Three Mistakes Companies Make on Facebook

Michael Bergbauer - September 27, 2011

About a year ago, comprehensive social media campaigns seemed like risky territory for many companies. Now that they’ve shown great ROI for several business, they are growing like wildfire with companies scrambling to get a Facebook page up and running.

However, rushing into any marketing strategy – whether SEO, SEM, or Social – without a plan is not going to yield stellar results. All too often, businesses rush off to claim their company name on Facebook without really taking advantage of the site. Here are some common errors companies make on their Facebook pages:

They don’t leverage SEO: Facebook pages can be indexed and show up in search results. As such, many of the SEO techniques that work on a webpage also work on a Facebook page. For example, keywords matter and need to be utilized. Titles, custom URLs, and even bolded font on a Facebook page get extra attention from search engines, so be sure to construct your page accordingly. In addition, don’t forget to collect inbound links to your Facebook page. Just as with your webpage, inbound links will help your Facebook page rank higher.

They hide their content: Companies may choose to hide content behind gateways in their custom tabs that are only accessible to subscribers or Facebook fans. Search engines have no way to access this content, so it can’t get indexed. While making exclusive content can increase your number of fans, it can cause your brand to lose out on some valuable visibility. Before opting for exclusive content, weigh the impact carefully.

They don’t stay active: Most of all, you will want to stay constantly active with your Facebook page because customer interaction is the central tenant of any Social Media campaign. Users view active Facebook pages as positive reflections of their respective companies. Also, updated pages have added SEO value because wall posts are indexed by search engines.