Chapter 1
In This Chapter
Understanding the Facebook news feed
Finding your voice on Facebook
Expanding your world by using Graph Search
Developing your business and personal branding
Deciding what to put on a page
Becoming a resource for your friends
Watching your words and behavior
Facebook is a place where you can connect with friends, build a brand, and share your thoughts and experiences with an audience. The Update Status text box at the top of the screen asks “What’s on your mind?” to help prompt you to share.
Digging into Facebook is simple enough, but many people find themselves sitting in front of their screen wondering what to say. Sometimes “What’s on your mind?” is the hardest question to answer.
In this chapter, we help you answer that question. You also discover how to best feature your personality through Facebook from the point of view of lifecasting. You also find out how to add value and enjoyment not only for yourself but also for others.
When you log in to Facebook, the default view is your home page, where you will see the Update Status text box and, just below it, the news feed. See Figure 1-1.
The news feed has two views: top stories and most recent. The most recent view displays all posts and activity from your friends, starting with the most recently posted. The top stories view, which is the default, displays the current top news based on Facebook’s understanding of your interests and how you’ve interacted with other people and pages. In this view, the news feed doesn’t show everything your friends have shared.
Facebook’s news feed is managed by an algorithm called News Feed algorithm, which helps decipher what is most interesting and relevant to you based on your activity. (To find out how this algorithm works and what it means to you, take a look at Book V, Chapter 3.)
Here's an example of how the News Feed algorithm determines what appears in your news feed's top stories. If your mother posts Facebook updates every day about how much she loves her children, and you comment on each one, saying thank you, you'll see all updates from her in your news feed. If your friend Bob posts every day but you never Like or comment on his posts, you'll seldom see his updates in your news feed’s latest news. Facebook highlights the people you’re most interested in and shows less of those you’re not interested in.
Knowing about Facebook’s top stories view and News Feed algorithm is important because you can begin to filter your news feed as you want. On the flip side, you’ll naturally develop an audience for your updates among those who are most interested in what you have to say. If your primary audience consists of your social friends, you may do better to talk about interesting experiences in your social life. If your audience consists of professional connections, you may find that they're more interested in what you’re doing in your work or business life.
The news feed plays a big role in your Facebook success, and you’re the star of the show! If you want to get the most out of Facebook, knowing your audience is critical, whether you’re using Facebook for personal interests, professional interests, or a mix of both.
The beauty of Facebook is the power of permission. You connect with people to whom you give permission. They see your updates only if they show an interest, and they can remove your updates if they want. If you embrace these factors, you'll get exactly what you want out of Facebook!
People are dynamic. We can be passionate, emotional, funny, or relaxed. If you’re like most people, you reserve parts of your character for only a few. Consider doing the same on Facebook.
That said, Facebook is also about being authentic. But determining your voice depends not only on being yourself but also on determining your goals with Facebook. For example, you might have one or more of the following goals:
People are naturally inclined to share their life stories with others, and sharing has reached a new level with the rise in popularity of social networks. Sharing life moments on the Internet is the most common use of social networks. This act of broadcasting your life (or portions of it) in any medium is called lifecasting. On Facebook, lifecasting might entail writing status updates about what you’re doing and posting photos or videos that highlight moments in your life. Sharing life moments on Facebook is a great way of creating meaningful connections with friends and family.
For a simple example of lifecasting, see Figure 1-2. This user is proud of her creation and wants to share it with others! What easier way to do that than to simply snap a photo on her smartphone and post it on Facebook?
Facebook is a great private network or a great open network. Decide what approach works best for your goals. For example, suppose your friend Joe likes to use Facebook to connect with new people and develop new relationships. One of his Facebook goals is to build his personal brand. His Facebook privacy settings are completely open, and he welcomes new connections. By contrast, maybe your cousin Annie uses Facebook to connect mostly with family and close friends. She allows people to subscribe to her public updates, but she limits her personal connections on Facebook to people she’s met and talks to regularly. Her privacy settings are stricter.
Neither approach is wrong because people have different goals. Don't feel apologetic if you want to be more open or more private — but don’t take it personally if someone else chooses to be more private.
If you want to use Facebook as an effective tool for getting the word out about an event, promoting a blog, or simply increasing the level of connection you have with people, you must understand what people read and respond to.
People share on Facebook in different ways. Whereas one person might post on Facebook because they want other people to comment or Like their posts, others post with no desire or expectation for a response. However, most people read and respond to things that they find interesting. Here are some types of updates that tend to get a lot of views and clicks because they catch people’s interest:
Photo or video posts and simple, concise updates are the most popular. Remember that Facebook users first skim their news feed, reading headlines. Then they decide what conversations they want to dive into.
Using humor is a great way to engage people. Being lighthearted is inviting. Who couldn’t use a laugh now and then? One of Jamie’s favorite things to post is something funny that happened to him or that he sees online. Facebook provides an opportunity to share things that you find funny and invite others to share their witty retorts.
Controversy is a great way to start a proverbial fire! People are passionate about ethics, religion, politics, and many other topics. Be careful when you post your opinions on these topics. Debate can be fun — and dangerous. Others can be easily upset about what you post or offended by other commenters. If you’re okay with starting a spirited debate, go for it! However, if you take people’s differences of opinions personally, maybe you should stick to the humorous side of things.
Who are you trying to reach? In this chapter, we assume that you have a goal on Facebook, such as building a brand for your business or strengthening your connections with friends. Whatever your goal, it should help you determine how to connect with your audience and how to be relevant when you communicate with them.
How do you know what is relevant to your audience? People have a tendency to attract those to whom they speak. If you talk about sports, you’ll have better connections with sports fans. If you’re an enthusiastic business networker, your Facebook friends list will show a slant toward other avid networkers.
Graph Search, shown in Figure 1-3, is a Facebook feature that lets you dive deeper into your Facebook community by searching for specific information across people, pages, friends, photos, and other content shared with you.
To use Graph Search, first click in the search box at the top of the Facebook page. (You'll be typing right over the text in the box.) Then type your search phrase. For example, you might type Friends who live in Philadelphia and like punk music. As you type, a list of search suggestions appears. Choose one of the suggestions, or finish typing and press Enter.
You can search for different types of information, including your friends’ hometowns, educational backgrounds, and interests. You can also search for details about what they like, such as favorite places, restaurants, books, movies, music, and games.
If you’re not sure how to begin exploring in Graph Search, try some of the following keyword suggestions:
You can combine phrases, or add things such as locations, timeframes, likes, and interests, to narrow your focus. For example:
Facebook’s Graph Search continues to evolve. In the future, you’ll be able to search posts, comments, and events.
Facebook is a great place to build a brand. One of Jamie’s Facebook goals was to build a personal brand. (You can say hello to him right now at www.facebook.com/jamiecrager.) Building a personal brand is a little different than building a brand for your business, as you discover in this section.
Your personal brand is simply an expression of who you are. In many cases, this is the real you but in a professional context. For example, Jamie has created his professional persona on his personal timeline. His personal brand reflects his active lifestyle, his love of family and friends, and his frequent travels.
Jamie develops his personal brand also through his business page and tends to keep his personal timeline limited to family as well as friends he’s met in person. He has also enabled the subscription feature and encourages subscribers. In this way, he can publish some things publicly and keep other things more private.
You may want to express and establish your personal brand through your personal timeline with
Because Jamie likes to connect with new people, he relates to his audience by sharing his passions, which include family, friends, and marketing.
To strengthen the professional side of his brand, Jamie had a professional-looking photo taken that he uses across all his social platforms to create a seamless and recognizable profile. You don’t have to spend big bucks on a photographer; have a friend or family member snap a photo while you are in front of a solid background. And because Jamie values his connections, he respects differences of opinion when he weighs in on a debate.
When building a brand for your business, you are representing a group of people (your company) rather than a single person. The personality of your business brand on Facebook can be just as lively as your personal brand, but with different considerations:
The ways to build your brand are as vast as the number of business types. Remember that businesses are made up of people. While you’re typically speaking to a broader audience with a business page than with a personal timeline, being authentic is still important. If you want to increase customer connections through Facebook, talking about sales won't create the brand perception you want. Merely broadcasting special offers is not inviting and doesn’t attract interaction from your customers on Facebook.
A better approach might be to ask questions of customers and start conversations. Establish yourself as the go-to source in your niche by solving a problem, entertaining your audience, or educating them. By giving your customers a reason to come back and inviting them to engage with you, you strengthen connections.
Oftentimes, companies want to plan the content for their page rather than simply post at will. We say that’s a good thing! Here are some of the examples of items you might include on a page:
Focus on getting to know your audience, what they respond to, and what time of day they are most active on your page. Then use that information to determine your posting strategy. For details on the performance of your posts, check out Facebook Insights, described in Book V, Chapter 3.
We cover several ideas and best practices for creating a strong business page in Book IV. We also suggest that you check out Facebook Marketing All-in-One For Dummies, 2nd edition, by Amy Porterfield, Phyllis Khare, and Andrea Vahl (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.).
A friend of ours once spoke of his addiction to news and described Facebook as “hyperlocal news.” That description shows how Facebook serves as a resource for some people. Make sure that you’re a resource to your readers.
For example, on Jamie's page, he shares news and important information relevant to his community as well as to his niche (social media). Sharing useful information with your audience helps build your brand and adds value to your interactions. If you’re using Facebook for your company, consider how you can be a content authority and provide valuable resources that genuinely help your audience. In return, they will look to you for continued guidance and be a core part of your community.
Sure, you don’t mean to be a spammer, but if you (accidentally) do the same things that spammers do, how will people know the difference? This advice applies especially to those using Facebook for business networking because some of the fans or followers connected to your business may not know you personally.
If you want to add someone who you think may not remember you, send the person a private Facebook message, explaining why you would like to be connected. However, some users may have their privacy settings set so that “outsiders” can’t send them private messages.