Getting Personal in Business

Traditional marketing is like a one-way conversation: no matter how strong your message, you’re always the one doing all the talking. Facebook, like other social media, is different. Marketing on Facebook is more like a mutual, intimate conversation with potential customers, current customers, and even former customers.

Just like in any other social situation, you need to know who to talk to, what to say, and what not to say. Understanding your relationship with your customers pays serious dividends.

Who to Talk to

Facebook offers a rare opportunity to interact with the following audiences:

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You can’t be everything to everyone, so prioritize which group is your main audience. Focus on your main audience while keeping the other audiences in mind.

You can reach a whole cadre of Facebook users who aren’t your customers but who might still be valuable to your business. These audiences include the following:

What to Say

Customers expect any business with a social media page to interact with them. In fact, a big reason why people love social media is because they feel a closer connection to their favorite celebrities, brands, and companies. You are expected to interact.

You should tailor what you say, and how often you say it, to the relationship you’d like to have with your consumer. For instance, the high-end couture house Prada would never post a daily Facebook message announcing that it’s slashing prices on its pricey clothes and accessories. That’s because it wants customers to view its products as luxury items—not things you just grab en masse, like toilet paper, when they happen to be on sale. Instead, Prada’s best plan of attack would be occasional, perfectly phrased messages about, say, socialite Paris Hilton carrying its purse or the latest line shown at New York Fashion Week.

When you think about your message, consider the following issues:

For example, if you run a local bank and are launching a new type of savings account, you need to tell your audience that the new product is available and point out the advantages of using the new product. If you’re only offering the account for a limited time, you should be more aggressive about how many messages you send. And, being thoughtful about the content, you could include video with a customer showing how to sign up for the service or live web links that allow customers to sign up online immediately.

What Not to Say

You should avoid certain discussions on Facebook and have a plan to neutralize them if they do occur. The rub is that Facebook is a public forum: anything that anyone says on your Facebook page will be seen by all of your Facebook fans. You should always think carefully about what conversations you initiate and how you respond to particular situations.

Here are some topics to avoid—or if they can’t be avoided, at least squashed—on your Facebook page:

You obviously want to avoid offending people with judgmental remarks, but the last two points are a little more complicated. Let’s break them down a bit.

You’re virtually guaranteed to have a few shouting matches between visitors on your Facebook page. And the more passionate your customers are about your product or service, the more likely they’ll be to disagree with someone else—and vocalize that disagreement on your site.

When you see an argument beginning to build, try to determine if the flare-up will burn itself out. If the conversation only has a few passionate responses, or if nobody has responded to the conversation for a day or two, it’s probably going to fade away on its own. Generally, the faster the responses come in, the more likely the conversation will flare up and get out of hand.

If the argument doesn’t appear to be waning on its own, you absolutely have to intervene. Try humor (“Boy, you guys are really passionate about our ice cream!”), mediating (“It sounds like you agree to disagree, but both of you are right because …”), or even mock fame (“Here’s to the two most loyal Damon’s Ice Cream customers, Jack and Paul.”). You’ll make mistakes, but the biggest mistake you can make is letting two (or more) people hijack your brand’s Facebook page.

WATCH OUT

In early 2011, Arizona State Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot along with 19 others at a public speaking engagement. She survived, but the assassination attempt had some blowback on former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Prior to and during the shooting, Palin had a Facebook page with a U.S. map and gun sights on all the Democratic representatives’ districts—including Giffords’.

Using the gun sights wasn’t Palin’s biggest mistake, though. By the end of the day of the shooting, Palin’s team had removed all traces of the map from all her social media, including Facebook. At the same time, Palin was saying that the map was pure symbolism. Unfortunately, nothing can truly be erased from social media: the press discovered the deletions, they recovered the images, and they came at Palin even more aggressively for attempting to cover it up.

The lesson is to be gentle with that Delete button! Removing offending or embarrassing posts can have a bigger fallout than the posts themselves. You’re better off addressing the material openly rather than covering it up.

You also need to be careful when users discuss competing products or services. Badmouthing other businesses is obviously a risky marketing strategy, but there are two nuances to consider.

First, don’t be the one to initiate the badmouthing. For instance, a customer may say “Your ice cream is the best—way better than John’s nasty cones!” It’s easy to fall into this trap because it’s a putdown (of a competitor) wrapped in a complement (of your brand). Respond carefully, saying something like “We’re sure John works hard, too, and we’re really happy you love our cones!”

Second, the same competitor you put down on your Facebook page might end up being a collaborator later. Facebook gives you the opportunity to destroy potential relationships as much as it gives you the chance to create them.

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