Chapter 8: Big Social Media: Facebook and LinkedIn Part A

Web 2.0 and Social Media for Business

Roger McHaney, Kansas State University

Big Social Media

Two high impact social media Web sites for business are Facebook and LinkedIn. Coupled with Twitter, these three represent a high impact minimum that all organizations need to incorporate into their planning.

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3Social networking is the ‘what’ and social media is the ‘how’. In other words, social media are tools that facilitate social networking

Social Networking vs. Social Media

For instance, LinkedIn is social media. Social networking takes place in LinkedIn each time people form connections, exchange information, share, or discuss. Twitter is social media and each Tweet represents the act of social networking. Social media makes social networking easier.

4 Goddard (2012) states that “[s]ocial networks are made up of peers seeking and giving advice to make better decisions. Advanced social networking science can even tell us which people give out the most advice in the network and have the most influence. These people are called opinion leaders.”

Opinion Leaders

Social Media

Social media, a recent arrival on the scene, has provided a new set of tools to make social networks easier to create, join, manage and use. Social media includes blogs, online videos, social news, social bookmarking and much more.  

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Facebook

Facebook is the social media giant.

June, 2012, Facebook had more than 955 million active users and accounted for 1 out of every 5 page views on the World Wide Web.

Over 100 billion social networking connections exist within Facebook.

Businesses cannot overlook this global communication channel.

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Business on Facebook

Developing a business presence on Facebook is a must.

Many people view Facebook as a primary method for communicating with family and close friends. Business connections, advertisements, and intrusive messages may not be welcome.

Businesses need to carefully plan their interactions in ways that respect typical Facebook use.

Not all people prefer to avoid commercial contact on Facebook. On any given day, millions of Likes are given to business pages and business content is viewed, downloaded, and commented upon.

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Facebook ProfilesProfiles are the basic structure in Facebook and are intended for individual use. Some businesses have created profiles, but this practice violates the terms of service agreement with Facebook. Profiles are intended to represent a person’s identity.

Facebook Page for RAM Trucks

Facebook is structured into profiles, pages and groups. These structures give different levels of interaction and have been used in varying degrees by businesses and individuals.

Elements of a Facebook Page

Facebook’s Page RecommendationsFacebook recommends that businesses use pages to develop rapport with customers. Regular posts help foster relationships and stimulate an active online community. A consistent voice and authentic, original information can encourage people to interact with the business.

Page Items to Build a Community

New Content: Photos, videos, menus, sneak peeks, new product information and event announcements.

Questions: Stimulate customers to provide feedback and opinions about products and services.

Events: Information about new product launches, anniversaries, promotions, in-store events and sales.

Stories: Posts that provide stories about products, successes, or other customers.

Facebook Business SupportProvides ability to manage a page from an administrative panel. Business owner can track activity, respond to comments, and view page statistics.

Facebook locates page statistics or metrics on its Page Insight Dashboard.

Business can learn the identity of its visitors, the day of the week most visitors come to the page, the frequency of comments and which posts generate the most interest.

More Features of PagesPages do not accumulate friends. Instead, people become fans. People don’t have to be logged into Facebook to view a business page. Each page is indexed by Google and other search engines and will be listed when searches are conducted. Profiles are limited to 500 friends but business pages can have an unlimited number of fans (for instance, pop star Michael Jackson’s Facebook page has almost 50 million likes). Pages can be promoted with sidebar ads on Facebook, customized tabs with coupons and other items (e.g. maps, videos, et cetera), or discussions with fans. 

Facebook Page for Bookboon

Facebook Business Information Page

Facebook Groups• Groups are intended to allow a subset of people to interact

and share information. • Groups are a private space that can be configured in various

ways. • Groups can be secret and visible only to members.• A secret group could be used for company employees or a

set of business associates. • Closed groups can be seen by everyone and everyone will be

able to see the membership list. However, the content is only open to members.

• Open groups can be seen by anyone; membership is open and all content can be seen by the public.

• Groups are intended for use with profiles but can be used in some business settings

Facebook Group Page

Building a Facebook Page

• First, a user will need to have a Facebook profile. • Connection between a user’s profile and business page is not

public information. • No blending of personal and business information occurs

unless the account owner posts it in both places. • User may have unlimited numbers of Facebook pages and

each page may have an unlimited number of fans. • Pages can be developed to target specific posts by location

and language. • Additional administrators can be added to Facebook pages to

help with posting content and other activities.

Directory of Pages

Facebook’s directory of pages is a great starting point for business page ideas.

Mara Smith’s Approach to Building a Business Facebook Page1) Determine the page objective (e.g. brand awareness, developing a

contact list, driving traffic to a corporate Web site, developing a sense of community, or gathering ideas for new products).

2) Devise design strategy (decisions regarding the type of media, posts, and other material).

3) Content strategy determined (deciding whether photos, videos, posts, updates, events, and links should be used and in what mix).

4) Promote page both inside of Facebook, across the Web and in the real world (variety of methods can be used including widgets, Facebook ads, linked blog entries, Twitter, and printer media).

5) Engagement and retention actions. Resources required to enable monitoring and moderation.

6) Convert fans into long-term, loyal customers. Wait until fan base is approximately 500-1,000 strong. Generally involves coupons, discounts, special events, or other incentives to give fans a call to action.

Lists in FacebookLists define what people can

and cannot see by adjusting privacy settings. It is possible to create custom lists for common groups of friends. For example, a teacher might have family, personal, student, and colleague lists. By assigning friends to a specific list, privacy settings can be manipulated to only allow certain material to be accessible by individuals on a particular list.

Creating Friend Lists

Screening Content from All but Family in Facebook

Example of Making Content Visible to a List (Family) and Specific Friend (Patricia Walker)

Link to instructions about using lists:

Facebook PolicyUsing Facebook for business requires functional organization and a consistent approach. It is important to assign the responsibility for Facebook or any social media updates to the correct entity within a company. This means social media used to communicate with those outside an organization is best served by a media specialist or someone from a marketing or customer service background. Internal use of social media may come from human resources or various departmental managers.

Facebook PolicyA good approach is to set up a social media team and use that entity to manage content, updates, approaches, and provide a general philosophy. A team might comprise functional managers, media specialists, marketing specialists, copy writers, and technology people. Ultimately, a particular person should be in charge of the effort.

Social media implementation requires resources, a thoughtful and consistent approach, and a team dedicated to long-term results. Building an audience of fans will not occur overnight.

End ofChapter 8 Part A

Web 2.0 and Social Media for Business

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Slides Prepared by Professor Roger McHaney Kansas State UniversityTwitter: @mchaneyBlog: http://mchaney.comEmail : mchaney@ksu.edu