1. Create a page
2.  Fill in the bio with all necessary information, including URLs
3.  Add an appropriate display picture
4.  Create a relevant landing page
5. Write an engaging welcome post
6. Link your blog and Twitter account to Facebook
7. Add Facebook plug-ins and widgets on other sites

All done. What next, you ask? How do I get people to like my page? How do I reach people and let them know a page exists?
This can be done in the following ways:

• Run an offline marketing campaign and provide necessary links for people to sign up.
• Run Facebook ads targeting the right audience. The better copy the Facebook ads have, better conversion rate they will result in.
• Tap into other platforms like blog and Twitter and ask people to join.
• Invite all people you know to ‘like’ the page. This is highly unrecommended as repeated behaviour will create an impression of a spammer. The only time this should be done is for highly personal brands.
• Promote the Facebook page on another page or website which has good traffic.
• Create a viral concept on Twitter or Youtube and promote your fan page.

Businesses and brands are in an unprecedented chase for fans. Facebook marketing is being equated to acquisition of fans. But does having more fans mean you are marketing yourself better? Does having more fans improve the bottom line of your business?
Any marketing strategy should be built upon a fundamental understanding of the needs and goals of a business and solve any business related problems if possible. Social media marketing, like any other form of marketing should be aligned with the overall strategies of the organization and aim at achieving specific goals in this respect.

When it comes to facebook, the more number of fans might be better but is it relevant for a brand? It is not so always. Here are a couple of examples of face to contrast the necessity of fans and importance of the alignment of marketing strategy with business.

SYN

Syn, is a restaurant cum lounge at Taj Deccan and 84ideas has been associated with them since their inception.  The aim of Syn was to be the place to get great exotic food and be an ideal after party place.

Syn is a local business at single location with no proposed branches or offshoots. The focus is to get people in the geography(Hyderabad) interested in the lounge and build a community of those who have been to Syn. The strategy is aimed at creating walk-ins, enticing the fence sitters and facilitating interactions among visitors and with the brand.  This was done in various ways by promoting the events at venue including weekly programs (for the regulars) and running contests and campaigns (for loyalty and newer audience)

Syn now has 1948 fans out of which at least 25% are active users and the interactions per post are on an average of 5 for regular updates to 10 for campaigns.

Dealivore

Running well designed ads with the apt targeting and engaging fans with contests while sticking to the primary aim of informing fans about the latest deals, has made Dealivore page a success.

Here are some important stats:

• 210,967 (as of Nov 8 2010)
• 96.9% of the fans are from India.
• 86.2 % are from the metros Dealivore.com is operating at or planning to operate soon
• We have successfully reduced the CPC of ads from $0.10 to $0.06.

As we see from above, though the number of fans do matter, it is very essential to know how they are relevant to your business, how they can be engaged and can be convinced to utilize your product or service. We at 84ideas took into consideration these aspects, built a strategy which is most effective to reach and engage the target audience. For Dealivore it was about reaching a large relevant audience which was done by acquiring fans from various cities over the country. On the other hand for Syn, the target group was in Hyderabad and the focus was creating brand loyalty and ensuring repeat visits along with getting new walk-ins than building a large number of fans most of who have never been to Syn or Hyderabad. These are two very different approaches to run a facebook page, yet they have worked well.

How do you keep your fans engaged and does your facebook page help in boosting your bottom line?

p.s: Yes, Facebook wants it to be called ‘Likes’ but the nomenclature is confusing and for simplistic purposes we have used ‘fans’ here who are technically your ‘like’rs

Your restaurant business works very similar to this. People pay for food and of course for the experience. They share their experiences with their friends, the conversation that they had with your restaurant. Experience becomes a conversation.

Social media is about interactions. It’s a one to one conversation that has the ability to generate many to many conversations amongst a group of friends and online buddies, a trusted community.

Social media will not deliver a 10% rise in your sales from the moment you start using it for your restaurant. It is important that you integrate the online marketing plan with your offline marketing plan. Here is how we have been doing it.

Web Strategy

Don’t start with tools. Facebook may not always the right tool although an effective tool. What if facebook changes it’s roadmap, like the way they removed the concept of “fan pages”. The tool should be just be part of your overall strategy but the strategy should not be around the tool.

Understand where your target customers are spending time. Listen to conversations. I use Twitter, google alerts, tweetbeep. There are numerous others, the tool of choice depends upon who is talking and where they are.

Identify your USP and what people can get from that no other place has to offer, what is that makes you different.

Digital Assets

Start creating your digital assets. Words are a means of communicating experiences. Pictures and videos do the same task in a much more effective manner.

Your pictures and videos should talk about your USP. They should tell people why they will love the place.

Have policies and strategy for the continuous creation of digital assets. Identify internal evangelists who can contribute to this.

Community

Create a community around your restaurant, its food and show your passion for your place.

Keep you communication regular. Start hosting events and reward the members of the community who help you spread the name and word.

Integrate the online and offline communities

Tell the online community about what is happening offline, at the restaurant. Tell the offline community about the online community at every touch point. People walking into the restaurant should know that there is a vibrant online community. You can give it visibility in many ways.

On menu cards, a badge on the stewards’ dress saying that he/she is a part of that community(community badges). KFC plays it own ad in their restaurant. One might think what is the point in selling to someone who is already at the restaurant. But it works. It reassures them about their choice of coming to KFC. It makes them feel good.

Tie up with the food review portals. Encourage them to talk about you and your community.

Identify the food bloggers in your city and in the country. Invite them to your restaurant and encourage them to talk about their experience at your place.