In my previous blog post, I wrote about some general thoughts about creating a Facebook Page for your brand. This time I want to be a little more specific.
Again, I am reflecting on some common questions asked by clients:
- ”Should we have one global page or a page for each market?”
- ”How do we get a lot of Likes?”
- ”What should do we do about content and maintenance?”
- “Should content only be available in return for a Like?”
If you are in charge of an international brand, a Facebook Page is a great way to reach a global audience and it is probably the most important part of your social media brandbuilding portfolio. As a rule, you should focus on one strong page and compete with the other multinationals brands for the attention and dedication of your customers. The last part is important, as I mentioned in the previous blog post.
However, you want to service the users in different languages. Here are a couple of examples of how to do that:
Dove has a country selector on the frontpage, that lets you choose your language from a drop down menu in the top.
Puma has a drop down menu in the bottom (less user-friendly), that lets you choose your country and language. Warning: it automatically starts a video, which is bad behaviour on the web.
You probably get requests from your markets to run their own Pages. The days of freak-controlling your brand is over, but what you can do is alligning your brand presence on social media by servicing them with great content and professional assistance with design and programming. A corporate ‘social media kit’ is a good idea.
There is a contest among brands to accumulate as many Likes as possible. Everyone wants to have the numbers of Coca-Cola and Starbucks. However, using your page just to beg for Likes is not a good idea. Creating a page with exclusive content and communicating a good incentive for the users to Like you is a much better idea.
Here are a couple of begging examples:
There is no doubt that Red Bull really wants you to Like them. But why? Maybe they should use the frontpage to tell you that instead of just pointing arrows!
The message from Pepsi in India is also clear. They really want you to Like them. Sure, but maybe they should use their most valuable screen space to tell you why!
Here are some great content pages, where the brand is focusing on content, no just “please, please, please”:
Mentos is showcasing a series of short films, that are very entertaining and “feels good” with the brand. You want to Like them. You want to Share them The videos are not easy to control and share for bloggers, though (due to unnecessary, “hard” embedding).
Converse have joined forces with iTunes in a co-branding exercise, where they give away free music and promote emerging artists. You want to Like it. You want to Share it. You want to wear a pair of Converse sneakers.
Most brands are panicked when it comes to content. What should we put on our Page? Many companies have spent several years to built complex web sites and e-commerce shops on the web. Now, they also have to built social media sites. Balancing the content between the various digital channels is the art you have to master.
The Swedish superbrand H&M is a Facebook reference. They are – quite simply – using their Page to feed traffic to their popular web site/shop.
H&M is driving traffic from Facebook to their web site and shop, not the other way around. It’s not only simple, but also a brilliant idea.
Their competitor, Inditex and their Zara brand, have another approach, where they make extensive use of photographs in their Facebook universe.
On this screenshot you can see how Zara is keeping their Facebook page very simple with a collection of photos. It’s a no nonsense approach that works very well. At least almost 10 million people (at the time of writing) think so!
Should you hide some of your content behind a Like button? No! Blackmailing your friends is a bad idea. You should be open and generous with your content. If your products and your content is cool, then they will Like you. Also, make sure all your content is available globally and not geographically restricted. It’s the Internet! Finally, if you make your material available for distribution by allocating a Creative Commons license you will not only be doing yourself and your fans a favour, but you will also be considered extraordinarly cool by the bloggers. I will write more about Creative Commons on Facebook in a future blog post.
Pepsi in India wants you to Like them before you can view their content. That’s not exclusive content. That’s blackmail!
Adidas wants you to Like them. They forgot, however, to make their content available on the global Internet. Me NOT Like.
Finding the right balance is a matter of brilliant creative work, testing with users and, not least, allowing yourself to experiment to find the right solutions.
The social media are extremely fast media platforms and they don’t allow for a lot of consulting, research and testing time.
Search for simple ideas that are a good brand fit for you and try to roll them out as fast as possible. Don’t spend a lot time and resources on huge projects in the beginning.
As always, remember: social media are young media. It’s OK to act young and crazy.
Even for an established brand.
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