Utilizing Custom Facebook Pages

With more and more companies incorporating Facebook into their social media mix, businesses need to understand how to make the most out of it to help further increase their visibility among their target audience. CMA interactive art designer, Matthew Kulcsar, recently sat down with us to discuss why businesses should have a Facebook presence and should utilize custom Facebook pages.

Q: Why should businesses create a custom Facebook page?

A: Facebook has built-in analytics to its site to help business owners gauge the results from their efforts, as well as information about their followers. This information includes the total number of likes and comments you receive on specific dates, broken down by day, month and a total aggregation. You can also get demographic information on users including gender, age, language and location. This information allows you to see who you are attracting and determine if there is a market for an expanded product and service offering.

With that said, customization adds a key element to your page that serves several purposes:

• Buzzworthyness - Is this topical and relevant? Is it worth sharing with my colleagues, family and friends? 
• Repeat visits - Will it keep people coming back? Are you offering a weekly special or industry specific information that is timely and actionable?

Q: What are the benefits of using custom Facebook pages?

A: CMA recently developed custom Facebook pages for PIERS’ transportation segment, which provides comprehensive and statistical data to the transportation and logistics industries. CMA included a products and solutions page highlighting features of their key products, a media page where users can view some videos about the company, as well as a page where users can sign up for their newsletter. All the pages have common elements to drive traffic to PIERS’ other social media sites such as LinkedIn and their blog, Data in Motion.

Q: What should a custom Facebook page include?

A: The wonderful thing about custom pages is there are no rules. You really have to understand your audience and deliver elements that will engage that particular demographic.

In the case of PIERS Transportation, we enhanced the pages with a lot of mechanisms to drive traffic and generate activity. More important than the technology that was added, is the support from the client as a host.

Consider Facebook your office and the people that visit your wall your guests. When they post a comment, be sure to acknowledge them in some way. Never forget about the human factor.  Too many companies are putting information up and not thinking about it again. Guess what? Nobody else is thinking about it either. The most successful sites have lively interaction from both visitors and company representatives.

Q: What elements or features should you add to your Facebook page to make it more interactive?

A: Ensuring that you have a representative monitoring and participating is the most essential interactive feature. Almost everyone has a Facebook page.

For example, I was at the supermarket looking at cheese and there was a big sticker, "Find us on Facebook." I did find them on Facebook and sure enough, it was a page about cheese, no fan interaction, no effort. The expectation from the company was that they put a sticker somewhere and they expected the users to do the rest.

People want to interact and have fun, they just need a catalyst. Whether it’s a little trivia game, a poll, a giveaway or just discussing current events in that particular field of interest, there needs to be a spark.

Give us a call! Contact CMA at 609-297-2235 to learn more about our social media capabilities.