Top 16 Characteristics of Effective Facebook Brand Pages

Facebook holds near-limitless potential for marketing. In particular, Facebook offers businesses some of the best branding opportunities around. Companies can get innovative with their approach to branding on the Facebook platform, and often with relatively little effort.

Yet, many Facebook brand pages come out short. They’re visually weak, they don’t take advantage of all of the various tools in the Facebook toolbox, or they just aren’t being used to engage customers.

If you want to have an effective Facebook brand strategy, you need to concentrate on building a useful and high-quality brand page. Here are the top 16 examples of characteristics your page needs to have if it’s going to be effective in your branding efforts:

Competitions. Consider adding a competition or contest of some sort to your page that your fans can enter.
Commerce. You can use F-commerce to allow your Facebook visitors to actually browse through different categories of your products and make online purchases, as well as sharing the content of those pages with others.
A large call to action. Many of the most effective Facebook pages ask for an immediate response of some sort. A large button that asks users to subscribe to a newsletter or visit a website is an example of this.
Offer discounts. Giving out discounts to your Facebook fans is a great way to not only get them to revisit your page on a regular basis but to get them to share your page regularly with others, as well.
5. Many images and videos. Sometimes, the best thing that you can do to draw attention to your Facebook page is to feature content-heavy pages, with lots of videos and images to draw the visitor in and keep her looking around the page.
6. Reflect your products. Having a Facebook landing page that highlights your most popular products creates a sense of familiarity for the visitor who is an existing customer, and can be a lead-in for potential customers.
Games. Consider adding games and other user-focused features in order to get people to return to your page again and again.
Starting an app. One of the possible calls to action that you can use on your Facebook page is for the user to start an app, in addition to liking the page.
Keep it simple. Offering visitors to your Facebook page a concise number of options can help to streamline the process and to direct them in the way you want them to proceed.

10. Showcase product development. Consider showing your Facebook readers how your product is made, or what you’re doing in terms of research and development. This is particularly effective with iconic products that consumers will be curious about.

11. Consider breaking out into product line based pages. If you have a wide product line, consider starting Facebook pages for each line. Then, your primary Facebook page can be used to direct your readers to the specific product line that they’re interested in (and most likely to buy).

12. Advertise affiliations. You might decide that your Facebook page is a great place to tout your environmental initiatives, or you may want to showcase professional credentials and affiliations.

13. Promote new products. You can use Facebook to showcase a new product. This is particularly effective when you make your Facebook page the only source of product information online, as it will help to drive new followers to your page and increase your Likes.

14. Be socially active. Use your Facebook page to get involved in ending world hunger, or to help promote certain charities. You increase your business’ social standing and credibility by doing so, and you provide customers with a sense of warmth and community spirit.

15. Choose a dynamic creative. Having one single video or image for your Facebook page that’s especially compelling can be a great way to promote the page and get plenty of shares, as well.

16. Offer compelling content. Instead of simply offering product information, consider status updates that give real value to the conversation. For example, if you have a plumbing business, describe the best way to clear a kitchen drain without having to call the plumber.

Creating an effective Facebook brand page is as much an art as it is a science. Take a look at some of the most popular pages, and see what they’re doing. Try some of the above techniques on your own page, and then measure the results. See what’s working for you, and do more of it.

Posted in: Facebook