Best Practices for Managing Multiple Brands on Facebook

BEST PRACTICESFOR MANAGINGMULTIPLE BRANDSON FACEBOOK

© 2011 Buddy Media Inc. Proprietary and Confidentialwww.buddymedia.com partner@buddymedia. 1

Table of Contents

I Introduction…

II Tip #1: Provide local content for regional fans …Page 3

III Tip #2: Maintain professionalism and consistency on local Pages…Page 4

IV Tip #3: Empower local properties to create events…Page 5

V Tip #4: Link your brand Pages…Page 6

VI Tip #5: Represent all product lines within a single Page…Page 7

VII Tip #6: Incorporate user-generated content into your strategy…Page 8

VIII Tip #7: Use your Wall to call out Pages or new content…Page 9

IX Tip #8: Set up regional Pages…Page 10

X Tip #9: Provide advocates with an opportunity for employment…Page 11

XI Tip #10: Creatively answer frequently asked questions…Page 12

XII Conclusion…Page 13


Introduction

According to a recent study conducted by UMass Dartmouth’s Center for Marketing Research, 71% of the world’s fastest-growing U.S. companies have a Facebook presence. Perhaps this number is so large because growing brands realize that Facebook provides a Platform for companies to communicate with consumers on a day-to-day basis. However, maintaining an always-on conversation with masses of fans can be a challenging task for large multi-brand corporations. Whether the fan base is 500 people or 5,000,000, it’s tricky to navigate the social world when there are so many different potential audiences to reach with a wide array of content.

There are a handful of tactics to incorporate when building a social presence for a multi-brand corporationon Facebook. It might seem overwhelming at first, but with an effective action plan, your Pages will be up and running efficiently in no time. In this White Paper, you’ll read about the necessary tools and strategies to successfully build a brand presence on Facebook for your company.

Learn how to:

Reach different audiences with content unique to their locations or interests.

Empower franchise owners, property managers and branding teams by providing content and assets that maintain brand consistency. Create groundswell and buzz in local communities with social events.

Create a brand hub that provides visibility into all of the Pages that a multi-brand corporation controls. Develop Wall Posting strategies to cross-pollinate a multitude of Pages.

Catalyze engagement and interaction with user-generated content.

Build a bond with brand advocates by leveraging content that addresses their wants, needs and concerns.

From using Facebook’s native features to leveraging brand assets, this is the definitive guide to creating a scalable, sustainable presence for multi-brand companies on the world’s largest social network.


Tip #1: Provide local content for regional fans

Facebook provides an excellent arena to distribute valuable information that’s pertinent to your fans on a local level. When people are encouraged to submit a regional indicator, they know that the content they receive is specifically targeted to them.

Provide your fans with local deals and coupons that will encourage them to take their business to your stores or franchise branches.

Give people content that’s relevant to their regions and incent them to join local Pages that your brand might also support on Facebook.

Leverage content from open-web community websites to provide fans with more information about what they might be looking for.

McDonald’s encourages people

to enter their zip codes directly on the Facebook

Page to provide them with information from a

community-specific RSS feed.


Tip #2: Provide franchise owners, property managers and brand managers with corporate assets to maintain a level of professionalism and brand consistency on local Pages

Be sure that the Pages you want associated with your business contain assets that will set them apart from those created by brand advocates. It’s easy for your fans to hijack your Facebook presence when they create fan Pages on their own. This may not always be a bad thing, but it is important for you to incorporate a steady theme throughout your official content.

Allow local representatives to have access to corporate content that you might want them to share with their fans on Facebook. This might simply be a company logo or even contest and event details.

Implement a consistent theme across your brand Pages to generate a sense of familiarity for brand advocates. This provides a level of reassurance that the content they interact with is accurate and endorsed from a corporate level.

A Subway franchise owner grew his fan base

to over 4,000,000 Facebook users, not all of which were local

patrons. In turn, Subway provided the franchisee with corporate

assets to use on his FacebookPage so fans were given

accurate information and promotions.


Use Facebook’s native Events functionality to invite people to brand-sponsored events. This is a simple way to reach your customers and fans, and provide them with exclusive access to your organization at a local level.

Create events that local patrons can relate to. Provide details explaining venues, content and even personalities that are familiar to the area.

Promote the events on your corporate Facebook Page to remind people that the events being hosted in their areas are sponsored by your brand as a whole – not just their local branches.

Treat your fans to sneak peaks of a new product or service that will be introduced by your company. This is a great way to make people feel like brand insiders and will encourage them to attend future events.

Tip #3: Empower local properties and franchise owners to create events, and publicize them through Facebook

Live Nation actively promotes its

upcoming concerts and events on its custom tab, but also uses Facebook Events to provide fans

with more information about each event. Fans receive

teasers to the event content on the custom tab, but can

RSVP directly on the Events tab.


Tip #4: Link your brand Pages so that each property becomes a hub

Many companies have multiple brands under their corporate umbrella. If this is the case for your organization and each property has its own Facebook presence, be sure to devote a space on your Facebook Pages to drive traffic to any sub-brands.

Use your Facebook Page’s ‘Like’ feature to provide a link to each one of your relevant Pages. There’s no limit to how many properties you can include.

Create a Page Browser that will allow your users to ‘like’ individual brands without having to leave your corporate Page. This way your fans will be able to show their affinity for more than one property at a time.

In many cases, people are more interested in your sub-brands than they are in your corporate presence. By providing a link to their favorite products, they’ll be sure to see the official content supported by your company.

NBC Universal implemented the same

Page Browser on each of its sub-brand Pages – creating a cross-pollination hub on

Facebook. This was a great way for each property to

build its fan base and spread NBC messaging

across the network.

Westin providesits fans with links to

other Starwood Hotels & Resorts Facebook Pages.

Users can “like” the content directly in the browser, and

be driven to the official fan Page.


Oftentimes, companies promote multiple product lines under one brand name. If this is the case, use your Facebook tabs to provide a designated space for each arm of your business. This is a great way to organize assets and neatly display products and services within a single Facebook presence.

People who visit your Page looking for one item will be more likely to browse through additional product lines if they are presented to them on the same Facebook Page.

Incorporate item call-outs on each of your tabs to draw attention to the other product lines on your Page. For instance, tell your fans that if they like this, then they’ll definitely like that!

Use the same general theme on each of your tabs in order to reinforce to your fans that the content is consistent across your brand presence.

Retail brands like Calvin Klein and Brooks

Brothers incorporate their most popular lines on a

single Facebook Page. Using customized tabs, each brand

has designated a space to each of its merchandise

lines for its fans to browse through.

Tip #5: Represent all available product lines within a single Page


Tip #6: Incorporate user-generated content into your overall Facebook strategy

It is important to add an element of personalization to your Facebook presence, because for many people, large multi-brand companies can seem unapproachable on the corporate level. Allow your fans to submit their own content to be featured on your Page so that people are given a social experience that brings brands and fans closer together. Your fans will start to feel like insiders, and will therefore develop an affinity to your brand.

Allow your fans to submit relevant photos as they use your products and services. Be sure to leave Comments on your favorites to enhance the connection.

Use your Facebook Wall to ask questions. Your fans will be inclined to offer their insights and contribute to your brand messaging.

Incorporate interactive elements on your Page to determine the kind of content your fans want to see. Build polls, quizzes and even questionnaires to gather people’s opinions.

Target Baby reaches out to its fans when they

submit relevant pictures to the Photos tab. People are

more likely to continue to visit your Page if you make the connection between your content and the content

that they submit.


Tip #7: Use your Wall to call out other Pages or new content

Studies have shown that people spend the majority of their time on Facebook browsing through messages that appear in the News Feed. Take advantage and post content to your Wall that will direct traffic to relevant Pages connected to your brand.

Facebook will allow you to provide links in your Wall to direct fans to new Pages operated by your company.

People are more likely to visit the Pages that you suggest to them, rather than finding the content organically.

Post images, links and even videos to your Wall to call out to new brand content. This is a great way to connect all properties that fall under your brand’s corporate umbrella.

Hershey’s posts a message on its Wall to direct people to a

new branded commu-nity. The relevant image seduces users to check

out the content on Facebook.

Pepsi uses a Wall Post to tell its

fans that Diet Pepsi is launching its new Page.

With the usage of relevant imagery, fans are more

likely to click on the provided link.


Tip #8: Set up regional Pages to reach fans with contextually relevant content

M&M’s created a Facebook Page for

different country audiences. This is a

great way to make the content relevant to a

more specific fan base.

If you are a large multi-brand corporation, your fan base most likely spans the world. If this is the case, it’s safe to assume that the content a fan is looking for in London differs from what a fan might be seeking in Texas. To avoid confusion and to target people in specific areas, create separate Pages with content that is meant solely for a designated region.

By implementing separate Pages for your regions, your brand will be able to set up promotions, campaigns and events without having to exclude a portion of your fan base.

Regional Pages make it easier to target your fans when asking for feedback on an organic level. It also makes it easier to understand your user base and gather locally relevant data on your Facebook Page.

People will know that the content they see on the regional Pages is applicable to them, thus building an implicit connection between your organization and the fans.

Large corporations seem more approachable to people when they are scaled down and target a specific group of people.


Tip #9: Bring fans into your organization byusing Facebook as a way to provide advocates with an opportunity for employment

Show your fans just how much they mean to your brand by providing them with opportunities within your company. Many times, people become active brand advocates on your Page because they agree with what you stand for, what you sell and what you do. Give these people the opportunity to be a part of the corporation and designate a specific careers section on your Facebook Page.

A careers section on your Facebook Page will remind people that your large corporation is made up of people. While it may appear to be a behemoth of an organization, putting a face to your name will provide a scalable solution for reaching your fan base.

Include testimonials from current employees to attest to how much they love being a part of your brand. People will see that it’s easy to relate to your organization this way.

Companies as large as Starbucks and Reckitt

Benckiser use space on their Facebook Pages to help guide people in their job searches. Your fans will be more likely to look through their options on Facebook rather than if

they are redirected to your website.


Tip #10: Creatively answer frequently asked questions

Your Facebook Page should provide people with answers to their most frequently asked questions. You want to seem approachable and personable so that your fans don’t hesitate to contribute to the conversation and continue to visit your social presence for the answers they might be seeking for.

A creative approach to answering questions shows your brand’s playful side. Be sure to show your fans that you want their participation.

Provide your fans with multiple outlets and resources for finding the answers to their questions. It’s helpful to include both online and offline guides so that people can find content no matter where they are.

Create an outlet where fans can answer each other’s questions. This is a great way to build communities on the local level so that your brand has representation across all areas of your corporate presence.

The Home Depot instructs its users to

discuss relevant topics on its Facebook Page

and other online communities.

Ace Hardware uses how-to videos to bring project tutorials to Facebook for users to see directly on the

custom tab.


As Facebook becomes increasingly popular for brands to maintain a social presence, it becomes more and more important to effectively target fans that visit Facebook Pages in search of content relevant to their personal needs. For brands with multiple properties or sub-brands to maintain, a Facebook presence is the perfect place to drive traffic and reach consumers. The tips provided within this White Paper are just the catalyst to an explosive opportunity to grow and nurture a multi-brand corporation’s Facebook real estate. With this ammunition in the corporate armory, the titans of the business will have the weapons necessary to wage a full-scale assault on disjointed, disorganized Facebook initiatives.

To make Facebook work, contact Buddy Media today.

Have questions?

Contact us at [email protected], or follow us on:

facebook.com/buddymedia

twitter.com/buddymedia

buddymedia.com

Conclusion

Best Practices for Managing Multiple Brands on Facebook

Documents

Transcript of Best Practices for Managing Multiple Brands on Facebook