What’s the Biggest Mistake Brands Make on Facebook?

According to Facebook’s own EMEA head of strategy and planning, Trevor Johnson, the biggest mistake is for brands to  “not having a reason to be there. ” Johnson adds, “We talk a lot about having conversational calendars. If you’re going to open up a connection with someone, you need to think about what you’re going to do with them and how you’re going to engage with them. Don’t generate a fan base and then think ‘oh what am I going to do now?’”

Does the statement: “Don’t generate a fan base and then think ‘oh what am I going to do now?’”
sound familiar??

It does to us. Yep, that’s the way most organizations and businesses seem to approach building up a Facebook fan base. The rush for fan numbers, the obsession for quantity (over quality) and the seduction of having large audiences takes hold and often overshadows the need for engagement strategy or conversational calendars.

Interestingly enough, Johnson referred to a business’ presence on Facebook as a “microsite.” Specifically, Johnson says:

“You have to put a lot of resources into owned because that’s your little microsite. Starbucks has got 10 million fans on their Facebook page; it’s probably their biggest marketing channel outside of their retail network. People always want the earned media because that’s the stuff driven by engagement and that’s the stuff that is much more valuable driving awareness of your product and your service. But you can’t have that earned media without the bought media, those two things working together.”

I’ve been saying this about Facebook for some time now; that Facebook pages are like microsites and despite the disagreement of this statement by possibly those that share a different view, the reality is that if you are a business and you have a Facebook page, that page is an outpost or “microsite” for your brand and needs a consistent level of attention to keep that branded location on the Facebook network fresh, relevant and in a perpetual state of engagement.

At any rate, I just thought the points shared above were the most noteworthy from this interview. And while most of the information shared in the interview references big brands, much of the insight can easily apply to small and medium sized businesses as well.