Many companies have realized that Facebook is quite versatile and with the right mix of creativity, technology, and strategy, you can produce a highly effective site for business. Below you will find five key enhancements to improve your Facebook site for better results.
1. Welcome Page – When prospective fans land on your Facebook site, they typically arrive on your wall. While the wall does provide a flow of conversation and value, it does not direct them to a specific action. As an Internet marketing firm, in direct marketing and lead generation, we use a landing page or squeeze page to maximize conversion from a visitor to a specific goal such as opting in as a lead in exchange for something of value such as an eBook. The same approach can be implemented on Facebook by creating a welcome page.
2. Plug-ins – Facebook makes it relatively easy to improve the interactivity and experience of your Facebook site through the use of plug-ins. With so many prospects using a single social network, such as Facebook, it’s important to provide a full experience and interaction with your brand by integrating your Twitter, Blog, and YouTube feeds through plug-ins. Although the Google+ project has developed various innovations, this is one area where Facebook maintains the upper hand.
3. Profile Image and Photo Strips – There is so much that can be communicated through the use of your profile image and photo strip. Check out reface.me for some great examples on how you can use both your profile image and photo strip more effectively. One thing to keep in mind when viewing these images is that, for business, you want to integrate your logo, a call to action, and your other social networks to drive results.
4. The Wall – The wall should achieve three things. First, it should be used to maintain a two-way conversation with your audience. Second, it should create value. You want to ensure that you are providing a real benefit to your audience that they can’t get anywhere else. This is what will keep them coming back. Third, you want to intermittently communicate calls to action such as events, promotions, and other offerings to maximize conversion from a fan to sale.
5. Events Tab – If you have events to promote your business, the events tab is a great feature to drive additional traffic to events. By using the events tab, fans can self select dates, times, and topics that are relevant to them for increased functionality over and above the wall.