How To Talk the Talk on Facebook

The quickest way to kill your Facebook page is to try and sell something. Facebook is about social networking; there is rarely anything “social” about selling. Talking “at your fans”, like most marketing messages do, is not social, inviting them to comment on new product releases, is. Marketing on Facebook has to be a little indirect – consumers are smart, and they will see through your marketing messages quickly. So with this in mind, let’s look at the following example:

Jim has a Facebook Business Page for his company Jim’s Shoes. He has 150 fans. He is just about to release his new line of red running shoes – something he knows his fans have been looking for. Jim’s has uploaded some pictures onto his Facebook profile, but he’s trying to decided what to write into the “status” field:

Here’s the difference between talking “at your fans” versus “engaging with them”:

Talking at your fans
“Hi everyone, you asked for red shoes – and here they are. You can purchase them for $99 at our website www.jimshoes.com! Enjoy!”

Engaging with your fans
“Hi everyone, WE NEED YOUR HELP! We’ve listened and created some of our coolest red shoes yet. Check out the pictures. What do you think? We pulled out all the stops on these beauties, but want YOUR HELP on where to go next. What new shoes would you like to see?”

See the difference?

Your fans aren’t stupid, if they want to buy your shoes, they can find your website – you don’t need to shove it in their face. Remember, Facebook is a social network – be social, be engaging, and the sales will come.