Business communication on Facebook

Facebook, the blue social bubble. On a daily basis, millions of people and businesses use Facebook as their means of communication. Since 2004, more than 2 billion people have registered and have been using it. Just in the Czech Republic, you can find almost 5 million people registered as its users. Yeah, I know it sounds incredible, but almost half of the Czech population has Facebook.

Social networks change the way of communication between people and companies every day. More and more clients are using Facebook as an extended hand of the assistance centre. That’s why it is important for every company to set up a communication strategy. And that’s the biggest problem these days.

1. Communication strategy

The communication strategy is the primary and most important way of communication in which every company promotes itself and ensures its good reputation. It’s no longer true to say “Put anything you want on Facebook“, “It does not matter what, it’s just Facebook”. Means of communication should have some order and purpose. The company in question must set up some guidelines, target audience, who its clients are, how the company communicates with the public, how I should communicate with the end customers, what I expect from them and what they expect from me.

2. Content

Once you have a bullet-proof communication strategy, you know who your customers are and what you expect from them. We then move on to step 2 and that’s the content. The most important one. What type of content should be published on our Facebook homepage? That’s the question! A lot of young companies try to promote just sales material. Of course, it’s right, you want to sell, so why not to show it. But put yourself in your customer’s shoes, is this what you wanna see? Is it what interests you?
A post schedule is the way to go. Just give yourself three easy questions. The questions are when, what and why I should post it.

3. Hiding posts

So, the communication strategy is written, the posts are logical, Facebook is getting filled with fans, there are more and more comments and suddenly there is a first negative one, what to do about it?
Set a simple rule in your mind, the rule is: do NOT ignore, do NOT ignore, do NOT ignore. If a negative comment appears below the post, try to deal with it transparently, so that everyone can see that you do care, be helpful and think about the possibilities of how to turn the situation to your advantage. And the second rule? Don’t hide the comments. One day you will build trust with people. And what does it mean? The client will start to take care of you, stand behind you, which is super cool, isn’t it?

And the conclusion? Facebook may seem complicated, perhaps sometimes unclear and insidious, but if you adopt a systematic, strategic and bulletproof plan, you will see the results. And don’t get desperate when you don’t see the results immediately. Rome wasn’t built in a day either. Good things are worth waiting for.