 85 per cent of page interactions take place within the consumers news feed. That means people won’t necessarily see everything you post on your page. Content is selected by the Facebook algorithm to feature in an individual’s news feed. Priority is given to content with a high rate of interaction (“Likes” or comments). The higher the interaction with content, the greater the distribution across Facebook – so engaging content is key.

Be the expert, but also the mediator: Offer tips, advice, but also ask users for their tips and advice, too.

Listen actively: Use insights from user opinions, likes and dislikes to inform future postings – demonstrate that you have listened. This is the best way to foster loyalty and advocacy.

Keep abreast of conversations: Facebook is a great platform to create conversation, rather than constantly pontificate about your offering. To make this conversation as fruitful as possible, spend time understanding the challenges your customers might suffer from.

Use video: Videos and images receive higher levels of engagement. Make sure you incorporate these into your day-to-day posting.

Grow your true fans: Anyone can grow their Facebook followers with a constant stream of competitions but consider – will that get you true fans? You don’t want thousands of meaningless followers who once clicked “Like” then never interacted with you again. Check your interaction or ‘IPM’ score at http://app.conversocial.com/profiler/.

Stay up to date with features and terms of service: Facebook is constantly updating features, but you need to be aware of those changes and adapt as they come. Many brands and agencies still breach the T&Cs on running Facebook promotions. Sites like AllFacebook.com and Mashable are a great source of information and advice.

Take part in e-commerce: There is now great value for brands in incorporating e-commerce into their Facebook pages. If you’re selling B2B products online, you can set up a shopping tab on your page to drive traffic to your e-commerce site and encourage viral sharing of your products. Further to this, encourage users to ask questions about your products, and offer support on the right things that they need from you.

Think about how often you post: You don’t want people to “Like’” your page, but then have them remove your updates from their news feed as a result of being deemed too spammy.

Police the site: Facebook has implemented various filters for profanity and spam. Despite this, make sure you are regularly monitoring the page errant posts. There is nothing worse than landing on a brand page that is not policed. Use additional monitoring system tools available if necessary.

Using Facebook personally:

Use privacy settings: They’re there for a reason. Check them, check again, then keep checking them. It’s important to separate professional from personal profiles and segment who of your friends have access to what. The media is riddled with stories of what can go wrong including law suits, reputation issues or even sacking over things posted on people’s personal profile pages which weren’t meant to be seen by colleagues or clients.

Post as a page: Recently Facebook enabled administrators of Facebook pages to ‘post as a page’ rather than with their personal profiles. This allows you to post on other brands pages as your brand, rather than as you personally.

Find your personal reason to use it: The best way to run a great brand Facebook page for business is to understand how consumers really use it. If you never posted a status update or some pictures, played a game of Texas Hold’em Poker, or even hit the “Like” button you’ll never understand what a consumer really wants from a brand page.

Thanks to everyone who contributed: Darika Ahrens, sales and marketing manager at social media specialists Tempero; Nikki Alvey, director of agency Media Hound PR; Andrew Boyers, social media strategist at PR agency Onlinefire; Joshua March, co-founder and CEO of social media management system Conversocial; Abhilasha Punj, community manager at PR agency Kindred; Howard Robinson, consultant at marketing and public relations consultancy Astute.

This article was written by Daney Parker.