Engaging the digital generation...

I cannae believe it has been five whole months since I last posted... I started out with such good intentions!! Still, time flies when you're having fun....or at least, when you are working hard!

So what have I been doing all this time? Lots and lots, which is good, as it means I have muchos to share with you here. 

First on my list of things to talk about is our new service fan page. If you have read my posts before, you might remember me talking about this back in this post. Back then, we decided that our facebook work had been so successful, we wanted to develop this even further. We decided (perhaps controversially) to ditch our website entirely, and instead use a facebook fan page as our main online access point for information for the public. We had a small amount of money to use and so I set about researching companies which could build our fan page to our specifications.

Unfortunately our website had been very much neglected. This was because the website was managed by another department within our organisation, and any changes or updates had to go through them. This made ensuring all information was up to date very tricky. Having our own custom built fanpage allowed us to display up to date and visually attractive information, which we would be able to manage, with no middleman. We also felt that this would mean that the public could reach us more easily and effeiciently. Hurrah. 

Finding a company was a bit of a minefield. There are literally tonnes of organisations offering all sorts of fancy facebook options, it was all a bit overwhelming! However, after lots and lots and lots of research, we discovered Net Natives a company local to Brighton, who specialise in social media engagement within education.

It took a while, but we finally launched our fabby new fan page right before christmas. Visit it at www.facebook.com/yesbrightonhove - doesn't it look amazing? I was very pleased with it indeed.

Now, I don't think as a rule it is vital to spend money on a bespoke page. A well managed fan page which comes as is can be just as engaging, as long as the content posted is relevant, useful and interesting to your fans. However, given that this has replaced our website, I feel that it offers a great deal more that your average page, encouraging engagement as well as offering lots of useful tools. Check it out for yourself (and don't forget to like us!). What do you think??

So, it's all built, lovely. That's it right?? Wrong! We have won the battle, but not the war just yet.

You could have the most wonderful fan page in the world, but if no one knows it's there, what's the point? So came the next challenge, driving traffic to our page. So here is my top eight ways to get those all important likes... hopefully you find it useful and can use some of these strategies yourself! I would love to hear if you have any other ways you use to promote your own pages too, let me know below!

1. E-mail signature

Include the link to your page on your email signature. Then email everyone in your organisation and tell them to do the same. This is a simple but all important one for obvious reasons!

2. Use pictures and videos

Facebook don't make it easy. The new (ish) news feed now generates content for users using 'Edgerank' which, in a very tiny nutshell, determines whether you will see content in your news feed, and high up in your feed it appears. This is huuugely important for fan pages - you don't want to be posting content that nobody ever sees. There are a number of factors which determine your content's Edgerank score, but what we do know, is that the formula for Edgerank prioritises 'rich' content (IE content featuring images and videos). Not only that, but a status which also features a picture to support it is attractive, helps to tell your story and it makes your post stand out! Thanks Net Natives for your fab blog post about this here. 

3. Post interesting content (read, not just one big fat advert for your organisation)

People want to engage in interesting content, and unfortunately, this means that a constant stream of status' advertising your local drop ins, whilst very useful, may not bring the likes flooding in. I don't mean start posting completely irrelevant content, just keep your content varied, and, well interesting. For example, you might post a relevant news story (unemployment figures anyone?) and ask what your fans think, or you might post an inspirational quote (supported by an image of course!), or perhaps you fancy running a quiz or competition? Think about what your fans want to see. As a good example of this, we have begun to post 'something for the weekend' on friday afternoons. This generally features an inspirational image or film to encourage our young people to keep up the hard work! This grabs attention in a news feed and encourages sharing (if you find a really good image/vid) which all in all results in a very happy fan page. 

(Here's your something for the weekend, just in case you were wondering!) 

If, like me, you have already established your own profile page to support your work before setting up your fan page, use your friend's list to your advantage and invite your friends to like your page! This gives you a really good foundation from the off on which to build your fan page. All you have to do is have a look at the right hand side of your page and click 'invite friends' as below:    

Then you'll be able to select (individually, unfortunately, if you have lots of friends to ask) all the people you want to invite to 'like' your page.

5. Interact with you fan page community

It goes without saying that you want to interact with anyone who engages on your page (comments, likes etc) but don't be afraid to put yourself out there! Use your fan page to interact with other like-minded fan pages. Firstly, find the fan pages which are relevant to your work. For us this means fan pages to do with recruitment (Monster Jobs UK, National Apprenticeship Service, Brighton and Hove Jobs), young people (Prince's Trust, UK Youth, Youthnet) and local community pages (Brighton, Brighton & Hove, Love Brighton). Then, using your fan page news feed, go ahead and interact! Comment and share content. This then shares your page with that fan page's fans, and also encourages that organisation to notice you, making them far more likely to notice and share your content. It's like a great big fan page family out there!

6. Ask questions

This is another simple, but effective one. Don't make statements, ask questions. Encourage your fans to give their views wherever possible to encourage engagement. The more comments on your status the more people it will reach. Simples. 

7. Use insights, insightfully. 

An awesome feature of your facebook fan page is facebook insights. This is located in the left hand side bar of your page, and only visible to admins. This clever feature allows you to track the popularity and virality of all your content, and analyse what kind of people you are reaching, right down to what they like to eat for breakfast. Well, not quite, but you get the idea. Check it out! You can use this information to ensure you are reaching the right people, and find out which content you are posting is most popular. 

8. Make it look nice

Finally, let's make sure your fan page is visually attractive. Your fan page has a 'photobar' running along the top of the page which stores and displays five photos. You can't choose which photos to feature here, but you can manipulate them. Unless you have a custom landing page, your wall is the first thing your fans are going to see. Make it attractive by using the photobar to your advantage. Upload the five photos you want to feature there in a row, and they will automatically display along the top of the page. If you add a new photo to your page it will replace one of the images. To remove it, and get your old ones back, just click on the cross in the top right of the photo. There, prefection restored! We use five shots of local young people, to support the message we want our service to portray. Give it a try!

Phew, well, I hope you find that all useful. We are still growing our page, so I would love to hear of any others ways people have found to generate traffic :) Let me know!