In my first post, “Social Media Means Connecting with Your Customers,” I talked about the importance of “getting involved” and “engagement” with your customer base.  This involvement is essentially creative marketing.  You’re going to have to come up with new, creative ways to engage your audience; and the ingenuity of these ideas will determine the success of your campaign.  Remember, your job is (A) to show involvement yourself and (B) get your customers involved.  There are hundreds of strategies to engage your customer base from YouTube videos, to contests, to polls, to giveaways.  But you want to create a social media campaign that reflects your company’s image and also draws in large numbers of targeted customers.  One of the big questions you want to ask yourself before launching a social media campaign is, “Do I want to direct people to a corporate website or a hub page, such as a Facebook fan page?”

Mashable journalist, Adam Ostrow, writes:

You’re probably already noticing it – business cards containing Twitter usernames as opposed to domain names, bands promoting their MySpace profile instead of their own website, and even ad campaigns directing people to participate in a social media rather than visit a branded website.

In the article, “Is Social Media Making Corporate Websites Irrelevant?” Ostrow examines the social media campaign by Vitamin Water which centers around a fan page on Facebook and the poll question:  “Which athlete is the NBA’s top player:  Kobe Bryant or LeBron James?”

Vitamin Water ultimately made the decision that sending people to its Facebook Fan Page was smarter for business than sending them to the corporate website.  Why?  Ostrow gives some answers.

• Facebook has 200 million active members and is the largest social media platform.
• The page has social media features, such as a poll and built-in wall posting, which increases participation and involvement.
• The “fan” system of Facebook is viral.  Once your friends become fans, their friends become fans, and so on.
• After the poll about the NBA’s top player is over, the page will still have all of those fans and the company can continue to engage with them.

9 Easy Steps to Creating a Facebook Page

1. To create a Facebook page for your business, go to this url.
2. Next you have to decide which category is best for your business.  Take some time with this.  Always keep in mind your target audience.
3. Now put in your business or product name and click “Create Page”.
4. Enter a short description of your business or website address.  Use keywords that a large audience can identify with.  Upload your logo or a representative image for your business.
5. Click on your business name in the top left corner and then click “publish this page”.
6. From your new profile page, click “Add to my products”.  Now you are the first “fan” of your business.
7. Once you’ve become a “fan” of your business, your friends on Facebook will also see a message in their home page.
8. You can also suggest your page to friends under the image/logo on your page.
9. You can also promote your Facebook page with an Ad under the image/logo on your page.

If you decide that creating a Facebook page is too much trouble or too hard to maintain, we will gladly set one up for you.  Just ask.