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Dave Weinberg › Comments
test--Dave Weinberg------------------------------cell: 240.678.6863 | twitter: weinberg81 | email: weinberg81@gmail.com ...
- Dave Weinberg
Q4: September 25, 2009: Weigh in on our last question of the day. Facebook Pages offer real opportunities for engagement, but can they really build to a true "community"?
They could. If you only exist there or find out that all your traffic comes via FB then it would be a true community. This is such a theoretical Q. Of course it CAN happen. If you choose to focus your attention there.....
- Dave Weinberg
Given the tips and ideas we shared today, yes. But, you truly have to have a cause, produce, service that people are passionate about and that they want to talk and engage on.
- Sonny Gill
Similar to other Social Media, it is a facet of the whole community - but it isn't the only part.
- Lee Anne Orange
I would still call it Community Lite..does it offer ability for other fans to engage each other easily?
- Chris Bailey
For a small group of individuals with a common interest, I think FB could be the community. For any larger business or group, I think it is only part of the whole toolkit.
- Amy Blake
If the community is facebook-oriented and spend more time on this platform rather than another, we could build a true community. The FB page tools are sufficient to let people interact each other and talk back
- Lilian Mahoukou
@Sonny Agree 100%. They can be...but too often brands jump in because they think it will bring in wild success without much effort.
- Scott Bishop
I don't think Facebook is a community platform like Communispace and LiveWorld offer I also don't think most people come to facebook to meet strangers Facebook is very strong-tie oriented
- Arié Moyal
And FB is constantly tweaking so its possible that we'll see more community apps integrated in future
- Chris Bailey
Again it depends on what your goals are. It can, if that is your only online presence or community initiative. However, by being in a silo you are missing other opportunities to spread your brand's message.
- Angela Lawson
It can't be your primary community. However, community is such that it has to happen wherever your customers / readers are. You should be running several communities.
- Maria Ogneva
@Chris - it's more so indirect engagement between fans. That may be the drawback but maybe what Facebook @mentions feature will help regain (IF they implement it within comments of comments (if that makes sense)
- Sonny Gill
@Amy Agreed. Any org or brand big enough must engage users where they exist. People are already talking about your brand. Find them and engage. Drawing those tools together into your arsenal to drive traffic and actions where you want is the strategy behind everything.
- Dave Weinberg
you should be on FB and Twitter and industry specific community sites, getsatisfaction, and definitely on your site. Wherever your customers are.
- Maria Ogneva
@Sonny, perfect sense..I think with more moderation from the brand/individual, there is more possibility for community
- Chris Bailey
I think it's tough to build only on FB. Still people out there that despise FB, but will engage in other forms of SM
- Joe Kikta
@Dave Exactly! FB is part of a larger strategy/conversation/plan/etc. And each organization/business is different. The beauty of having all these tools is we can focus where we can best serve our clients/customers!
- Amy Blake
@Dave @Amy Jeremiah Owyang has a nice term for engaging users - "Fish where the fish are."
- Lou Ordorica
Lou: I just said that on another Q
- Arié Moyal
Thanks Lou
- Dave Weinberg
@Dave @Lou: Love this: fish where the fish are!!
- Amy Blake
Don't you also have to be careful to not spread yourself too thin in the SM World? Unless you just have an army of ppl to listen, engage and manage...
- Joe Kikta
Yeah it's tough to build community on FB and nearly impossile to build community around FB apps!
- Arié Moyal
Great discussion here, everyone! I'll be hopping off soon, but don't stop on my account :)
- Bryan Person
@Joe With new multi-posting tools (posterous and tumblr) you can create content once and have it show up everywhere at once. Listening can be filtered and thus watched smarter. But the bigger you are, the more ppl you'll want part of your team. Eg. Kodak has a chief listener as well as a content person and an engagement person as part of their SM team.
- Dave Weinberg
@joe, you have to know what you goals are and staff accordingly. The big mistake companies make is jumping in because everyone else is there and not doing anything after the page is up. I can say I have made those mistakes and learned hard lessons from them.
- Angela Lawson
@Dave But how much of that will plug into FB? Isn't it kind of self-contained? Do they allow plug-ins of content from other sites? Other than Status Updates, that is.
- Joe Kikta
@Joe It plugs in perfectly. I can email posterous which then sends that content (any media types) to my synced and connected accounts, eg. fb, tw, delicious, etc....
- Dave Weinberg
@Angela - so true! At my agency, sometimes we would start a client with a "jump start" but then we give them a detailed guide on how to proceed with the tools we helped them develop (this is for clients with small budgets, and who want to do it themselves). Starting something and not continuing is deadly for your brand. No one wants to see a moldy old page.
- Maria Ogneva
@Arie - I think that building community is possible, but given the need to work around apps, which can be very distracting, I think it's bit of a struggle.
- Starwind
The focus is broader, rather than narrower, particularly when users bring in apps. From my point of view FB's strength is relationships of a more personal, rather than community, nature.
- Starwind
Q3: September 25, 2009: Facebook group or Facebook Page? How do you decide which one to use? Which is better for community building?
Lilian Mahoukou liked this
FB fan pages are more interaction-oriented
- Lilian Mahoukou
Facebook suggests using Pages now only.
- Dave Weinberg
@dave does that suggest that group will end up going away?
- Angela Lawson
Pages are dif. Since new posts and fan activity auto-posts to other ppl's feed which is different than groups and many apps, a good page can keep growing exponentially if monitored. Groups do not have this functionality PLUS cannot be creatively altered using FBML.
- Dave Weinberg
I personally love Pages as there are more opportunities for the community to share and engage in the open-stream. Easy to connect with others' messages.
- Sonny Gill
I agree with Sonny. We closed down our group and started a fan page - much better features/interactivity.
- Michele Gartner
I've just moved a client to a Fan Page from a Group. Not enough time to really judge yet, but so far I'm pleased.
- Amy Blake
@Angela Groups wont go away, they serve different purposes. Pages are for companies, orgs and individuals who want to exist as a brand. Groups are more informal and can exist unofficially around those things.
- Dave Weinberg
From a member point of view, it is more fun to use pages. You really meet with other people. At the end of the day, it's more members between them. What do you think ?
- Lilian Mahoukou
Then, do groups encourage some members to lurk ?
- Lilian Mahoukou
@Lilian - right on. Groups to me, as a member of a few, feel like more of an information portal vs. one of engagement.
- Sonny Gill
Luckily for me I have @dave on my team and he is moving our group into a Fan page. It's in design currently but I thrilled with what I have seen and am sure it will be great for our engagement and promotional needs.
- Angela Lawson
@Lilliian @Sonny That may be OK if your goal is to eventually drive traffic from Facebook to your own site
- Lou Ordorica
@Lilian: I'd agree that Facebook Pages tend to be more engaging than groups, but groups tend to have a more limited focus.
- Bryan Person
@Lou - good point, Lou. It does all matter on what the goal is of the organization.
- Sonny Gill
Definitely pages vs. groups. A group is like a closed community. Fan page is like becoming friends with the brand, and interacting like you would with a FB friend - they show up in your feed, you can write on their walls, etc.
- Maria Ogneva
So it's a more natural shift from friend page to fan page - you aren't asking the fans to alter their behavior too much. If this makes sense.
- Maria Ogneva
Pages, no question. Groups are only left up for people that created them a while back and haven't transfered. There is no overwhelming reason to start a new group
- Scott Bishop
@Maria - you make a good point about users' behaviors on FB. You're right, they don't change as both profile and fan pages are similar in structure.
- Sonny Gill
@Maria--that's how I see it too: like a friend page, but for an organization/brand/etc.
- Amy Blake
However, Fan pages can pose a greater moderation challenge. You need to know going in what you feel is acceptable and when, if ever you moderate or delete.
- Angela Lawson
How about the discussion forums? Do you see those working better on a group or a Page?
- Bryan Person
The main advantage i see for groups is being able to send users a message that will show up in their inboxes (fb and potentially e-mail)
- Arié Moyal
@Bryan - I'll be honest, I don't pay attention to discussion forums on pages as much as I would in groups. They're more prevalent in the latter.
- Sonny Gill
@Angela: Moderation challenge for Pages is greater because they're more public than groups, right?
- Bryan Person
@Arie you can do that in a page too.
- Dave Weinberg
They other main advantage of pages is the ability to control the look and feel.
- Angela Lawson
@Arie, the email option is the last benefit of a group over a page. But I feel that getting too many emails from a group begins to get annoying pretty quickly
- Scott Bishop
Dave: It shows up in their Updates tab not in their inbox form what I can tell. Did I miss something?
- Arié Moyal
Until recently with Fan page updates showing in your stream, it was easy to get lost in the shuffle with the Updates link instead of Inbox for messages
- Joe Kikta
Scott: It's definitely a question of balance :) Too much of most things is a turn off
- Arié Moyal
@Scott Agreed! The e-mail option could be used as roundups to post community activity summaries or news
- Lilian Mahoukou
@Sonny: The Facebook NBA Page - http://www.facebook.com/nba - is about the only Page where I've seen high volume of content on Discussions tab
- Bryan Person
@Arie updates show up in the feed, but you can private msg your fans.
- Dave Weinberg
@bryan, Wall feeds will post to fan/friends profiles. More info going out in real time.
- Angela Lawson
@Lilian: And what would be the equivalent of using that e-mail function with a Page?
- Bryan Person
@Bryan Discussion in pages in no more public than in groups. Think of pages as groups 2.0.
- Dave Weinberg
I rarely check my Updates link and I think I'm not alone in that practice
- Joe Kikta
@Dave: More "public" in the sense that updates are going out to fans' activity streams.
- Bryan Person
@Bryan - 1. No idea why I wasn't apart of that page being a bball lover 2 - discussions are definitely robust. Due in part of the size of their community? Passionate fans? Good thing to ask yourself as a company - do you have something that people will be passionate about?
- Sonny Gill
@Joe: I *never* check my Updates link, so you've got me beat
- Bryan Person
@Bryan updates to discussions dont appear in fans' streams only major updates and changes do. Such as "X became a fan" or "Watch our new video"
- Dave Weinberg
I don't see where you can private message your fans directly into their inbox It goes to the updates tab doesn't it Also you can;t PM one-on-one from what I can tell Maybe Fan Pages for apps is different
- Arié Moyal
I just (like a few days ago) started up a FB group for my site. I had a page but didn't really know what to do with it. Maybe I just conceptually understand groups better? After reading this, I'm going to take a closer look at what pages do and see if maybe I should just forget the group and focus on the page.
- Michelle
@Bryan It could be a good idea to drive traffic to the main community
- Lilian Mahoukou
@Michelle Focus on the page.
- Dave Weinberg
I never check my Updates tab either
- Arié Moyal
@Bryan But as pages are more interaction-oriented, I would go for engaging in conversations to learn more about my community and talk back.
- Lilian Mahoukou
@Arie The link is under your page image. Click the "more button" and "send an update to your fans" appears.
- Dave Weinberg
Q4 is up!
- Sonny Gill
@Sonny: Thanks ... Q4 is up!
- Bryan Person
@Dave: Sorry, was referring to Wall posts!
- Bryan Person
Dave That's an update It doesn't go to the inbox nor do they get a notification of an update
- Arié Moyal
Fact is that Social Media and Community are merging in a way that many of us "long-time" community practitioners did not see coming. You can't ignore it any longer. My best advice is either hire or connect with a social media guru. When we hired @dave it was exactly for his social media experience. And as a result my social media knowledge has improved drastically.
- Angela Lawson
@Dave And as previously mentioned, ppl don't check their Updates section....
- Joe Kikta
@Arie I dont think thats true. It send you to a fb msg dialog box not an feed update.
- Dave Weinberg
Dave Maybe it has changed recently but that's not my experience
- Arié Moyal
@Joe agreed, neither do I. I think if that sends an update then its useless, except for that mnay ppl still receive updates via email. I know you can private msg your fans, I might just be getting the way to do it wrong.
- Dave Weinberg
You can private message your fans but not as the Page, only as yourself which doesn't always make sense to people
- Arié Moyal
@Arie Right, that is good if the page is a politician or the like. Unless the brand is tied to an individual this seems awkward.
- Dave Weinberg
Dave: Yep it's awkward if you can;t message people as the app, which doesn't solve my problem LOL
- Arié Moyal
WRAP-UP: September 25, 2009. Thanks for your contributions today. Very lively discussions--and from several newcomers, too. See you all back here next week!
Thanks for the topic and all the sharing here ;)
- Lilian Mahoukou
Thanks Bryan + everyone---my first time on friendfeed--I'll be back! Meanwhile, see you all on Twitter (I'm BlakeGroup)?!
- Amy Blake
Great topic and lively discussion today! Thanks for moderating Bryan!
- Joe Kikta
Yep, got a lot out of today's discussion that will help me do even better work for my clients :)
- Chris Bailey
Thanks for a fantastic chat today everyone! Appreciate you all for stopping by.
- Sonny Gill
Thanks. Enjoyed this as a newbie :)
- Dave Weinberg
Q2: September 25, 2009: Let's try to come up with a good list of best practices for driving engagement on Facebook Pages. Add your recommendations below.
Lilian Mahoukou liked this
I'd welcome practices for driving to FB groups too... or do I just need to move my group to a page?! (Welcome hearing that too).
- Marcia Conner
have someone dedicated to monitoring FB pages and interacting
- Chris Bailey
Video on front page is highly recommended.
- Dave Weinberg
#1 engagement strategy is Consistent Frequency of Posts. If you aren't posting engageing questions or content...you don't exist.
- Scott Bishop
Watching your analytics from the back end is key to showing you where and how to make changes.
- Dave Weinberg
learn to use FBML and produce custom tabs to guide people to where you want them to go
- Chris Bailey
Well, not sure if it's best practices, but I try to post engaging content (my client's and other relevant content), encouraging fans to participate - I usually ask questions, have fans express their opinion.
- Maria Ogneva
what do you recommend for "interaction activities"?
- Lee Anne Orange
Use links to drive traffic back to your main community
- Angela Lawson
@Marcia - here's a good resource to look over comparing pages vs. groups - http://mashable.com/2009...
- Sonny Gill
@Scott: What do you recommend for frequency of posts? One a day? Two a day? You also don't want to overdo it ...
- Bryan Person
@Scott - absolutely right. Keeping the community engaged, testing their thoughts and what they feel about certain topics. Can't remain stagnant.
- Sonny Gill
@Lee Anne a simple "action items" box on the front like the Humane Society does. If you can sexy that up... even better. http://www.facebook.com/search...
- Dave Weinberg
Scott: I agree - frequency of posts is key. Also, when I post, i usually try to find the most attractive thumbnail.
- Maria Ogneva
My best practice: Use photos and video to drive engagement.
- Bryan Person
@Scott, each community differs. There is no set formula. A b2b community is different than a consumer or social community.
- Angela Lawson
@Angela: How well do you find that people follow those links back to your central community?
- Bryan Person
Thanks Dave, I will check it out.
- Lee Anne Orange
Even for our very own CmtyChat - people have been responding very well to Bryan's audio previews. I personally love them!
- Sonny Gill
I don't like FB for community personally. I feel that it's too restrictive.
- Maria Ogneva
@Bryan It depends on the purpose of the page. You need to beware of "Reader Fatigue". But a few times per week is fine. Again, it depends on the buinsess and why people have joined. But too ofter I see pages that havne't been updated in weeks
- Scott Bishop
@Maria : Agreed! It's easy to launch a FB fan page but very important to keep people interested by your content
- Lilian Mahoukou
@Angela +1. The value of time increases exponentially with B2B over B2C, you need to deliver good return on attention.
- Lou Ordorica
We are just moving to a fan page but with our FB group and Twitter we get a lot of traffic from Social Media referals.
- Angela Lawson
@Maria not once you learn FBML and gain from others' pages. Building a custom page is not simple drag and drop, but can be really effective over time.
- Dave Weinberg
I have found contests are a good way to both atract new fans and get your current community engaged. But after the contest...you need a strategy to keep the interest
- Scott Bishop
@Dave fortunately FBML isn't that hard to use, particularly if you know yr way around Dreamweaver
- Chris Bailey
@Scott: Right. A case a starting something and not keeping up. Leaving it to die!
- Bryan Person
@dave good point. I should get on that :)
- Maria Ogneva
@Scott - funny you mention that. I've seen great contests on Twitter and Facebook, but never heard a peep from that brand after the fact.
- Sonny Gill
@Bryan, @Scott : We need to think long-term strategy not campaigns
- Lilian Mahoukou
@Chris Even without, the Facebook developer test area isa great tool which helps. http://developers.facebook.com/tools...
- Dave Weinberg
@Maria Good point with the thumbnails. Often this is the first impression to draw initial attention to your page posts
- Scott Bishop
@Lilian - bingo! Social media is NOT a 'campaign'
- Sonny Gill
@Sonny Exactly. As important, if not more...is the strategy after the contest. I rarely see brands roll out content well after the initial bang
- Scott Bishop
We're planning a recurring contest that askes people to vote on the content submitted and pick a winner
- Arié Moyal
@Scott - the short-term for them is great, but sustaining that push and drive is even more important than the contest itself. Something companies are slowly learning but yet to implement well.
- Sonny Gill
@Sonny How to avoid the campaign pitfall ?
- Lilian Mahoukou
We ran a contest lately and it just bombed. i think that users are just getting bored with the same old tricks.
- Angela Lawson
@Lilian @Sonny Totally agree..Social Media needs the same strategy process as any other part of the biz. But campaigns exist within that strategy.
- Scott Bishop
Facebook seems to be full of apps, contests, etc. that are ultra-popular for about 5 secs and then go away. People lose interest. The novelty wears off
- Joe Kikta
@Joe - how would you drive interaction and keep that engagement up?
- Sonny Gill
What about champions within your community and on FB ?
- Lilian Mahoukou
What I want to take away from here is ideas to help me manage the community that exists around our facebook app Any ideas?
- Arié Moyal
@Joe Pages are dif. Since new posts and fan activity auto-posts to other ppl's feed which is different than groups and many apps, a good page can keep growing exposnentially if monitored.
- Dave Weinberg
@ Angela what kind of contest was it?
- Arié Moyal
@Arie: Community around a Facebook app? Say a little more about that.
- Bryan Person
@Lilian @Sonny Agreed! Not a campaign! My partner and I actually wrote a post "Marketing is not a drive by shooting" on our agency blog!
- Maria Ogneva
Q3 posted ... but feel free to keep going in this thread, too.
- Bryan Person
To me, FB is like the web/blogs. It's content-driven. Of course, the key is knowing what content your community wants and what they consider to be of value!
- Amy Blake
@Dave True. Constantly adding new content and soliciting involvement is key. Same with apps. Have to be constantly evolving. @Sonny
- Joe Kikta
Well we have a facebook app which is basically a phone/voice messaging/IM Java app and I'm finding it quite difficult to reach out to users
- Arié Moyal
Q3 is up for anyone who hasn't scrolled up :)
- Sonny Gill
@Arie Sounds interesting. Name of App? What's your target?
- Joe Kikta
App is called Telephone http://apps.facebook.com/babyTEL
- Arié Moyal
I want to strengthen the community that already uses the app as well as have discourse with new users but there seems to be a black box there People think "I'm using a facebook app" not "I'm using babyTEL's app ON facebook"
- Arié Moyal
@Arie: That link doesn't work for me.
- Bryan Person
@Arie: Didn't work for me either
- Joe Kikta
Who knew? Facebook vanity URLs are case-sensitive?
- Arié Moyal
Q1: September 25, 2009. Let's get this party started with a discussion about communities on Facebook. Can you build community there? And if you have good examples, please share them.
Lilian Mahoukou liked this
You shared a good one Bryan with Chris Brogan's book page - http://www.facebook.com/trustag... - full of conversations, people excited about the book, as well as fun images shared with their book.
- Sonny Gill
but is it community if it doesn't have interaction from the brand/person/etc? many don't interact with their fans
- Chris Bailey
Community can have numbers but is nothing without engagement IMO.
- Sonny Gill
i find many brands using FB pages still only use it to broadcast rather than interact
- Chris Bailey
It's one thing to use Fan Pages to build community around a brand using Fan Pages It's a whole other thing to build community around a facebook app
- Arié Moyal
@Chris: This is a very good question and one I've struggled with in looking for good examples. Many Facebook really are just "fan pages," lacking any true engagement.
- Bryan Person
Those were my thoughts too Chris. I've seen a few who just broadcast, but don't interact with the facebook members at all
- Sue
I'm new and wanted to introduce myself. I may just lurk this round.
- Beth Brodovsky
@Bryan its one thing that i'm working with clients to see...I believe there's immense untapped potential here
- Chris Bailey
Yes, you can build a community on a fan page, although the built in functionality don't scale as well to a large community in my opinion
- Chris Christensen
@Chris: On the engagement side, right?
- Bryan Person
I created a group to focus on "what are people learning on FB" long before I even knew about fan pages. Conversation has slowed down recently, but looking to get more going. (http://www.facebook.com/group...)
- Marcia Conner
one celeb who does seem to interact is Vin Diesel
- Chris Bailey
@Chris C and Chris B: Welcome to the chat!
- Bryan Person
One problem with all social media is companies want to listen but no one understands that you have to talk back.
- Angela Lawson
I'm trying to build up a fan page and make it interactive - am hoping that our participation at IDF helps increase that interactivity http://www.facebook.com/pages...
- Michele Gartner
I have been working to build a community on the Amateur Traveler fan page. It works pretty well for a smaller community.
- Chris Christensen
@Bryan...yes, engagement side has immense untapped potential
- Chris Bailey
@Marcia That's a cool group. I like what's going on over there! How do you try to keep the interaction going?
- Sonny Gill
So many groups I belong to are just announcement boards, but b/c there isn't a way to see new activity in the groups, ppl easily lose site of them unless the moderators are always pushing out msgs.
- Marcia Conner
Then, what to do when you share some information and nobody talks back ? Is it about the content or about the community profile ?
- Lilian Mahoukou
@Chris C: And you also have the Page for This Week in Travel: http://www.facebook.com/ThisWee...
- Bryan Person
@weinberg81 has been playing around with a flash module on our OpenAmplify page and it works well.
- Angela Lawson
@Bryan Oh right I forgot about that :-)
- Chris Christensen
Here are a few big brands doing it well. Some interact, let community be a part of it, while others broadcast a bit more - http://mashable.com/2009...
- Sonny Gill
@Chris C: Not much engagement there yet, but give it time. Maybe you should pimp it some more on the show.
- Bryan Person
@Lilian what are you building a community for and how are you trying to drive traffic and interest?
- Chris Christensen
I find trying to do the one on one stuff on facebook is difficult because there is very rarely an "in" Facebook users have strong ties to their friends It's not like twitter where you can just walk up to someone.
- Arié Moyal
@Angela...yes, interacting is part of what's missing. I think because it's FB, they don't put the community connection to it
- Chris Bailey
Here is the Page of Vin Diesel that Chris Bailey mentions: http://www.facebook.com/ThisWee...
- Bryan Person
@ChrisBailey: So, is that really Vince posting those updates, or one of his handlers?
- Bryan Person
@Bryan thanks for the plug... but wrong URL :-)
- Chris Christensen
Randi Zuckerberg, Facebook’s managing director, offered a few suggestions for FB page best practices for non-profits at Mashable’s Social Good Conference in New York. See some reflection of her talk here: http://philanthropy.com/news... and here http://beth.typepad.com/beths_b...
- Dave Weinberg
@sonnygill Periodically I send out notes to encourage others to add in their experiences learning on FB, but overall it feels far from like a community... other than in seeing who else is interested in the topic.
- Marcia Conner
@Lilian it's both and so much more. You can't narrow it down to one activity or focus.
- Angela Lawson
@Bryan I truly believe that's Vin..or else its a good illusion
- Chris Bailey
@Arie - you're right, one-on-one interaction is difficult on FB pages, but so long you help nurture the conversation and get people interacting, that's pretty good engagement.
- Sonny Gill
@Chris C: I plugged This Week in Travel. That URL worked for me. Want to put the right one in here?
- Bryan Person
(WIll lose internet here in a moment as the Comcast guy is installing cable)
- Chris Christensen
@Chris - tell him we know Frank, the Twitter guy. ;)
- Sonny Gill
I am not sold that FB is a community channel unto it self but we want to use it as an additional engagement tool to support our community.
- Angela Lawson
@Marcia - for you, how does it feel different than a community? Because less of a one-on-one feeling?
- Sonny Gill
@sonny, there isn't the usual back and forth, [much] commenting on each other's contributions, etc. I usually experience and learn from in online communities.
- Marcia Conner
What about building community on facebook around facebook apps? Anyone doing that?
- Arié Moyal
Chris and Bryan: Can you guys offer some ideas about hot to foster interaction via FB fan pages? I kind of agree that it's hard to do this. I find that other platforms are better for direct interaction.
- diane sager
I think for big brands and well known social media heads, it's easy to build a thriving community - but for small biz/orgs, that's where it becomes a bit more difficult.
- Sonny Gill
Personally, if you spend enough time in one Social Media Network you will eventually build a community in that environment.
- Owen Greaves
@Angela I see FB as Community Lite..great for brands/individuals just starting out
- Chris Bailey
@Angela: There could be a couple of different approaches to the Page, but having it support or connect to a central communityis a good way to go.
- Bryan Person
@Chris C. It is more about launching new discussions, but it appears that people takes FB as a more personal space ?
- Lilian Mahoukou
We see FB as another tool for engagement, and like the immediate access to photos/video. But it's much more closed than Twitter.
- Amy Blake
@Owen - right. But for businesses, is that something they're willing to invest time in on Facebook, when results typically come from big brands?
- Sonny Gill
@Angela: But I also think that the content on the Facebook Page should be able to largely stand on its own. Consider it a touchpoint.
- Bryan Person
Do we have certain brands more willing to drive conversations/interactions ?
- Lilian Mahoukou
I have to be honest and say that I would be willing to invest the extra time into community building on FB bec I think this platform has longevity
- diane sager
@diane you have to create good content that generates dialogue..then interact with fans via comments..a good start
- Chris Bailey
FB can be used to build communities for small/start up businesses where these companies are not threatened by their legal department.
- daphnerocha
FB is a personal space so I find it better to connect to what they are doing, get feedback, see pictures of listeners (just started to see those posted)
- Chris Christensen
Sonny: Only if there is a perceived value
- Owen Greaves
What about using Facebook as a "tentacle" to draw people to your community site, particularly for B2B? Any examples people can share?
- Lou Ordorica
@Lou that is exactly what our goal is
- Angela Lawson
@Chris Christensen: Want to add in the link for your Amateur Traveler podcast so folks can check it out?
- Bryan Person
@Chris B I think that is a great point, like any community, when you are starting at least you need to start the conversation with some good questions
- Chris Christensen
Q on Facebook pages: What account should I use to start a page for an organization? I made the mistake of creating one using my personal account. Had to nuke the group when I left the organization.
- Stephen Palkot
@Angela: Want to share an example?
- Bryan Person
Seems "community" means many different things to different people here, like in real life: I visit a community, I learn w/ a community, I am part of a community.
- Marcia Conner
My good friend @foiledcupcakes has built a great following for her new Chicago cupcake biz using Twitter & FB. About 800 fans in a few months.
- Scott Bishop
Right Marcia - vs. Adidas, who's community is huge, doesn't have much interaction outside of commenting on Adidas' posts/images.
- Sonny Gill
I like the format in that you see all comments at once, without any searching. It's the access that feels limited, and doesn't feel like a community.
- Amy Blake
@Lou - that is our goal, too. I also use it to encourage our team to participate more in our community.
- Michele Gartner
@Scott - care to share the link to FB page?
- Sonny Gill
Because of the viral nature of facebook, where your friends see your and your page's activity in their feeds, any constantly fed page, with interactive features will grow quickly. Whether you use that as a tentacle to your own company or a standalone it gives you the opportunity to engage in ways you cant elsewhere.
- Dave Weinberg
http://www.facebook.com/amateur... is the Amateur Traveler page
- Chris Christensen
@Stephen: Administrators have to come from individual accounts, I think, but you can create a Page with more than one administrator. At LiveWorld, we have 3 or 4 admins. Should any one of us leave ...
- Bryan Person
once you have 100 "fans" you can get the short url
- Chris Christensen
@ChrisC I think FB's value is how easy it is to create content - videos, pix, writings that are housed elsewhere (YouTube)
- Chris Bailey
@Amy yes, I agree. It is like a forum of discussion although new applications are being deployed by 3rd parties to make that experience richer.
- Chris Christensen
What kind of content should we share on FB ? Should we go more visual with videos and pictures ?
- Lilian Mahoukou
The Humane Society is a great example of a great FB page. they have multiple types of content, ways to engage, activities to do, ways to share, etc. http://www.facebook.com/search...
- Dave Weinberg
@Lilian..absolutely, there are ways to pull in YouTube and Flickr content..don't limit yrself
- Chris Bailey
Once interesting thing that I think it was CC Chapman was doing was running ads on his on fan page to drive people to where he wanted them
- Chris Christensen
I feel that using any of the social media channels in a silo can hurt your overall efforts. A good engagement plan incorporates all channels. If you have a Fan page that does not have the same messages as your corp community then you have missed a great opportunity.
- Angela Lawson
@Lilian yes absolutely, the FB community is very visual. It is the largest photo sharing community on the web.
- Chris Christensen
@Angela do you think yr overall community and FB community share same demographics? FB might be good way to target a different demo
- Chris Bailey
@Chris B. : I guess it's more fun and 1 picture is more interesting than 1000 words
- Lilian Mahoukou
@Chris using ads to drive traffic is great and cheap. If you can drive down into a specific targeted audience and send them towards a targeted tab in your page, the sign up rate for fans will be higher.
- Dave Weinberg
Aren't FB fanpages indexed, which is also great for driving traffic?
- diane sager
Question 2 is up for everyone!
- Sonny Gill
I feel that facebook users don;t want to be engaged with unless it's with a celeb they're crushing on or a big brand. Agree/Disagree?
- Arié Moyal
@Angela I agree, [shameless plug] that's one of the reasons the LiveWorld product lets you feature content into a FB app that you can add to your fan page or your fan's pages
- Chris Christensen
Diane: You're not really using facebook for community buildingin that case though
- Arié Moyal
@chris for us, yes. We have a narrow audience of Developers and Semantic Web professionals.
- Angela Lawson
@diane They should be but I have not heard much conversion yet on the SEO value of FB fan pages. Has anyone?
- Chris Christensen
@Arie I think I disagree. For our product (Intel vPro) it's another avenue for tech support
- Michele Gartner
@Michele @Angela The potential for growing your community by having a Facebook presence is very appealing, isn't it? The challenge is to optimize your presence, be compelling, and know the rules for participation.
- Lou Ordorica
I see FB and Twitter as part of any organization's overall marketing/PR plan. Depending on the company, customer services and sales should be involved too. I encourage clients to have a Social Media team to include employees who have good info to share but don't usually get a voice.
- Amy Blake
@Angela: What's the link to you page? Mind adding it here and/or to the RESOURCES thread that I started?
- Bryan Person
because you are reaching out to a vast group, by having multiple types of content to engage and encourage participation is ideal.... caters to the many different learning styles people have...
- daphnerocha
@Amy do you tie that into your cooperate blog then, promoting that to twitter and facebook?
- Chris Christensen
I'm psyched to take a look at the other fan pages you guys are listing - feel like I created mine in a vacumn and would love to see what everyone else is doing.
- Michele Gartner
@Amy Excellent point, very well put.
- Lou Ordorica
@ Michele would you say then that it might only really work for a certain demographic?
- Arié Moyal
@Arié Facebook covers a pretty wide range of demographics now days
- Chris Christensen
@chris. Still working on getting them to blog, but absolutely yes, that will become a focal point for them. This is very much a step-by-step process; my clients are newbies at this!
- Amy Blake
@Arie Hmm... not sure about that. The "This week in travel" page has a lot of interaction. Perhaps the subject of the fan page needs to be about something people are really passionate about.
- Michele Gartner
Guess you just have to advertise your fan page in a place where your passionate users hang out :-)
- Michele Gartner
@ Chris facebook might but not all of them will want to interact with you A lot of people on facebook want to be left alone to interact with their friends
- Arié Moyal
@ Michele Well sure, fish where the fish are
- Arié Moyal
I hate to leave this great discussion but I just got called into a discussion with Johnson&Johnson, bye
- Chris Christensen
@ Arie LOL, sometimes it's hard to find where the fish are biting ;-) I advertise on our online community - but where are other good places to promote a fan page for high tech? (In this case, Intel)
- Michele Gartner
@Chris C: Thanks for joining us!
- Bryan Person
Michele It depends Does your fan oage give you insight on the users' likes and dislikes?
- Arié Moyal
PREVIEW: September 25, 2009: Can you build community on Facebook? Here's an audio preview.
CmtyChat-Facebook.mp3 486 KB
Gordon Saunders liked this
I LOVE this topic. I will do everything I can to be here.
- Angela
Looking forward to having you here, Angela!
- Bryan Person
Great topic that I've been thinking about for a couple of weeks..I don't think many orgs approach FB like Community so we have an opp to nudge them forward..very excited!
- Chris Bailey
Chris: Glad you like the discussion topic. Ready for your contributions in 4 hours!
- Bryan Person
Should be a great chat and definitely something a lot of business are thinking about!
- Sonny Gill
Oh man! Thank for this #cmtychat topic Bryan! I am looking forward to learning so much!
- Arié Moyal
Great timing, we have just started building our FB fan page and looking at how we will use it to supplement our other community engagement activities.
- Angela Lawson
If you want a "not so great example" we have a FB page for our tradeshow. Since it happens every 2 years it is difficult to maintain. Difficult to keep it up to date, real and relevant for that length of time. Looking forward to learning what we can do to make it better and to help create a community. IMTS2010 is our event
- Lee Anne Orange
@Lee Ann: Want to share a link to the Page?
- Bryan Person
@Lee Ann: I deleted your other post. Just add the link to this thread, please.
- Bryan Person
I'm not a big fan of FaceBook because it's so laborious!
- Owen Greaves
Once you learn the ins and outs, like with other platforms, Facebook is very easy to use.
- Angela Lawson
Has anyone used Facebook Markup Language (FML) to build pages?
- Lou Ordorica
Not if you're trying to reach app users
- Arié Moyal
@Owen like Angela says, there is a higher barrier of entry cuz yr right..but I wouldn't say it's "easy to use"
- Chris Bailey
@Lou yes, I've been working on custom pages for clients
- Chris Bailey
My colleague @weinberg81 has been working with FML. with any new language, there is going to be a learning curve
- Angela Lawson
@Chris Cool! Can you share any links to resources or tutorials?
- Lou Ordorica
Q1 is up for everyone! :)
- Sonny Gill
The FBML developer wiki is really thorough, and any google search of FBML plus your topic will surface good results. http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index...
- Dave Weinberg
@Dave Thanks for the tip.
- Lou Ordorica
here is our fb page - http://www.facebook.com/search...
- Lee Anne Orange
@religion_state Amazing! How do I get in on that? Http://jewneric.com
you can watch online. did you check out the site? http://jbloggers.org/
- ReligionandStateinIsrael
I've been running Jewneric for almost 2 years. We have writers all over the world and would love the chance to participate in these kinda of things on the future. Thanks
- Dave Weinberg
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As there are only a couple of Kosher restaurants in Washington, DC, it
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I really didn
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