The Five Reasons Why Most Facebook Brand Pages Aren’t True Communities
Posted on 08. May, 2012 by Jessica Malnik in Blog, brand communities, community management, facebook, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing
Jessica Malnik is a PR/marketing coordinator, social media specialist, videographer and an avid blogger. Visit her blog for social media, technology, public relations and marketing ramblings.
What are the defining characteristics of a community? It’s a topic I’ve been pondering more and more lately. Is it about geography, common interests, socio-economic similarities, or similar viewpoints? The list goes on and on.
To get to this point, it becomes necessary to define what a community is. According to dictionary.com, a community is
a social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived itself as distinct insome respect from the larger society within which it exists.
As community managers, it’s our job to manage a brand’s online (and offline) presence. It’s a daunting task that requires us to assume a leadership role, channel the company’s voice, create buzz and drive engagement on and offline to achieve specific goals/outcomes. It’s fairly natural to assume that as the leader, you are building and growing a “community.” After all, there’s X amount of likers, followers, subscribers, doers’, doubters, troublemakers and everything in between, who are communicating in the group. However with most brand pages, this environment is actually fostering a false sense of community.
Most Facebook brand pages aren’t actually online communities. They are just glorified marketing channels. Some are done very well, others not so much. Here’s five reasons to explain this seemingly subtle distinction.
1. Fans and likers usually don’t just like a page based on common interests (or other community defining characteristics)
Most Facebook fans didn’t decide to “like” a brand’s page because they wanted to be part of an online community. In fact, the two most common reasons to like a brand are if you are a current customer or to receive discounts and/or freebies, according to a study by research firm, Chadwick Martin Bailey. The next most popular reasons are to show support for a brand, to learn more information and to get exclusive content. Couple that with the fact, that more than 75% of Facebook users who like a brand, like fewer than 10 brands total, and you wind up with stiff competition for eyeballs and page “likes.”
2. The vast majority of fans don’t participate on Facebook pages.
One of the biggest misunderstandings about Facebook is the assumption that once a person “likes” your page, they are going to keep coming back for more. A “like” on a page doesn’t guarantee that they will ever come back to that page and participate or even read any updates. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. According to an AdAge article, only one percent of fans on the biggest brand pages actually engage with the brand at all.
3. It’s a one-sided conversation
Going right alongside that, the few fans that stay actively involved on the page often don’t feel inclined to post updates or comment. Most of them are just casual observers or lurkers. This leads to a one-sided conversation led by the brand, or frankly no conversation at all. 82% of brand pages are updated less than five times a month, according to a recent study by Recommend.ly.
4. Numbers still matter.
Many brands are still very interested in the numbers game. No matter how many times a community manager, specialist or strategist vouches for quality over quantity, there’s always going to be push back to expand the messaging to a larger audience. Brands will often do whatever it takes to get more. Many of these tactics are counterintuitive to the core community-building strategies.
5. Gimmicks, expensive apps and games drive a lot of the action
So, how do brands up their numbers? Often times, they create gimmicks, such as games, contests, other fancy Facebook apps and pump hefty media budgets into Facebook ads/sponsored story campaigns. Some of these apps are quite effective. Yet, all they are doing is creating a false sense of community to help a brand spread their message further.
All of these are marketing tactics that are “forced upon” anyone, who expresses interest in the brand. It’s not a natural progression in a community sense. In a true community, members stumble into the group and then start talking with one another, usually naturally and without any real incentives.
It’s not necessarily a bad thing that brands are more likely to market instead of build community on Facebook. When done right, marketing on Facebook can be quite effective. That’s evident from Fortune 50 companies all the way down to mom and pop shops. After all, it’s all about creating an overall marketing strategy that understands your core business goals, and then using the most effective channels and tactics to achieve them. Facebook is one of the popular channels to spread awareness, get people talking about you and your products, increase conversions, drive offline actions (like event attendance) and even increase sales. However, if you’re trying to build a community around your brand through Facebook, it might be time to reconsider those strategies.
Is your brand page a community or a one-sided marketing channel?
About the Jessica Malnik:
Jessica Malnik is a PR/marketing coordinator, social media specialist, videographer and an avid blogger. Visit her blog for social media, technology, public relations and marketing ramblings.
The Five Reasons Why Most Facebook Brand Pages Aren’t True Communities is a post from: Convince and Convert Blog: Social Media Strategy and Social Media Consulting
Activation, Comfort, and Other Secrets of Online Community Management
Posted on 08. Feb, 2012 by Jay Baer in Blog, BlogWorld, community management, interviews, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social media books
Video production by my friends at Candidio. Fast, inexpensive, great service.
(Abbreviated transcript below. Please watch video for entire interview. Somehow, my side of the video got cut out, so it’s only audio for me!)
Jay: Welcome everybody to Convince & Convert. It is Jay Baer joined today by a very special guest, my friend who is the Director of Community and all things fabulous at BlogWorld and also the author of Online Community Management For Dummies
Deb: I am terrific, Jay. How are you?
Jay: I am marvelous. I love your festive red background for videos.
Deb: Thank you. This is my dining room. We’re renovating. So everywhere I was sitting today, I’m like, “Oh, I don’t want people to see that. Oh, I don’t want people to see that.” So I came in my dining room where it was just a red backdrop.
Jay: It looks great. You should use it. I really like it. It pops as they say.
Deb: Well, my husband is Chinese, and red is a very lucky color.
Jay: Well, I loved the book. I thought it was really, really fantastic. I recommended it to several clients already. It really is a treasure trove of advice and best practices around community management. How was it writing it?
Deb: It was fun writing it. It’s the stuff I’ve always wanted to write, and it’s the stuff I talk about when I speak at conferences and I blog about. And it was actually a hard sell for Wiley. They weren’t sure people would want to buy a book about community management. But it sort of wrote itself. It was the easiest thing I ever wrote, I have to say. It was so simple to write.
Jay: Wow. That’s a ringing endorsement. Easiest thing you ever wrote. That’ll work.
Deb: Well, it’s second nature I think, to me. I don’t know if that sounds kind of silly, but it just all came so quickly.
Jay: You can tell when you read it that you actually have done this and that you’re speaking, in many cases, from a place where you have experienced these scenarios. That’s one of the things I really liked about it is that it walks you through a lot of “Hey, if this happens, do this thing, and if this other thing happens, do this thing.” It’s not just theory of community management. It’s very tactical, very practical and something that I think people will keep on the shelf and pull down and say, “Let me flip to that section. I remember Deb said something smart about that.”
Deb: I hope so.
Jay: One of the things that I see all the time, and you do as well I’m sure, now that many companies have come around to the belief that they should have a community, there isn’t a lot of community activation, or perhaps not as much as there should be. You talked about that a little bit in the book. How can we get people to do stuff as opposed to just click one button and join?
Deb: It’s hard, because we don’t want to spam people, and we don’t want to say, “Will you please comment on my blog, dammit?” I think we’ve all had those frustrating moments where nobody answers our calls to action. So I think we have to make it entertaining. We have to make it enjoyable. We can’t always be a commercial for our product. You have to make life a conversation and draw the community in. If they feel as if they have a say in the brands and that they’re a living, breathing part of the community, they’ll participate more, and they’ll advocate for you.
Jay: What we see now is, as companies get more serious about this kind of work, an increasing usage of content calendars and community calendars and things that have more of a plan around how to do this. Do you think that kind of work is the enemy of true community, or can they coexist?
Deb: Yes and no. I do have some things that I do on a regular basis. For example, the first Monday of every month is brag your blog day on the BlogWorld Facebook page, because I don’t want to forget. If I don’t schedule a certain day for things, I forget. I will say I’ve never scheduled a tweet in my life. I don’t believe they’re engaging. I have scheduled blog feeds on Twitter, but I don’t schedule tweets, because you can’t have a conversation. You can’t schedule community. So, I think there are times when you can create an editorial calendar and plan out a course of action. But as far as scheduling engagement, I just don’t see it happening.
Jay: I like that quote, “You can’t schedule community.” That’s good. Consider that stolen.
So many times now, it seems that Facebook in particular has become the de facto community platform. How do you feel about that?
Deb: I have mixed feelings. First of all, Facebook is where the people are. The majority of Americans or even globally, the people who we want to reach are on Facebook. So it makes sense that we put a lot of our effort into Facebook. Most of my friends and neighbors don’t want anything to do with Twitter or Google+ or Pinterest or any of the other social networks, so it makes sense that we’re on Facebook. But I really do wish that I had the same engagement levels on the other social networks. Twitter has turned into such a disappointment for me, because it used to be the best place to go for conversation. Now, it’s sporadic unless we have our weekly Twitter chats, and it’s sort of like a link farm. So, I will put half my efforts, I would say, for the day into Facebook to grow that community, because that’s where we have to be, and that’s where most of our community are, but I won’t give up on the others as well.
Jay: One of the things that you said in the book was trying to steer your community away from negativity, which I thought was a really commendable point to make, because we see, certainly in the social media space, there are blogs out there that seem to use negativity as their oxygen. I try not to fall into that trap myself, but they’re out there. What’s your take on it?
Deb: I think that negativity begets negativity. So, if you have a space that makes people feel uncomfortable, it’s going to be like the earth after the apocalypse. Only the cockroaches are going to be there. People who thrive on negativity are going to stick around, but the people who want an intelligent conversation where they’re not always being accused of something or being called a loser, they’re going to move on. So I have no problem with disagreement as long as it’s respectful disagreement. I know that I’m not right all the time, most of the time. But you can tell me why without telling me to go make a sandwich.
Jay: So, can we disagree without being disagreeable?
Deb: Exactly.
Jay: One of the things that I loved about the book was your section on the welcome plan, which I think gets overlooked so often in communities. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a blog or Facebook. That first time that person peeks their head out is when you really have to give them succor and comfort and make sure that they stick around. Can you talk a little a bit about that welcome plan and how you think it should be done?
Deb: Sure. I compare it on my community to the high school dance. So nobody ever wants to be the first one up to dance. So maybe the chaperone will sort of start encouraging people to get up and dance. They might introduce a couple or get up to dance herself, although we would laugh at any chaperone who did that.
Jay: I was just thinking about that. I’m like, yeah, that would really get the party started, when the chaperones are dancing.
Deb: But somebody has to get the party started, and that’s where the community manager or moderator comes in. This probably works mostly for forums or blogs, because they have an area for this, but a welcome folder with frequently asked questions, a place to introduce yourself, and just a place to ask questions make people feel at ease. Then maybe the community manager can help to get that person, make them feel comfortable around the community, introduce them to people, and just bring them into the conversation. I honestly believe that it’s in a community manager’s best interest to know as much about her members or his members as possible, because then they can draw them into the conversation and know their areas of interest.
Jay: One of the things that you’ve always done really well is the combination online/offline community. Your community doesn’t really exist unless it exists at some point in three dimensions. Can you elaborate on that a little bit and how you can make your community work in the real world?
Deb: I think that it’s fine and dandy for you and I to tweet a lot and talk on Facebook now and then. But what do we really know about each other besides what we share? You don’t really know a person, I think, until you meet them online. When you know people, you trust them.
Jay: And that’s one of the great things about BlogWorld. It allows those kinds of interactions and conversations to take place and why it’s an event that most of the people in the social media and blogging industry would never dream of missing.
Deb: It’s the first conference I ever attended actually.
Jay: Wow. I want to see if anybody else who is watching this video, the first time they ever went to a conference ended up being the community manager for that conference. That would be some sort of a crazy . . .
Deb: Years later, too. That was in 2007. I was hired in 2010.
Jay: Wow. I didn’t know. That is a crazy tale. How about that? Good for you.
I am a big fan of this book, Online Community Management For Dummies
Jay: Deb, thank you as always for all that you do and for writing the book and for spending a little time here at Convince & Convert.
Deb: Thank you so much for having me, Jay.
6 Essential Community Management Tips from #SMBMSP40
Posted on 03. Nov, 2011 by Ashely Zeckman in Blog, community management, Marketing PR Conferences, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, Social Media
October 28, 2011 marked my first attendance at the Minneapolis chapter of Social Media Breakfast (#SMBMSP). I arrived at 514 Studios around 7:45am and to be honest, I was surprised at the number of people already in the audience. I grabbed my seat in the second row and had an opportunity to to meet the featured speakers Lisa Grimm and Meg Knodl right before they took their seats at the front of the room.
Did You Know?
- There are 46 SMB chapters nationwide
- #SMBMSP has officially consumed 3,751 pieces of bacon
- October 28, 2011 marked the 40th SMB for the MSP chapter
- MSP is the largest chapter (and according to SMBMSP Director Mykl Roventine, the Twin Cities has the most attractive members)
#SMBMSP40 Speakers
Lisa Grimm (@lulugrimm)
Digital Brand Manager at Mall of America and one of TopRank’s 25 Women Who Rock Social Media in 2011
Meg Knodl (@DotMeg)
Senior Librarian at Hennepin County Library Communications and Community Engagement (Who also rocks social media)
Social Media Breakfast #40 was a fantastic combination of examples that Lisa and Meg face in their daily life as community managers as well as questions from the audience for practical application. A community manager is responsible for many moving pieces and must react very quickly to feedback. Below I have included 6 essential tips for community managers.
6 Essential Community Management Tips
#1 – Tips For Engaging With A Community
Community Management has become a large part of social strategy. A successful community manager will ensure that the social media strategy is aligned with business objectives and that proper tools are in place to measure goals and objectives. A defined social media strategy can provide guidance on how to encourage and engage interaction as well as a plan for providing your followers with relevant content.
#2 – Should You Separate Your Personal and Professional Life Online?
It’s important to always have your brand in mind when you are releasing content or interacting online. Experts warn against sharing information that can negatively effect perception of your brand. There is a time and a place for sharing personal opinions and as a community manager both panel members recommend thinking about who you are representing and how your actions affect that entity. Lisa’s approach to community management is fairly traditional (given her PR background) and she sums it up by saying “What you see is what you get with me.” She notes from personal experience that if someone representing a brand makes a comment that she disagrees with she is going to form a judgement and will hold it against your brand.
#3 – Addressing Tough Issues
There is only so much planning that can go into reacting to a serious situation. A proper way to react is to be as factual and respectful of the online community as possible. Another tip is to wait for the community to come to you before reaching out. Otherwise you may start conversations and panic around things that people weren’t aware of before you brought it up.
#4 – Determining Which Sites Are Right For Your Brand
In order to effectively connect with an audience a community manager should create an in depth analysis of which sites the target audience is spending the most time using, how they interact, and what type of communication they appear to be the most receptive to. Meg Knodl gave a great example when she began speaking about her companies previous use of MySpace. In the beginning it was a great tool for interacting but she also said “You reach that moment where you have to decide if it’s time to leave a community.”
#5 – Don’t Get Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen
Should you have multiple contributors or stick to one consistent voice for your company social media strategy? Both speakers recommend sticking to one consistent voice. However, is that scalable? Recommendations were made for mapping out a strategy and training additional community managers or contributors according to that strategy and set of standards. Mall of America for example makes sure that all users tweeting on behalf of the company put their initials after their tweets so that they can be identified.
#6 – Choosing Between Your Brand and Your Community
Both speakers loudly proclaimed “your brand” almost in unison when a question was asked about whom you should choose when faced with a decision between your brand and your community. You have been hired by your company to be their voice online, it is their interests that you have been hired to protect. At that end Meg Knodl also stressed the importance of believing what you’re representing in order to effectively promote it.
Looking for more tips? Listen to the podcast with Lisa Grimm and Meg Knodl from #SMBMSP40. My first social media breakfast was full of useful information and I look forward to attending many more. If you would like to attend a future breakfast, SMBMSP offers a complete listing of all upcoming events.
Community management can be a tough job that requires constant and immediate attention. What are some of the hurdles that you’ve faced as a community manager or a social media strategist?
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