No matter what demographic you want to target, Facebook is the place to build your brand. Already adopted as a basic lifestyle necessity by consumers in the lucrative under 30 demographic, Facebook is growing in popularity among fans 34 to 45 years old, the fastest growing Facebook population group. The increasing popularity of Facebook, which appears to be gradually replacing phone and written contact as the mainstay of U.S. personal communication, provides incredible opportunities and a few challenges to successfully building a business brand.
Follow these tips to tweak your Facebook content and optimize the Facebook presence of your business brand:
- Optimize thumbnail pictures. When Facebook creates thumbnails from your profile photo, it crops information during the process, creating a 12 pixel border of unused space around the image. Any information or graphic contained within this automatic border is lost during thumbnail creation. Instead of the 200 pixel width Facebook specs indicate are available for your profile picture, only 176 pixels are actually usable. Factor this into the creation of your profile picture so you don't lose critical information when thumbnails are created. Also remember that Facebook thumbnails have rounded corners and are square. Even though profile photos don't limit the length of pictures, when Facebook creates thumbnails, that extra length will be cropped away to fit the square template. Allowing for Facebook's automatic cropping will ensure that thumbnails created for your site contain your brand's essential information and graphics.
- Take advantage of FBML boxes. Facebook's new Public Profiles allow businesses to create separate default landing pages for fans and non-fans (not yet "liking" your page). Different content can be created to target different users. Creating separate content for fans and non-fans allows you to offer exclusive content or promotions to fans while encouraging non-fans to sign up so they too can receive exclusive material. Become a Fan incentives can be displayed in FBML boxes on non-fan pages to encourage fan registration. Here is an example from our Kuno Creative Facebook Page.
- Make use of vanity URLs. Brands with Facebook pages that boast a minimum 100 fans are eligible for vanity URLs. Vanity URLs allow you to put your brand name in your Facebook URL, making your site easy for fans to remember and find. To set up a Facebook vanity url, go to http://www.facebook.com/username and follow the instructions.
Are you building your brand on Facebook and Twitter? We can help!
