Brand communication strategy on Facebook - what do you need to know?

Have you already thought about your company's Facebook fan page? More and more companies are deciding to take such a step, seeing its benefits, especially in terms of image. Facebook is the largest social networking site on the web, with an estimated 1.5 billion users! However, being on it is one thing, and the brand communication strategy in social media is another. We will tell you how effectively you can create the image of your brand through the company's fanpage!

What is the brand communication strategy on Facebook?

As we mentioned, many companies decide to set up a page on Facebook, guided primarily by the popularity of the website and the example of other companies that function efficiently in the social media space. However, it is not uncommon for a fan page to run in time, the website is updated with great leaps and inconsistencies, or when it is heavily focused on sale. There is clearly no brand communication strategy on Facebook, a developed plan that the company will implement on this social networking site.

The brand communication strategy is a basic matter - it consists of both a plan for running a company website on Facebook and determining the budget you want to spend on the functioning of the fan page and posts posted on it. You must be aware that it is rare to run an effective, popular fan page for free. Running a website is primarily about effective communication with the user community that brings you goals. Remember to formulate them in such a way that they are easily measurable and leave no doubts as to their implementation.

Brand communication strategy on FB - where to start?

First, consider whether your company's presence on Facebook is really necessary. Do you have an interesting idea for communicating your company with the Facebook community and do you know that you will be regularly running the website? If not, rather give up setting up a company fanpage and try using another social networking site - e.g. Google+, YouTube or Instagram.

Second - define your current brand profile and its position in the market. Recall your slogans, company mission and consider its communication strategy around them. Make sure that your image on social media and beyond is consistent. Follow the image-building activities carried out so far, draw conclusions from them, point out their strengths and weaknesses - it will be useful in brand communication on FB. Pay attention to how the competition is doing in social media, what actions they take, what content they share, etc.

Brand communication strategy and its goals

How will you know that the brand communication strategy implemented on Facebook will be effective? Probably the number of likes and the conversion rate will give you a partial answer. However, it is important that these activities lead to a specific goal. One can meet the common opinion that social media serves only image purposes - building brand awareness and trust in it. However, this is a very general formulation and not entirely true either. Presence on Facebook and an efficient brand communication strategy may also increase sales and other "bars" closely related to e-commerce.

What are some of the goals of running a company website on FB?

• Building brand awareness and trust in it.

• Increase in sales.

• Increase in traffic to your website.

• Increase in the number of leads.

• Strengthening its current position on the market.

• Creation of a specific, specific brand image.

• Build a loyal and active fan community.

Defining the target group

Consider who you will primarily target the content on your Facebook page to. It can be a broad group, limited only by a few general criteria, but it can also be very narrow, especially when you are operating in a niche market. If the target group you define will in fact form a significant part of your community, you can count on the content that is relevant to it will be met with more responses, and the audience themselves will be more likely to interact. Analyze her needs and interests.

Determining your target audience is also important when planning Facebook ads. If you want to promote your website, posts or videos, then you will know who they are intended for. Remember to analyze their behavior - it will be especially important for you how long and at what hours they are active on the website. This will allow you to better adjust the timing of the publication of content on your website.

Brand communication strategy on Facebook - content

You already know that a brand communication strategy requires the definition of a goal and target group in social media planning. Now, however, we will pay attention to another, very important element of this strategy, namely the content that you will post on your corporate FB page. They will be the communication tool between you and your community.

At the very beginning of your content development, think about what you would like to inform your audience about.What industry and company topics could interest the community around your site? The brand communication strategy is not only about bombarding with sales content, promoting new products, emphasizing the brand's amazingness and successes. It should only be a reason to take up certain topics.

Also, do not overdo it with posting purely offer-oriented content. An effective brand communication strategy assumes placing a maximum of 10% of all content on the company's FB website. First of all, when creating content, be guided by its usefulness for recipients. Create videos with reviews of specific products, advice for users (of course related to your industry), share your expert knowledge in the form of opinions, comments on what is currently happening in your industry. Don't limit yourself to text only - also take care of graphic content elements - infographics, photos, videos, etc.

Scheduling and budget planning

Once you have determined what content will appear on your corporate fanpage, think about when you will post it there. First, trace the habits and behavior of your fans (or the target group) on the social network mentioned above. Check which times of the day they visit Facebook the most, when they are most active. Adapt the time of sending content to the behavior of recipients. Then you will be able to count on the greatest interest in your posts. Also try to run cycles - nothing attracts your audience as effectively as waiting for the next part of an interesting series. Let's say you publish advice on Mondays, you will post product reviews on Wednesdays, and on Fridays you will tell about interesting aspects of your industry.

At the very beginning, we mentioned that it is getting harder and harder to get an effective fanpage for free. A brand's communication strategy also involves promotion, so it may be inevitable that you will have to advertise your posts. Try to prepare your content in such a way that it is "viral", ie has the potential to spread on the web. However, if you are not satisfied with the results achieved in this way, use the option of paid advertising.

Before you determine what funds you will need, use the Facebook Ads Wizard to find the average cost of the campaign you would like to run. This will be a contribution to determining the budget for running and promoting the fan page. Also include the costs of creating content, salaries for the person (s) responsible for running the profile and costs of analytical tools, thanks to which you can check the effectiveness of your communication strategy.

The last step - analysis

If you have precisely defined the goals to be implemented in the communication strategy, then you will be able to check the effectiveness of the activities carried out without any problems. Use analytical software such as Sotrender and Facebook's internal analytics. Check reactions to your posts, interest in them. The polls will help you determine whether the fanpage is effectively building awareness of your brand and its image. Also remember to check its impact and activities as part of the brand communication strategy on sales and generating leads on the website. Analyze often, because thanks to this you will be able to easily spot any errors and make corrections on an ongoing basis.