Facebook is one of the most popular social networks on the internet today. Facebook is a component that should be included in a community banks overall social media strategy. Ultimately you want to build a social medial network that works in harmony; meaning all components of the network support and promote one another. For example, Facebook promotes your blog, Twitter promotes your blog, your blog promotes the value you organization provides as a result of doing business with you.
A key word used in the previous paragraph is strategy. By strategy, I mean have a plan for what you intend to accomplish.
For now, I want to introduce you to three types of pages available on Facebook. A page is what an individual, business, or group uses to create a presence on Facebook. The purpose of this post is to make you familiar with the three types of pages available on Facebook.
Personal Profile - Results in a Personal Page
A personal profile is the place you must start when building a presence on Facebook. In order to setup a Fan Page or a Group Page, the person setting them up must have a personal profile. Setting up a personal profile results in a Personal Page. If you want to see an example of a personal page, mine can be found at: http://www.facebook.com/jeffsimpkins.
Fan Page - Community Banks Want This!
A Fan Page on Facebook is designed for public figures, businesses or brands to create a Facebook Page to share information, interact with their fans, and create a highly engaged presence on Facebook Facebook says "Pages are distinct presences that are optimized to represent a business, and are separate from user profiles" they go on to say "more than 3 million users become fans of Facebook Pages every day."
Community banks should establish a Facebook Fan page even if you do not intend to start using Facebook immediately. If you are setting up your Fan page to use in the future, put in basic information like your name, address, phone numbers, a link to your website, and your logo. If you do not plan to monitor the page, I suggest blocking the ability to leave comments and post messages on the page.
We have a Fan page for Blogging For Bankers, access it at http://facebook.BloggingForBankers.com/.
Group Page
Group pages are used for causes, groups that share common interests, etc. A great example of use of the Group page feature is the Susan G Koman Race For The Cure. If you do a Facebook search you will find numerous groups that have established Group pages to promote their cause related to Breast Cancer. Groups are also a great way for alumni of schools to locate one another and reconnect.
Next Step...
If your bank does not already have a Fan page on Facebook, set one up. It's okay if you do not have a social media strategic plan in place yet. For right now your purpose is just to hold your place for future use.
by Jeff Simpkins, Community Bank Consulting, Inc.
