A Facebook Fan Page is a simple addition to your company’s online portfolio. Within a few minutes you can have the basic Page which lets you post images, video, or just communicate with your customers via the wall; however, with a little bit more effort, your Page can reflect the online branding that your company has spent time and effort on with your own website.

The easiest way to add your own personal look to your Page is through the Static FBML application. FBML (Facebook Markup Language) is an extension of HTML, so you can quickly bring static sections of your website into your Facebook profile. Though the instructions below may seem daunting, follow closely (or call us) and it will all become clear.

The first step to adding a new Static FBML tab is to simply add the application to your Page. Go to the application page, and click on the “Add to my Page” link.

From here, you’ll be presented with a pop-up asking which Page to add the application. (Note: if you only have 1 Page, you may not be prompted for this.)

The application is now added to your Page, but to actually do anything with it, you’ll need to go back and edit.

Scroll down to your list of applications and look for the FBML app. Click “edit”  one more time, and you’ll be presented with the actual FBML tab code page.

Here’s where we give our tab a name. In my case I’m moving our team page, so I’ll name the tab “Team,” and then paste in the HTML content from our website that I want on our tab. As you can see, I’ve also linked to the stylesheet from our main site. I’ve also made a special copy and added “-fb” to the name just in case I want to make Facebook-specific tweaks to the styling without mucking around in the master.

Once we’re done, we can scroll to the bottom of the page and click the save button. If we wanted to add more tabs we’d click the link below and more copies of the FBML app would show up in our application list. Clicking the “Application Settings” link brings up a pretty simple dialog box. Here we want to make sure that the “tab” is added, and the “box” is removed.

Navigate back to our Fan Page, and now we just have to find our new tab and drag it to where we want it in our navigation. Since our team is what makes Catchfire Media great, we want to bring this tab close to the beginning of our nav strip. Drag and drop it where we want it, and we’re done.

That’s it; now we have a nice part of our website inside our Facebook presence. See the results below, or on the <a href=”http://www.facebook.com/catchfiremedia?v=app_6009294086“>facebook tab itself</a>.

Here are a couple of closing tips that will save you some headaches while building your first few tabs.

1. Facebook caches your offsite CSS and images, so if you makes a change to either you need to force facebook to grab the new copies. You do this with a little trick called “cache busting.” In your src or href parameter, add a version number and increment it when you have a new version. So, <link href=”css/style-fb.css” rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” /> becomes <link href=”css/style-fb.css?v=1″ rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” />. The next time you make a change to your stylesheet simply change “v=1” to “v=2” and save your tab. This will force Facebook will fetch your new copy.
2. Facebook has long threatened to change the width of tabs to 520 pixels so that they can add the left sidebar that currently only exists on the wall tab to all the tabs. I personally don’t foresee this happening anytime soon, because many companies have time and money invested in their Facebook presences (this would force them to rewrite a lot of content). It’s probably safest to either code your tabs so that they’re 520 pixels wide, or scale down to that width without trouble.

There you have it, a simple way to bring your brand to your customers within Facebook without expending too much time or effort. If you’d like help with this sort of branding effort, Catchfire Media would be glad to help you out.

Do you maintain a Facebook Fan Page? Are you currently mirroring content from your own website in FBML tabs within Facebook? What do you think of this low-barrier method for jumping into Facebook?

Unless you have been lying on a beach for the last month or comatose on your couch watching the World Cup, you’ve at least heard rumblings of Foursquare’s phenomenal success.  Foursquare is a geolocation game screaming across the U.S., which most access on their smartphones.

At Catchfire Media, we prefer to look at Foursquare through the lens of a business application. What may have started off as a game only has legs if it is able to convert its fan base into revenue. Venture capital firms understand this social media platform’s pull, or they would not be dumping 20M bucks into the company.

We have been taking a hard look at how to extend Foursquare as a business application to our clients’ customer base. The potential beyond the current basic coupon offerings to location “mayors” is incredible (although, believe me I love those coupons; I am still desperately trying to become the mayor of my local Starbucks!)

One idea the Catchfire Media team dreamed up is a marketing campaign tied directly to Foursquare and Iowa’s 2010 gubernatorial race. What? That’s right, we have come up with a concept suited for our retail clients that integrates Foursquare into a state-wide competition for “mayor,” or in our case “governor.”

How it works

From the 10,000 foot view, our concept is a Foursquare competition based on the number of check-ins at retail chain locations. Implementing this campaign on behalf of clients with a large number of stores is key, as we want to ensure the state is represented as much as possible to ensure a “fair” election. Our idea includes a primary season during early fall, followed by the final race ending on election day. The primaries weed down the field by county, region, or city based on our clients’ geographic footprint and individual marketing plan. From the primaries we take the top mayors and pit them against each other for the governor’s race.

With the help of Clint Harvey, our lead developer, Catchfire is already working on customized mobile and web applications to manage the entire campaign for clients. We are encouraging  clients to combine this social media plan with their traditional marketing efforts to highlight and profile their mayors during the campaign. One of the best things about this campaign? There is no reason this it cannot be expanded to other states. In this economy, you can still count on elections happening every two to four years, and each has their own cycle.

As you can imagine, this idea has already created some serious interest by major regional retailers. If we’ve also captured your attention with the ideas behind this campaign and you think it is something that might drive value for your business or clients, give us a call. We are happy to help.

The most exciting opportunities social media creates for businesses are chances to engage customers in a more direct and open fashion than available before. This type of enhanced customer interaction is exciting, because it offers companies new opportunities to grow their business.

However, growing sales is not the only thing businesses need to be thinking about in regard to social media. For all the exciting opportunities social media creates, it also presents companies with unforeseen challenges—especially from a human resources perspective.

Does your firm or organization have a social media section in its handbook? It should. Do you know what your company’s policies regarding dissemination of information through social networks are? Do those policies exist?

It isn’t as easy as simply blocking Facebook on everyone’s computers. Your company must not only ensure that it is in compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and that trade secrets are not being divulged, but also that policies are practical and enforceable (are you really going to fire every person who says they don’t like their boss?).

Of course, these issues are important for your company to address regardless of social media. However, the viral nature of this technology makes policies all the more important. Before, a small mistake would lead to a couple people being given confidential information, from which your organization could quickly react to and deal with. With social media, that same mistake could lead to a couple thousand people gaining access to confidential information. It is the speed of information transfer coupled with huge personal networks that is probably keeping your HR and legal teams up at night.

Unfortunately, this sort of investment in social media is not one that pays for itself in new business. However, as any of you know who work in human resources knows, the ROI on avoiding a lawsuit is pretty compelling.

Our team of professionals can not only help you grow your business, we can also help protect it. Give us a call, and we can ensure the social media section of your handbook is prepared before you get in trouble because it’s nonexistent.

[Photo from rafaelmarquez on Flickr / CC BY 2.0]

In addition to experiencing the nation-wide beard trend, our two days at the South by Southwest Interactive conference allowed us to see the latest in social web innovation and gave us the opportunity to hear from some major thought leaders in the space. We sat through presentations from such luminaries as Twitter CEO Evan Williams and social media wine celebrity Gary Vaynerchuk. More importantly, we met potential future stars developing exciting social platforms and technologies. What follows is a list of key takeaways, many of which we, Senior Analyst Jarad Bernstein and Analyst Abby Harvey, will be expanding upon in future posts.

Every guy is growing a beard these days
From interesting mustaches to completely-covered faces, there was no shortage of facial hair at SXSW Interactive. What does this say about the direction we are heading? We’ll leave that to a later post, but regardless we think you should be aware of this trend.

Customer service rules the world
Gary Vaynerchuk couldn’t talk enough about the importance of caring for and about your customer. Customer service’s importance should be obvious to end users (which we all are), but why doesn’t every company get this? Simply put, everyone wants to be treated like a human being. In Gary’s words, “You can’t scale caring . . . you can’t scale authenticity.” Gary told the crowd that you need to start caring about your customers, or you will lose. Of course, he made this point more passionately—it wouldn’t be a true Gary Vaynerchuk show without a few hundred expletives sprinkled in. In Gary’s world caring is swearing, and Gary cares more than most.

Another main takeaway from Gary’s performance: utilizing social media and the web is a must, and do it now! “This platform [the internet] is a BABY!” he proclaimed. “You [SXSW Interactive attendees] have no idea how ahead of the rest of the world you are; there’s a massive amount of low-hanging fruit, and people are starting to eat the grapes.” Effectively incorporating a web presence hinges on every part of today’s business model—marketing, advertising, sales, and customer service.

Being CEO of Twitter doesn’t mean you are a good public speaker
The hype for Monday’s keynote presentation was palpable. Overflow rooms with giant projection screens filled up equally as fast as the cavernous main hall. We were all anticipating an announcement on the scale of Steve Jobs letting the world in on the next big thing; instead, we bore witness to a dull conversation with Twitter CEO Evan Williams about one of the most exciting technologies Twitter has developed to date—At Anywhere (@anywhere).

Geolocation is more than just Foursquare and similar services
We’ve come a long way from the original Magellan in-car navigation device—a topic expanded upon in two sessions we attended. Geolocation and Location-Based Services (LBS) are growing rapidly; in fact, we learned that global LBS-spending is forecasted to exceed $7 billion by 2013 (yes, that’s less than three years away!). In one session, speaker Jason Finkelstein of WaveMarket, Inc. talked about mobile geolocation developments and shared one of his favorite quotes from Google: “The future of mobile is local.” One interesting stat he shared with us, which we are still thinking about: 55 percent of all text messages ask some form of the question “where r u?” That’s 650 billion location-based texts in the U.S. last year alone. Look at your text message log in your cell phone and we think you’ll realize the truth in these numbers. What are WaveMarket and its competitors planning to do about this? Nothing earth-shattering was shared, but we certainly look forward to their innovations.

While in some cases geolocation rears its head as creepy, clearly causing negative sentiment, it’s hard to deny its importance. Geolocation takes the guesswork out of all those inquisitive, location-based text messages. The company that creates a solution that is both secure and useful will likely profit quite well.

Coming soon
Want to learn more about our takeaways? Our next few posts will focus on the future of open APIs, music sharing, digital magazines, social media in health care, and more. Every session had a hash tag assigned to it, and we have linked to the search results for those hashtags so you can learn from other attendees, as well. One final statistic for this post: registration was up substantially at SXSW Interactive compared to 2009. One rumor even has it that the interactive festival outdrew the music festival for the first time ever. With social media playing a central role in the festival and its growth, we know that social media is not done growing and changing the way we view communications.

Do you know who you should be talking to through your blog, Facebook Page, Twitter account, or any other social media platform? As with any form of communications, your social media strategy relies on knowing your audience.

“Shut up and listen”

Author and journalist Bob Garfield told attendees of last year’s PRSA International Conference to “shut up and listen.” With tools available as rudimentary as Google Alerts, it is possible to discover conversations already taking place about your organization. That is certainly a start. In many situations it’s critical to address conversations already taking place about your business; however, this is not where the search for your audience should end. You are not using social media to its full potential if you view it solely as a reactionary device.

Where you should be looking

So where do you find your audience? Well, that depends on who they are. Audiences could include customers of a specific demographic, shareholders, board members, employees, voters, etc. Once you have some targets in mind, zero in on where they hang out. Shareholders might be discussing your company on a forum, while passionate brand advocates may be discussing you in a Facebook group. You either need to make a serious commitment to discovering these “hang outs” or hire someone to do it for you.

Put your strategy to good use

Now that you have found and targeted your audience, implement your strategy. Though let’s be honest here, there are a few important parts I am leaving out—like what that strategy entails—but we’ve covered that before. The point of this post is that you need to know your audience in order to have any hope of connecting to them.

Who are your most important audiences? How do they prefer to receive information? Are they excited to hear from you? If so, how do they show it?

[Photo from tore_urnes on Flickr / CC BY 2.0]

Keeping in tradition, I will continue to address mistakes being made by well-run organizations in relation to their brands’ social media presence.

Another common mistake I see is that some business leaders and marketing teams have the tendency to come off as phony or insincere when trying to engage consumers via social media. Without forethought and strategic planning, your organization’s social media efforts can come off as counterfeit, or even worse—spam-like.

If you draw just one thing from this post, please consider this: in the grand spectrum of traditional marketing and consumer relations, social media is simply a different way to communicate with your customers. Social media is about engagement and relationship building. There’s no need to “disguise” yourself on the web—you’re representing your brand, and thanks to the transparency associated with the social web, you have the unique ability to say exactly what you want.

For example, Ford Motor Company has a Twitter account run by Scott Monty and Gwen Peake of Digital Communications (via their listed bio). After each @ reply, retweet, and general comment, one of the two Ford employees signs off using their initials: either “^SM” or “^GP.” In addition, Scott and Gwen’s personal Twitter handles are listed on the corporate page. Now you tell me, which would you feel more comfortable interacting with, Scott Monty or “Ford?” Would you feel better about directing your questions to Gwen Peake or “Ford?” Odds are, you would prefer the human-to-human relationship over trying to question the Ford Empire as a whole.

Social media is meant to be transparent. You would be doing a great disservice to your organization to treat it otherwise.

Don’t be phony with your fans, but also don’t stress over how to develop an authentic voice. Our experienced team of analysts develop listening and communicative strategies every day, so give us a call or shoot us an email—we’re here to help.

[Photo from Mykl Roventine on Flickr / CC BY 2.0]

In my local Hy-Vee store earlier this week, I passed a small display of brownies and bars in the bakery section. The pumpkin bars looked amazing, and I was charmed by the brand, “Kate & Nola’s Confections.” I noticed a placard at the back of the display that described the history behind the brand name, noting Kate and Nola as the wives of the founders of Hy-Vee.

The brand is openly and entirely devoted to these two women, their fondness for baked goods, and the compelling roles they played in the history of Hy-Vee, Inc. I’m a sucker for a good story, and needless to say, I bought both the “Spectacular Pumpkin” and the “Chunky Chocolate Fudge” bars.

With social media, your company’s story is already being told, regardless of your participation. Consumers are sharing their experiences about your brand, products, and services with each other online. As we’ve said before, it’s how you interact with and work to shape that story, along with your consumers, that will define your success in this space (and win customers).

Talk About Your People

Sometimes, that’s all it takes. Reminding consumers about the human elements of your brand is an easy way to immediately connect with them.

Hyundai’s “Body Pass” Super Bowl commercial was a perfect example of this. Here, Hyundai is not telling the story of its cars, but of its people—3,300 quality experts in Montgomery, Alabama, to be exact. This commercial elicits a sense of community, trust, and appreciation, which all trump (hands down) the impression of a fast car.

The story that backed “Kate & Nola’s Confections” was full with nostalgia, admiration, and respect for two women dear to the Hy-Vee brand. These companies succeeded in capturing my attention because they sought to connect with me at a deeper level—past the product or service, directly with their history and people.

Wear Your Heart On Your Sleeve

Both of the companies above pulled at some heart strings to achieve a memorable experience. Don’t be afraid to get a little excited or sentimental in telling your story. Your passion will only add to the ultimately deep, emotional connection your brand is making with the consumer.

Being honest, up front, and setting clear expectations are no-fail ways to ensure consumers your company is trustworthy. Consumers expect transparency and immediacy on the web—from finding company contact information quickly and easily on your site, to knowing what kind of response they might get (and when) from posting a question to your company’s Facebook Page.

What’s your favorite example of a company presence online and why? What stories do they share about their company that you find compelling?

Social media’s implications for B2C (business to consumer) companies are readily apparent: all humans are consumers and more than 350 million people have a Facebook account. It is generally a smart idea for B2C companies, such as major retailers, to get involved with Facebook. The same argument can be made for other social tools, depending on the nature of the business and where their customers live online.

The B2B (business to business) sales process is different, which is why some marketers argue that it has no place in social media. But of those 350 Facebook users (or the millions of people who tweet, read blogs, participate in forums, etc.), are there not customers and potential customers for B2B firms? I cannot think of a solid reason to ignore this vast sea of potential customers.

The following are three keys to social media success for a B2B company:

1. Listen

At the heart of every social media strategy is a listening plan. Are people talking about your business? With a comprehensive listening strategy, you could discover unintended ways people are using your product, help unhappy customers, and stay on top of industry trends. For the “do-it-yourselfer,” using a tool as simple as Google Reader can get you started. Google Reader is much more of a manual process than the tools we use at Catchfire, but it can still give you a taste for what is available.

2. Respond

There are likely dozens of active blogs and forums related to your industry. Seek them out and add your expert knowledge to the conversation. This is a chance to get to know potential customers who are discussing the subjects of your expertise. By putting a strategy in place behind your responses, you will be able to target the most important conversations and track your progress over time.

3. Lead

Whether it’s best for your business to blog, tweet, or post, social media provides a space to be a thought leader. What new developments are taking place in your field? What are you doing that sets your business apart? Do you have a new product line coming out? These topics are a perfect start to creating content online.

You will notice that the three keys are somewhat generic; this is no accident. You have worked tirelessly to give your business its own identity; this identity should carry through in social media efforts. The tools may be different, but most of the rules remain the same when it comes to using social media to communicate with your audience.

If you work in a B2B organization, what are your fears or concerns with social media? Please use the comments section to start the discussion here, or call us at 515.423.0585.

Let’s assume that you have completed a comprehensive audit of the Twittersphere only to find out that your customers (or potential customers) don’t frequent the space. Should you still jump in armed with a strategy for gaining active followers? No. You read that correctly—an active Twitter user just told you to stay away from 2009’s social media superstar.

Social media isn’t about the tools. We often tell our clients about “meeting consumers at their preferred point of engagement.” If they’re not on Twitter (or using blogs, Facebook, etc.), then you should not be looking for them there. This is common sense; however, companies have been known to throw themselves into social media without much thought, and thus, garnering disheartening results.

We have certainly arrived to the point in social media’s cultural development where most people incorporate it into their lives in some form. Think about it: how many people do you know that are not on Facebook or have never watched a video on YouTube? We have also arrived at the point where businesses can use social media to create raving fans and to increase revenue. The point is, there are thousands of social media outposts—from Facebook to PbNation—and you should concentrate your efforts on communicating with your audience where they already are, rather than streaming messages where they aren’t looking.

If after your comprehensive audit, you have discovered that your customers are not active on your favorite social media site, you have some work to do. If you want to reap rewards from social media, learn how to engage your audience; don’t hire a programmer who took a couple communications classes in college. Rather, seek advice from a team of professional communicators familiar with a wide range of social tools who can connect you to your audience. Let us know if we can help set you on the right path.

[Photo from foxypar4 on Flickr / CC BY 2.0]

It’s easy for our clients to become captivated by Facebook and Twitter, as it is clear these platforms hold incredible potential for many organizations in reaching, growing, and engaging their target audiences. Our clients’ initial captivation though, is often misled.

Building a suitable digital marketing and social media strategy doesn’t begin with a Facebook Page or a Twitter account—it begins with finding and understanding your audience online, reaching them where they are, and inviting them back to your place.

Find and define your audience

Where does your target audience live online? What sites do they visit? How do they interact on these sites and with each other? Are thousands of your supporters already on Facebook, or have they created their own niche network on Ning? These and other more tactical questions will help you define where your organization should live and how it should interact with its customers or supporters online. It can be difficult to figure out where to begin, and market research—especially online—is not a simple task. Having a partner to help you answer these questions can be key to a successful, strategic plan.

Share quality content and converse

The content you share and, perhaps more importantly, the conversations you have are the cornerstone of a sound social media strategy. What type of information does your audience want from you? Make sure your website has it all. Think of your site as your “content hub;” your presence in social media will serve to initiate, support, and enrich conversations surrounding that content.

Invite everyone back to your place

There are millions of people on Facebook that may be interested in interacting with your organization, so it makes sense to create a presence there—but that doesn’t mean you no longer need your website. Your website should be the core experience of your organization on the web. It’s where you share your best content and house what your customers or supporters want or need from your organization.

Facebook will continue to change and evolve; as you have no control over these changes and how they may affect your organization’s Facebook Page, it’s important to have a secure place on the web to call “home” for your organization. Ensure that your friends, fans, and followers on other platforms are aware of your website and what’s available to them there—the longer they linger on your turf, the better you’ll get to know them (and vice versa). And as we all know, knowing your customers or supporters well always serves to improve business.

Now it’s your turn. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic: do you think a branded Facebook Page or other social media presence can replace an organization’s website? If so, why?

[Photo from jjjohn on Flickr / CC BY 2.0]