I had the please of talk with an account manager this week about how a Facebook Page is like nurturing a garden. They both take time/investment, planning and passion.
Time/Investment: Regardless of if you are starting a garden at home, or a Facebook Page for your latest product. You’ve to make the effort to put the time in for both of them. You can’t simple check on these once a week and hope that everything will work out. You should be connecting 3 or 4 days a week if not ever other day to make sure everything is ok. You want to make sure your garden has enough soil, water and sunlight. You need to make sure your Facebook page is growing with information (threads, blog post, new pictures/video) and that there is value and a real reason for people to sign up and come back on a regular bases.
Orphaned Facebook Page
Planning: Much like making an investment of your times. You need an action plan to make everything happen. Are you going to put some red or white roses or do you prefer some yellow flowers in your garden. Knowing which flowers and shrubs work will together before you start planting in the Spring means that your garden will be a bigger success as you move into the summer. What will you update your Facebook page with today, next week and two months from now. You need to know because you want to satisfy large snackers and media snackers. I’ve had clients who just wanted to wing a Facebook Page and the success of that page was short lived. As the saying goes, those who fail to plan, plan to fail.
Passion: A garden and a Facebook Page need to be run by people with passion. As my friend Richard Millington would say, Be The Result You Want To See, and bring some passion to that garden and Facebook Page. People can tell when you are faking it and you don’t want to get called out. Making sure your next Facebook Page is run by someone in your company that brings passion to the office each and every day is vital. Their passion will shine through and your Facebook Page will be better for it.
I admit there is no guarantee of success for any company if you do the above. But if you are not willing to invest some time every week, plan for your long-term goal and make sure your Facebook Page is run by people with a passion for your business. Then I think you should scrape the idea. I’ve seen more then a few Facebook Pages that are now orphans. This doesn’t look good for your company and brand and tells people you made the page for all the wrong reasons.
