Making Good Use of Facebook

Companies have been struggling with how to make good business use of Facebook for some time. It's been a learning game for many and one thing that has been learned is that it is not enough just to open a Facebook account and start accepting friends and publish stuff about the company.

Making good use of Facebook is, in concept, not much different than making good use of any technology. You need to think it through by developing a strategy. The strategy must mesh with the corporate strategy because in this way, the use to which Facebook is put will be more likely to address specific corporate objectives.

A strategy is not enough, but it does point to the next important element - developing good content that will draw people in. That's a tough one, and experimentation is normally called for. One aspect of the content, however, is that people must, on encountering it, feel compelled to some sort of action. In other words, the content should be a call to action for the visitors. Again, easier said than done, but nevertheless important.

Companies have been learning about the effective use of Facebook and other social media., Ultimately, social media will be an integral part of most companies' strategic communications efforts.

For an interesting overview article of this important area, see this link.