Holistic Technology Enabled Internet Marketing Solutions

Photo credit: Balakov

This was a question I got in one of my last webinars and I wanted to expand on it a bit here because I actually get this question frequently.

Should I have a Facebook Fan Page if my website is outdated?

As with most questions about social media, my answer is – it depends. You need to look at your specific situation and determine what is best for you. Most social media solutions for businesses need to be discovered on a case by case basis.

Here are a few scenarios and how a Faceboook Fan Page could hurt or help the situation:

Business XYZ is waiting for a website redesign but the process will not be completed for a long time. The old site is static, updating content takes months through a developer or in-house team and the content is outdated.

Situations like this unfortunately do happen. Having a Facebook Fan Page could help you generate content in a more time sensitive manner. By using the notes section you could post blog like entries about your industry. The easy to use photo upload tool makes creating photo albums a snap. You could update products in a photo album on Facebook and give each product a person to contact if someone was interested in buying it. If you are waiting for a website redesign, testing some things like blog-like entries or photos on Facebook could be a great way to see what types of content people are looking for from your business. Once you figure out what content resonates with your audience you could add it to your newly designed website.

Business ABC has found a solid success in marketing events. They attend tradeshows, networking events and even host their own events in their store. Their website is clunky and doesn’t have a functional calendar option to let their community know about all their upcoming events.

Having a Facebook fan page to organize and promote your events is an easy solution. Your attendees can also be given the opportunity to invite other people to your events on your behalf.

Acme Inc. is a small business with an outdated website. No one has any time to do anything about it. Everyone is so busy each day. They could really use another staff member to help with their marketing but they just don’t have the resources.

A Facebook page would be easier to update and add images to BUT who would update it? What content would you have time to add? You don’t want to have a stale website AND a stale Facebook page. Only use Facebook as an extension of your website if you have time to update it regularly with valuable information.

Medical Advice Inc. has a stuffy website. They do not have a blog and the only way to get more information is to call a representative. Employees are not allowed to create content to add onto the website. With Facebook they could give out advice to anyone who needed it. They could get lots of Fans and have them all talking amongst themselves to solve their problems.

Well… what are the legal implications of people reading content on your website and using that as medical advice over contacting a professional? What if something bad happened to them because of advice they read from someone on your Facebook fan page? What if their matter was personal or could affect their employment and another Facebook fan read about their problem and reported it to their boss? Sometimes websites need to just be a place for information on how to contact someone.

A few more things to consider if you are going to focus on Facebook to be your home base:

• What happens on Facebook belongs to Facebook. This is not a secure method to build your company database. Your page could be shut down at any time and you would lose it all. Your notes, photos and event listings are property of Facebook. Make sure they are backed up somewhere else.
• You should try to have your message consistent on all of your marketing mediums (website, print, social media sites, et al.). If you can promote your website on Facebook you should and if you can promote your Facebook fan page on your website, you should also do that.
• If you are using Facebook for business, keep it professional.

Good luck and just try to remember that having a Facebook fan page should be an extension of your corporate communication structure and is not a standalone endeavor. If you know of a business you think is using Facebook well, feel free to leave it in the comments… people love learning from their peers.