Facebook pages are now unavoidable. Businesses, bloggers and even individuals want people to like their Facebook pages and to follow all their updates. Everybody wants to cash in on the Facebook Page buzz through a multitude of ways: Likes, exposure, website traffic. We have pretty much reached an age where a Facebook Page is now as crucial as always keeping your shop windows spotlessly clean 20 years ago.
However, knowing how to use your Facebook page is also crucial. As with any other marketing tool, the line between effectively using your Facebook page and making a nuisance of yourself to your followers is pretty thin. This is particularly important in the case of web tools and platforms like Facebook where it is all too easy for your online reputation to be crushed if you mess up. Consequently, you must avoid doing the following things.
Letting a question go unanswered
A big mistake many Facebook page owners do is let a question go unanswered. If someone posts a query on your Facebook page, it is your duty to deal with it as soon as possible. Otherwise, people will get the impression that you are hard to reach and that your customer support is non-existent. This is applicable even if another regular user has taken the trouble to do the work for you. In such cases, you should still post an answer while taking the time to thank that helpful user.
Deleting user posts
This is something almost everybody is guilty of doing at one point. Obviously, there are instances when you will have no other choice but to delete offensive comments. Although this is not as rampant as we would expect, the problem still exists on Facebook. I am however referring to those cases where you may be tempted to delete a user’s complaint. This is often a poor decision as it will only prompt that user to post it over and over again, which will be more difficult to moderate. There is also a high risk of other users noticing that you are deleting posts, which will cause people to start distrusting you.
Not acknowledging user contributions
User contributions are one of the most formidable aspects of Facebook pages. There are tons of examples of users making noteworthy contributions to business Facebook pages or playing a huge role in the creation of these pages (the biggest example is that of the Coca-Cola Facebook page which was actually created by two fans and originally had no involvement from Coca-Cola.
What this means is that you should never try up hog up great user contributions and not give recognition where it is due. The social aspect of Facebook and the fast nature of the web mean you will get found out if you fail to acknowledge any user-made contribution. Once this happens, it will create a network effect that will eventually cause people to stop following your page, thereby drastically reducing your website traffic. After all, there is a reason why Facebook is called a “social network”.
These are obviously only the main three things you should never do with your Facebook page. There are of course other things you should try to avoid, but the three described in this article are the ones you must always be careful of.
The author is the owner of the Mauritius news blog, which is frequently updated with Mauritius-related news articles such as its latest MCB Internet Banking analysis.