Facebook community management is the process of building, growing, and managing a brand’s presence on Facebook. For businesses, having an active Facebook community can lead to increased brand awareness, engagement with customers, and ultimately sales. However, effectively managing a Facebook community requires planning, strategy, and constant monitoring. Here’s an overview of what successful Facebook community management entails.
Developing a Facebook Strategy
The first step to Facebook community management is developing a clear strategy. This starts with identifying your target audience and goals. Who is your ideal customer? What do you hope to achieve through Facebook? Common goals include:
- Increasing brand awareness or recognition
- Driving sales and conversions
- Improving customer satisfaction and loyalty
- Generating leads and enquiries
- Creating engaging content and experiences
You’ll also want to research how your audience uses Facebook. What sort of content do they respond to? When are they most active on Facebook? This can help you tailor your strategy.
Next, document your strategy for content, engagement, advertising etc. Set specific objectives you want to achieve over time, like the number of page followers or engagement rate per post. Tracking metrics will allow you to evaluate success later on.
Setting Up Your Facebook Page
Once your strategy is mapped out, it’s time to create your Facebook presence. Your Facebook Page will be the hub of all activity. Here are tips for setting it up:
- Choose an appropriate, recognizable Page name
- Upload a profile and cover photo that represent your brand
- Add a description of your business, contact details and website
- Set up tabs like Shop, Offers and Events if applicable
- Make sure prominent pages like Home and About are filled out
- Link to your other social profiles
It’s also important to choose the right category for your Page. This affects how people will find you.
Finally, create posting guidelines. This includes the tone you’ll use, post frequency, and requirements for images. Consistent posting keeps your community engaged.
Building Your Audience
With your Page ready, it’s time to start growing your community! Here are some tips:
- Promote your Page through your website, email signatures and other marketing
- Run Facebook ads targeting your audience
- Leverage existing contacts by inviting friends or customers to like your Page
- Encourage current fans to like, share and comment on your posts to reach new people
- Interact with complementary brands and partners to tap into their audience
- Use hashtags and location tags to increase discoverability
Posting engaging, relevant content will also attract more fans. Mix up post formats like videos, images and links to cater to different preferences.
Engaging Your Facebook Community
Once you have fans, you need to keep them interested. Here are some ways to engage your Facebook community:
- Post consistently, using a good mix of content types
- Monitor comments and questions and respond promptly
- Ask for input and feedback through polls and surveys
- Share user-generated content like reviews and photos
- Go live with Q&As, behind-the-scenes, and other video
- Create a private Facebook Group for VIP access
- Use Messenger to provide personalized experiences
Contests, special offers, and events are also great engagement boosters. Make sure to promote these across other channels too.
Analyzing and Reporting
To refine your Facebook approach, it’s crucial to monitor performance and analyze data. Facebook Insights provides metrics on:
- Page followers
- Post reach and engagement
- Demographics
- Visitor activity
- Traffic sources
Regularly reviewing these can reveal what content resonates best with your community. You can then tailor your posts accordingly. Other key metrics like sales and lead generation should also be tracked.
Present monthly or quarterly reports on Facebook progress to stakeholders. Outline stats, achievements, learnings, and proposed changes to demonstrate the business impact.
Promoting Your Facebook Presence
Don’t keep your Facebook community confined to one platform. Promote your Facebook presence across your website, emails, and other marketing channels through:
- Links in navigation or footers
- Website pop-ups and banners
- Opt-ins to receive Facebook updates
- Snippets in newsletters
- Displays in physical stores
Incentivize people to follow your Page through special Facebook-only deals. You can also run retargeting ads on Facebook to website visitors who haven’t yet liked your Page.
Advertising on Facebook
Facebook Ads are an excellent complement to organic community-building. Consider running ads to:
- Boost engagement on important posts
- Promote contests, offers or events
- Increase Page likes among target demographics
- Drive traffic to your website or Facebook Page
- Generate leads through lead ads
- Retarget website visitors
The detailed targeting options available make Facebook Ads highly effective. Always track conversion metrics like cost per lead to determine ROI.
Integrating with Facebook Messenger
Facebook Messenger lets you provide personalized, 1-on-1 experiences to customers. Ways to integrate Messenger include:
- Setting up a Messenger bot to provide automated assistance
- Making key Page information accessible in Messenger via Web Plugins
- Adding a Messenger CTA button on your Page for easy contact
- Responding to incoming messages promptly and helpfully
- Using Messenger ads to drive conversations
Messenger is ideal for lead generation, support, and driving sales through the platform.
Staying Consistent with Your Brand
While engaging broadly on Facebook, it’s vital your community management aligns with your overall brand identity. Ways to maintain consistency include:
- Using your brand voice and tone in Facebook communication
- Keeping branding like logos, colors, and imagery on-brand across channels
- Sticking to brand messaging – don’t dilute or diverge from it
- Having guidelines for responding to negative comments
- Making sure customer service meets brand standards
Your Facebook presence should feel like an extension of your brand, not a separate entity. Review content regularly to ensure it reflects your brand positively.
Monitoring Competitors
Keep an eye on competitor Facebook activity for benchmarking and inspiration by:
- Liking their Pages to see all content
- Noting their engagement levels and response rates
- Seeing what posts perform best
- Monitoring their growth for trends
- Checking their ad visibility and targeting
Just don’t copy exactly – localize learnings for your own community. Ethical competitive monitoring ensures you keep your edge.
Handling Negative Feedback
Dealing with negative comments or complaints is an inevitable part of community management. Best practices include:
- Responding promptly and politely
- Moving extended issues to private messaging
- Having set procedures for resolving common problems
- Using negative feedback to improve products or services
- Monitoring spikes in complaints as potential crises
A swift, constructive response shows you value community feedback. It also mitigates potential reputation damage.
Measuring Success
How do you know your Facebook efforts are succeeding? Key community management metrics include:
- Page followers and follower growth rate
- Post reach and engagement rate
- Website traffic from Facebook
- Facebook traffic conversion rate
- Sales influenced or referred from Facebook
- Return on ad spend
- Sentiment analysis of comments
Compare metrics pre and post-campaigns or initiatives to identify successes. Presenting results to internal teams also gains further investment.
Adapting and Optimizing
To sustain growth and engagement, you need to continually refine your Facebook approach. Tactics include:
- Regularly reviewing strategy and objectives
- A/B testing different post types, topics, and CTAs
- Using insights to inform content planning
- Experimenting with new features like polls and live video
- Evaluating campaigns and removing underperforming elements
Your Facebook presence is never “set and forget”. The algorithm and best practices constantly change. Stay current, flexible and open to new tactics.
Leveraging Influencer Marketing
Influencers can rapidly expand brand awareness and advocacy through their engaged networks. Ways to leverage influencers on Facebook include:
- Gifting free products to relevant influencers and encouraging sharing
- Collaborating on giveaways or contests
- Paying for sponsored influencer posts
- Asking influencers for input on new products
- Featuring influencer user-generated content
Ensure influencer partnerships align with your brand identity and have clear objectives. Track reach and engagement to quantify impact.
Integrating with Instagram
Given Facebook’s ownership of Instagram, it’s important to interlink your presence across both. Tactics include:
- Cross-promoting Facebook posts on Instagram and vice versa
- Running the same ads and offers on both platforms
- Linking your Instagram directly to your Facebook Page
- Embedding Instagram content and hashtags in Facebook posts
A unified Facebook and Instagram strategy amplifies your visibility and community. Make content suit the different formats and audiences while maintaining brand consistency.
Outsourcing vs. In-House Community Management
Facebook community management can be handled in-house or by an agency. Considerations for each route:
In-house Pros:
- Total control and internal visibility
- Better knowledge of products and customers
- Brand voice consistency
- Often lower cost than agency fees
In-house Cons:
- Requires substantial staff time and effort
- Harder to scale
- Less flexibility in off-hours coverage
- Lack of external perspective
Agency Pros:
- Time savings – tasks handled externally
- Specialized Facebook expertise
- Strategic input and best practice knowledge
- Easier to provide 24/7 staffing
Agency Cons:
- Loss of control and inside brand knowledge
- Higher costs
- Potential consistency issues
- Less direct customer contact
Weigh your budget, staff resources, and strategy complexity to determine the best fit. Many brands use a hybrid approach with specific tasks delegated.
Key Takeaways
Here are some key tips to remember when managing a brand’s Facebook community:
- Have a clear strategy aligned to business goals
- Build a compliant, fully completed Facebook Page
- Create engaging content that speaks to your audience
- Promote across channels to grow your community
- Analyze Insights regularly and optimize accordingly
- Provide responsive, personalized customer service at scale
- Unify Facebook and Instagram for amplification
- Leverage paid advertising to complement organic reach
With a thoughtful, data-driven approach to Facebook, you can build a flourishing community that drives business success.