Why Rebuild?
Since launching our Facebook fan page on September 8, 2009 we’ve noticed a relatively sluggish climb in our fan base over the succeeding months. Admittedly, we’ve dedicated more manpower to our other social media channels, like our Lead Generation Blog, Twitter and LinkedIn. As of this week, we’ll switch gears and begin working on a major rebuild to our Facebook fan page. Using Optify’s Marketing Analytics Features, along with Facebook’s recently launched Insights Dashboard, we’ve analyzed our performance based on specific metrics and found that we have room for improvement.
Optify’s Facebook Fan Page Performance
- Nearly one year after our fan page’s launch, only 298 people “Like” our Facebook page.
- While our fan page experienced spikes in traffic during event promotions, we have not seen an upward trend over the months in terms of page views and have maintained a slow climb in our fan base. So, even though people are visiting our page, they’re not necessarily converting into fans.
Facebook for B2B Marketers
Typically, B2B marketers tend to flock to social networks like LinkedIn to drive their social media marketing efforts, and it’s B2C companies who leverage the marketing opportunities of Facebook’s fan pages. While we’re entering this rebuild with a certain amount of skepticism as to whether our target audience has an actual presence on Facebook and recognize that there are particular challenges for a B2B company using Facebook, we’ve identified the goals and best practices for our specific company.
Goals: With the total rebranding of our Facebook page, we’re focused on three main objectives, which we hope to see fulfilled within the first few months of launching our new page. Each social media channel achieves a different set of goals; it’s crucial that you determine your company’s specific intentions before diving into a social network rebuild. 
- To increase Optify’s “Like” base
- To elevate and drive traffic to Optify’s website
- To provide value to fans and prompt them to share
Uses: Facebook (especially Facebook brand pages) has multifaceted uses depending on the user. Whether you’re a B2B or a B2C, an enterprise or an individual, you should evaluate how prospects and customers might approach your Facebook fan page (or group), what kind of value you can deliver to them and at which point in the purchase cycle
they’re presently, so you can align your marketing message.
- Micro-blog: Designed for informal, conversational tone and frequent updates
- Lead nurturing: Provides a means for us to keep prospective customers engaged
- Retention: Acts as a channel for us to continuously interact with our current customers, encourage them to engage with Optify’s product and educate our Facebook user community about Optify
- Create an Optify User Community: Customers can share their product experiences through discussions, wall posts, FAQs, etc.
Join the Process
This blog post marks the first of our Facebook Brand Page Rebuild Series. We hope that you’ll check back throughout the renovation process for updates and tips. In our next blog post of the series, we’ll focus on which type of Facebook presence is best for your business: Facebook fan page or Facebook group.
