7effective Facebook pages

YOU can create right now

by Dana VanDen Heuvel
principal, MarketingSavant Group
www.marketingsavant.com
 I'm as much a fan of some of the awesome Facebook pages created for
the world's top brands like Starbucks, Cranium, Threadless and Harley-Da-
vidson, but what about for the rest of us who don't have that kind of budget
or, frankly, the "need" for the level of sophistication that those brands have
applied to their pages. We just need some solid design, some creativity
and an overall engaging experience.

Here is a list of 7 pages that I'm I fan of for just that sort of thing. These are
page designs and ideas that are within reach of nearly every business with-
out the need for thousands of dollars in Facebook development. Whether
you're a small business or a mega-enterprise, there are ideas here for you!

contents
Lake Nona Pools .................................... 2
Ocean City Maryland ............................... 3
AGCO .................................................. 4
AJ Bombers ......................................... 6
Sainsbury's .......................................... 7
Jo to Go Coffee ...................................... 8
Queens Museum of Art ........................... 9
Recap: Top 23 Ideas! ............................ 10
About the author ..................................13

7 effective Facebook pages YOU can create 1 www.marketingsavant.com

1 Lake Nona Pools
www.facebook.com/LakeNonaPools

Aside from the fact that these guys need to update their welcome page to
comply with Facebook's new 520px page size format, these guys have a
great, simple and engaging welcome page that does exactly what it's sup-
posed to!

These guys also do some GREAT audience involvement, such as this photo
that got 90 COMMENTS! when they asked people to "tag" themselves in
the photo based on where they'd like to be in the pool for the "Friday Pool
Party". They also answer any question that comes in about pools, mainte-
nance, safety and so on. They've positioned themselves as an outstanding
resource in their area for pool upkeep.

In fact, they've been so successful on Facebook that they've received one

of the coveted Facebook business stickers!

What YOU  Create an inviting welcome page

can do
7 effective Facebook pages YOU can create


Create "Facebook rituals" that engage your audience daily or weekly
Answer questions
 Be helpful to engage your audience on Facebook.
2 www.marketingsavant.com
2 Ocean City Maryland
www.facebook.com/OceanCity
Yes, you're correct, this is a Facebook page for a municipality, and it's one of the
more interesting one's I've seen. For starters, they have a great welcome page
that they rotate seasonal images through and have used some simple Facebook
Connect trickery to get the "like" and comment functionality embedded right on
the welcome page.

They also have a very well trafficked and engaging post wall where they answer
questions, ask questions and generally stir up interest in Ocean City! They are
posting as many as a few times a day on happenings in the town and garner a
significant number of comments and likes on each post, further spreading their
message.

Their photo page is outstanding. They have over 1200 user submitted photos.
Think about what kind of "virtual travel brochure" that makes! Your company/
city/department couldn't possibly capture all of the exciting moments that are
possible when people interface with your brand. This is truly a great example of
letting your customers do your marketing for you!

 Integrate Facebook Connect on your website and Facebook page

S ustain a consistent and "often as your audience finds interesting" content
What YOU publishing regiment
can do  Do everything you can to encourage photo posting from fans, customers and
everyone who experiences your brand
S  hare as many of those photos as you can in your own Facebook postings
7 effective Facebook pages YOU can create 3 www.marketingsavant.com
3 AGCO
www.facebook.com/AGCOcorp

This has to be one of my favorite Facebook pages, and it's not just
because a few friends run it. I've always loved tractors and AGCO
taps into the emotional aspects of their customers' attachment to
their farm machinery in a way that few B2B companies have done to
date. While the AGCO Facebook site is a collaborative effort, there
are some really solid things going on here that you can learn from
and emulate.

AGCO does a great job of keeping their page "profile picture" in the
upper left updated and relevant based on what's going on with the
brand. More to the point, they design it so that the thumbnail im-
age (which is a derivative of the large 200 x 600px image) always
represents the brand. Right now they have a blog content running
that they're promoting on Facebook and across their social media
channels. AGCO also does a super job of keeping up with answering
questions that are posted and offering guidance to their Facebook
fans.

Flexing the muscle of their Facebook tabs, AGCO also keeps their

7 effective Facebook pages YOU can create 4 www.marketingsavant.com

3 www.facebook.com/AGCOcorp
Facebook audience current by leveraging the power of the tabs to put information on new
products and features that would likely be of great interest to their fans which might otherwise
get lost on a large corporate website.

What YOU
can do
AGCO

 ake the most of your "Page profile picture" in the upper left ― you've got 200 x 600 pixels
M
― it's often wise to use as much of that digital real estate as you can
  irror your Facebook page to reflect your offline and other social media marketing efforts
M
and campaigns
 Answer any and all questions that come in through your page
  ncourage fan photos, comment on them and make fan engagement a central component
E
of your Facebook presence
 Attend trade shows with still and video camera in hand and interview your customers, dis-
tribution partners and everyone in between ― make them slightly famous by posting on
Facebook and encourage sharing
 S ustain a consistent and "often as your audience finds interesting" content publishing regi-
ment
 Use your tabs wisely. AGCO makes excellent use of the Facebook tabs featuring everything
from new product launches to contests to integrating the blog and video content
 Share photos as often as you can in your own Facebook postings
7 effective Facebook pages YOU can create 5 www.marketingsavant.com
4 AJ Bombers
www.facebook.com/pages/Milwaukee-WI/AJ-Bombers/54727050805

AJ Bombers is the best burger joint in Milwaukee. Period. While they are "huge on Four-
square" their Facebook presence is pretty admirable as well. These guys have done
a great job of integrating Foursquare and "location based marketing" into their overall
online strategy. They also have a rock solid (albeit a bit more complex) integration that
brings their website content into the site through "More AJB" tab on Facebook and offer a
link to their gift card site through Facebook as well. If you did nothing but fan AJ Bomb-
ers on Facebook, you'd be in the loop on everything they do. Specials, media mentions,
cool fan updates and just about everything that happens in the restaurant makes it onto
Facebook.

M
 ake Facebook a one-stop-shop for everything that What YOU
anyone could want to know about your business.
Make sure everything (menu, hours, location, phone) can do
is on the page to make it easy for them to find you
and do business with you.
 Mention your other products and programs (like gift cards) on Facebook tabs.
 Integration location marketing into your online (and offline, through window stickers
and such) strategy to encourage visitorship and to make each visit matter that much
more (turning your best, most connected patrons in a "daily viral visitors")
 Mirror your web page in a Facebook tab
  hout out to and connect your best fans by their Twitter handles (add those to your
S
customer database!)
7 effective Facebook pages YOU can create 6 www.marketingsavant.com
5 Sainsbury’s
www.facebook.com/sainsburys

Sainsbury's is a UK grocery store chain that's done a few really cool things with their Facebook page. They
have one of the best welcome pages I've seen in a long time (that changes with the seasons) and make it a
point to answer nearly every question posed on their page. Fans know that they can get a response from the
brand using Facebook.

What YOU
can do
M
 ake an AWESOME welcome page to get
potential fans hooked on the immense val-
ue that you deliver through your page
 If your organization relies at all on any
"how-to"information, create and host videos to share with fans. Sainsbury's
uses their kitchen facilities to shoot video of things that they'd be doing
anyway (testing recipes and preparing deli food) that fans will also find
interesting.
A  nswer every question. Sainsbury's is constantly monitoring their Facebook
page for questions & comments and makes a point to get in touch with
fans who have concerns or questions, often answering them publically (as
shown above) and sometimes privately as well.
M  ention your other activities in the community on your page

7 effective Facebook pages YOU can create 7 www.marketingsavant.com

6 Jo to Go Coffee
www.facebook.com/JoToGoCoffee

I use this example in almost every one of my social media classes as an il-
lustration of a brand that's gone all the way with the concept of the "siteless
web" in that they've gotten rid of their website and run the web presence for
the business using a combination of Facebook, Google maps, Scribd.com
and other lightweight and low cost apps. Jo To Go does a good job of keep-
ing up with some regular posts on Facebook about happenings at all of their
locations. They have also smartly leveraged things like Google maps to map out the locations of their stores.

One area that they have developed that many restaurants and retailers on Facebook have not is their Reviews
section. They have several reviews, some positive and some negative, but they've not responded to a single
one. We generally recommend responding, and doing so quickly, as some of the other examples in this post do
with comments on their pages.

R  eplace your website, or even make your next micro-site out of Facebook
 Integrate other cloud apps to augment the Facebook functionality as needed, such
as Scribd.com and Google Apps

What YOU S
 olicit reviews from patrons on Facebook (and anywhere else that makes sense
for that matter!) and respond to those (both positive and negative) to bolster the
can do community around the reviews.
O
 ffer deals, specials and other incentives to Facebook fans. Another coffee shop/
restaurant, the Dessert Gallery in Houston, has some great, proven results in this
case study on how valuable their Facebook fans are to their establishment
7 effective Facebook pages YOU can create 8 www.marketingsavant.com
7 Queens Museum of Art
www.facebook.com/QueensMuseum

Every non-profit and community organization thrives on attention and in the case
of a venue like the Queens Museum of Art, visitorship. I love how these guys re-
ally rock the events feature in Facebook. They have over 140 events listed! These
guys are also really consistent about their updates on events, items of interest to
fans, community happenings that their fans might be interested in and so on.

What YOU
P  ost daily, or even a few times a day. Keep
can do
it focused on things that are of relevance and
value to your audience.
 Events! Post all of them. If you have something going on, put it on Face-
book. Facebook events show up for your fans on the right hand side of the
page when you invite them, so keep posting those events!
 Use the Extended Info tab to share even more information and background
about your organization.
 Use photos extensively. The more visual your product or service, the more
you should use Facebook's photos component (or integrate with Flickr or
another photo sharing site) to get the visual message across.
7 effective Facebook pages YOU can create 9 www.marketingsavant.com
 recap
top 23 ieas
Let's Recap:
These are some examples that I thought were both smart AND approachable ― stuff that can be
done by almost any business with their Facebook page. What smart examples have you seen?

Top 23 ideas
1. Make an AWESOME welcome page to get potential fans hooked on the immense value that you
deliver through your page Create "Facebook rituals" that engage your audience daily or weekly

2. Answer any and all questions that come in through your page. Sainsbury's is constantly monitor-
ing their Facebook page for questions & comments and makes a point to get in touch with fans who
have concerns or questions, often answering them publically and sometimes privately as well.

3. Be helpful to engage your audience on Facebook.

4. Integrate Facebook Connect on your website and Facebook page
5. Sustain a consistent and "often as your audience finds interesting" content publishing regiment

7 effective Facebook pages YOU can create 10 www.marketingsavant.com

top 23 ieas 6. Do everything you can to encourage photo posting from fans, customers and everyone who ex-
periences your brand

7. Share as many photos as you can in your own Facebook postings

8. Make the most of your "Page profile picture" in the upper left ― you've got 200 x 600 pixels ―it's
often wise to use as much of that digital real estate as you can

9. Mirror your Facebook page to reflect your offline and other social media marketing efforts and
campaigns

10. Encourage fan photos, comment on them and make fan engagement a central component of
your Facebook presence

11. Attend trade shows with still and video camera in hand and interview your customers, distribu-
tion partners and everyone in between ― make them slightly famous by posting on Facebook and
encourage sharing

12. Use your tabs wisely. AGCO makes excellent use of the Facebook tabs featuring everything
from new product launches to contests to integrating the blog and video content

13. Share photos as often as you can in your own Facebook postings
14. Make Facebook a one-stop-shop for everything that anyone could want to know about your busi-
ness. Make sure that everything (menu, hours, location, phone # ― everything!) is on the page to
make it easy for them to find you and do business with you.

15. Mention your other products and programs (like gift cards) on Facebook tabs.

7 effective Facebook pages YOU can create 11 www.marketingsavant.com

top 23 ieas 16. Integration location marketing into your online (and offline, through window stickers and such)
strategy to encourage visitorship and to make each visit matter that much more (turning your best,
most connected patrons in a "daily viral visitors")

17. Mirror your web page in a Facebook tab

18. Shout out to and connect your best fans by their Twitter handles (add those to your customer
database!)

19. Replace your website, or even make your next micro-site out of Facebook
20. Integrate other cloud apps to augment the Facebook functionality as needed, such as Scribed
and Google Apps

21. Solicit reviews from patrons on Facebook (and anywhere else that makes sense for that mat-
ter!) and respond to those (both positive and negative) to bolster the community around the reviews.

22. Offer deals, specials and other incentives to Facebook fans. Another coffee shop/restaurant,
the Dessert Gallery in Houston, has some great, proven results in this case study on how valuable
their Facebook fans are to their establishment

23. If your organization relies at all on any "how-to" information, create and host videos to share
with fans. Sainsbury's uses their kitchen facilities to shoot video of things that they'd be doing any-
way (testing recipes and preparing deli food) that fans will also find interesting.

7 effective Facebook pages YOU can create 12 www.marketingsavant.com

 Dana VanDen Heuvel and The MarketingSavant Group
Marketing Consultancy :: The MarketingSavant Group
Are You Looking for a Marketing Firm You Can Trust? One Who Really Gets It?
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started his first business at age 13. As a marketing trainer, Dana has helped hundreds of market- He offers not only the knowledge, but the systems to make online
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ommend him highly.”
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around a few ideas, why not trust someone who's taught hundreds about the latest marketing
“Dana is one of those people who just “gets it.” His knowledge and
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7 effective Facebook pages YOU can create 13 www.marketingsavant.com