It is important to remember that Facebook is not a “set it and forget it” venue.
I was asked to look at two Facebook Pages for Business this weekend. Both were very attractively done and very professionally created. Beautiful graphics. Plenty of info about the company including all the relevant links to websites and online purchasing opportunities. The status posts were free of misspellings and spaced apart just right – posts were happening often enough to stay topical and not so often that it looked like a flurry of activity. So why did I immediately shy away from these pages?
They reminded me of well crafted but unmanned booths at a trade show. We’ve all seen them. Beautifully constructed booth with huge graphics, a ton of brochures or free pens ready to be taken away, and either no one in the booth or someone in the booth that is clearly not in to being there.
If someone is there they are on their cell phone or their laptop or chatting with a friend. But what they are not doing is paying attention to anyone else at the trade show. They are not greeting potential clients, not making eye contact, not building strategic partnerships.
Facebook is very much like a trade show.
In the case of both the Facebook Pages I was evaluating they had people who “Liked” them. But in the area where they chose business pages they liked, there were one or two or none. No business they felt would be a good strategic partner or that they wanted to support? No charity they wanted to be associated with or local community group or association? Nope.
And customers had posted on the wall of each of these business pages without the benefit of any reply. In one case there was a complaint as well as two “we love your product” comments. In the other case there were two customers who each talked about what a fine time they had and that they would return. No response from either company.
This is a public dialog folks. No one will know if you don’t answer that annoying letter from the angry customer, or if your marketing person doesn’t gush back at the lady that calls to say how she has used your product since she was three. But on Facebook everyone can see that you didn’t answer. You do not ever want to look like you are too busy posting important statuses about yourself to answer your customers. It’s a public dialog and you look like you just snubbed your fans.