Recent changes have opened Facebook up to everyone. Whoever you are, you can now use Facebook to your best advantage, to expand your reach, to promote you, to solidly brand you.
Facebook is not just about old friends from school anymore. Plan: what connections would benefit you most in the future? What really fascinates you? If you could do anything, what would it be? What industry would you work in? What specific people, or what categories of people would be your closest friends & confidantes?
For effective Facebook branding, find groups that fall in your category and join them. Make friends amongst the group members. Go back and read over your personal profile. If you were one of these people YOU want to connect with, what would be your impression of you? Is that a profile of someone YOU would like and trust?
Fill out every box in your profile. The purpose of social marketing is to connect with the right people. Who knows exactly what they will see that will make the connection happen? So jam every G-rated bit of yourself that you can into that profile. You never know who will connect with you because your favorite movie is “The Maltese Falcon.” Give them plenty of intersection points.
As visitors write on your Facebook wall, compare what they say to your brand. You must know what your brand is, have it sharply defined, then eliminate what shouldn’t be there. Get rid of anything that doesn’t contribute to your brand.
To strongly connect with the right people, put out there who you really are. Write on other walls. Put up a comment about their pictures. Ask questions. The more you are part of their Facebook life, the more chance your brand will make an impression. Plus, they see you as being serious about the medium.
Don’t make your profile too busy. If you include a bunch of apps, it will obscure the real you. Keep it simple, so it’s easy to see your Facebook brand.
If you can do video, add a YouTube application to your Facebook profile. And if you can’t do video, learn to. Visitors can really bond with you when they watch your well-planned 2-minute video. Optimum, of course, is an on-brand video that enhances who you are.
Promote your profile. Just doing a profile isn’t enough. It will sit there forever, adding no value to your life or anyone else’s. Strategy #1 is to join those targeted groups and interact with the other group members. And once you have a bit of experience with that … define exactly what would be the ideal group you’d like to join. Then create it yourself. What better way to find the specific people you want to connect with?
Evaluate your Facebook brand at least weekly. Update something. Social marketing is not a sport for hermits. You need to demonstrate that you are serious, and serious visitors will notice. You will get to meet those targeted people that otherwise would never have found you.
