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"The Social PR Guide Series is supported by Mynewsdesk. Our online newsroom makes it easier to exchange news with key influencers, reach top of search engines and automatically update your social media channels.\nFacebook is about sharing. We share updates that reveal little pieces of our lives, and we check out our friends' updates to share in little pieces of their lives. And when there are pictures, links, comments, companies and various other things that we like, we share that as well. Companies and brands have a wonderful opportunity to participate in this give and take, and engage in real conversations with their customers and fans on Facebook. As PR professionals, how can we help our clients connect with their communities through Facebook? Here are some tips.\nGet Started (It\u2019s Super Easy)\nSetting up a basic Facebook Page for your client is really simple. Just go to this page and follow the prompts. Note that you\u2019ll need a personal user account to set it up, but most of us already have one. Once your client\u2019s page hits 25 likes, you can secure a vanity URL (facebook.com/yourbusinesshere) for it. And that\u2019s pretty much it. The rest of the Facebook game is about content and community building.\nSet the Stage\nYou can put all sorts of stuff on a Facebook Page \u2014 but know that there\u2019s a fine-ish line between a nicely organized variety of content that will engage your audience on an ongoing basis and a random mishmash of bits and pieces that doesn\u2019t do much of anything.  Jamie Tedford, \u201Cchief evangelism officer\u201D at social marketing company Brand Networks, recommends starting with a content calendar. Include information such as what percentage of posts will be brand messages, community messages and promotional messages, how many promotions will run and how they will be incorporated, what kinds of things you\u2019re going to link to, who\u2019s posting and how often, he says.\nThat brings us to the obvious next question \u2014 how often should you post? Unfortunately, there\u2019s no magic number, though there have been studies about the best times for Facebook engagement. Advise your client to start with a post once every two days, use Facebook\u2019s built-in Insights app to track likes and audience engagement, and then adjust the schedule as needed.\nDecide What To Say\n\n\n\n\nNext, focus your client\u2019s attention on the content itself. My colleague Jason Throckmorton, a partner at the San Francisco-based PR firm where I work, offers a clear-cut rule of thumb: \u201CEach and every post you publish should give your fans a reason to engage.\u201D Facebook is about sharing our own experiences and responding to those of others, and so the Facebook community has a built-in thirst for engagement.\nBonobos, an online men\u2019s clothing retailer, posts to its Facebook Page two or three times daily, and keeps things organized with a set theme for each day of the week. There\u2019s \u201CMonday Man-Style,\u201D for style-related posts and \u201CTuesday Threads\u201D for product posts. Wednesdays are an open forum, and fans can ask Bonobos customer service \u201Cninjas\u201D anything they want. And they do \u2013- from \u201CWhen are the seersucker jackets coming out?\u201D (Answer: \"In the next week or so.\u201D) to \u201CWhen is the cut-off age for dressing \u2018hip\u2019?\u201D (Answer: \u201CWhenever you stop being able to pull it off\u2026\u201D)\nRichard Mumby, VP of marketing at Bonobos, explains that a company\u2019s Facebook Page shouldn\u2019t be about selling. When you\u2019re just starting out, it\u2019s easy to skew early posts to a more salesy, product-centric approach, but this can be counterproductive, he says. Your newly minted fans won\u2019t be interested in a hard sell, so don\u2019t start that way.\nGet People to \"Like\" You\nIt\u2018s no fun to create a client Facebook Page only to find that only \u201C4 people like this,\u201D no matter how many how enthusiastically (or repeatedly) you hit refresh. To build your base, start with your client\u2019s most loyal fans \u2014 the ones that already exist. Place a call to action in email newsletters and make sure the Facebook Page is visible on your client\u2019s website, blog, Twitter and on all physical promotional materials, especially those given out at offline events. If appropriate, place hyperlinks in press releases and other PR-related materials. Note that Facebook has specific rules about how it can be referenced and linked. For example, you cannot connect your client\u2019s company name and Facebook in the same hyperlink.  Be sure to read through Facebook's brand permissions guidelines. \nThis past November, St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY ran a campaign with a goal of reaching 2,011 fans by New Year\u2019s Eve. The day they launched, they had 1756 fans. In order to make it to \u201C2,011 by 2011,\u201D they kicked up both the frequency and quality of their posts, incorporating more dynamic content, such as photos and video. During a big offline annual event in December, they also handed out Facebook \u201Cbusiness cards,\u201D directing attendees to Facebook for post-event photos and posts. They achieved their goal a few days ahead of time \u2014 by December 26.\nLet Them Win\n\n\n\n\nThere are plenty of benefits to running Facebook contests. Most importantly, they give people a fun way to interact with your client\u2019s brand and a reason to come back to visit and see who gets the prize. But if you\u2019re going to run a contest, Jim Belosic, cofounder and CEO of ShortStack, a self-service Facebook tab building platform, says that Facebook has some strict rules that your client must follow:\n\nCompanies are not allowed to run contests in which people enter by commenting or posting to the wall. \nCompanies are not allowed to use the newsfeed to announce contest winners. \nCompanies are not allowed to notify winners through Facebook, such as via Facebook messages. \nCompanies must run their contests through a third party app. \n\nShortStack allows users to build custom Facebook tabs without any developer experience. You can easily create branded pages using a template, and then there are a host of customization options from there. Using ShortStack\u2019s contest widget, which launched earlier this week, you can quickly set up a contest and not worry about figuring out how to follow Facebook\u2019s rules, as the ShortStack platform takes cares of meeting those requirements for you. ShortStack\u2019s interface allows you to design a contest submission form, customize the look and feel with images, incorporate contest rules and other information, set launch dates and duration and manage several other contest functions. Within the next few weeks, ShortStack will also roll out photo-upload submission capabilities.   \nNote that beyond contests, ShortStack also lets you add a range of other tabs to your client\u2019s Facebook page including contact pages, YouTube channels, Flickr feeds and polls. Service plans start at $9 per month.\nMake Your Fans Feel Special\nThis May 16, Freedom Riders, a documentary that tells the story of the men and women who participated in the Freedom Rides of 1961, will premiere on PBS\u2019s acclaimed history program, American Experience. In advance of the broadcast premiere, PBS is offering a special preview to its Facebook fans: A 35-minute excerpt of the film debuted exclusively on the PBS Facebook Page this past Monday, and will be available for viewing until the film airs on the 16th. American Experience has offered exclusive content to its Facebook community in the past as well. One week before the broadcast premiere of documentary Earth Days in April 2010, the film was live-streamed in full exclusively on the American Experience Facebook Page. During the screening, viewers were able to live chat with each other and with the director.\nOnce you have loyal Facebook fans clicking around, commenting and participating on your client\u2019s page, reward them with something special that they won\u2019t find anywhere else. It doesn\u2019t have to be as elaborate as a movie screening, it can be as simple as a coupon code. And the allure of exclusivity will attract new fans, too, so make sure you let people know what\u2019s going on through other channels.\nParting Advice For Your Facebook Page\n\nAsk tons of questions. \nIncorporate upcoming events, product launches and other happenings into your client\u2019s content calendar. \nUse third-party apps to build out tabs, but remember that the newsfeed is the vehicle for your client\u2019s call to action. Let fans know about new contests, events and other tabbed content by posting to the wall. \nEven if multiple parties and admins are posting, assign one person as the primary lead to make sure that the general calendar is being followed and the content of the main posts is in harmony with the voice of the brand. \nTake a read through of the Facebook promotions guidelines, Pages guidelines and brand permissions guidelines.\nMake sure that people have to \u201Clike\u201D your client\u2019s page before they get to enter a contest or get access to a promotion. ShortStack and other third-party apps offer this option. \nGive fans a bit of power.  If appropriate, consider posting a picture of a new product and letting the community decide what to name it. Or if that\u2019s too risky, try crowdsourcing something a bit safer, such as the flavor of the CEO\u2019s birthday cake (and make sure you post pictures afterward). \nLet fans know that you\u2019re listening. Make sure someone is there to monitor for comments that your client should respond to \u2014 and respond fast. \n\nSeries Supported by MyNewsDesk\n\n\n\n\nMynewsdesk\u2019s social media newsrooms makes it easier to exchange news and multimedia content with key influencers, reach the top of search engines and automatically update your social media outlets and homepage. Learn more.\n\nMore Social Media Resources from Mashable:\n- The Pros and Cons Of Tumblr For Small Business- 4 Innovative Ways to Use Web Video for Small Business- 10 Online Strategies for Your Next Product Launch- What to Look For When Hiring a Community Manager- 8 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Get More Out of Twitter"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2011/05/05/pr-pro-facebook-guide/>