Leveraging Social Networking Sites to Build Your Businessʼ Online Presence

Developing Presence

“Presence is a multi-dimensional concept; i.e., there are different types of presence.”

Lombard and Ditton list six conceptualizations that have been developed to define the ambiguous concept of presence.

One facet of these conceptualizations involves a social interaction.

The social aspect of presence, in terms of a faceted classification scheme, would include the concept of social richness as well as some of the following conceptualizations that focus on social elements of interaction as mentioned by the ISPR: “social presence”, "social actor within the medium", "parasocial interaction" , "co-presence", "transportation: shared space", and "medium as social actor".

Presence as a dual action

A social interaction involves both an input and an output from both the business and the users.

Social networking allows this interaction to be seamless, easy and intuitive.

The business becomes more humanized through this online medium.

What is a Social Network Service?A social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Most social network services are web based and provide a variety of ways for users to interact, such as e-mail and instant messaging services.

---Wikipedia

Using Facebook

A few statistics to remind you why Facebook is viewed as one of the places to be seen on the internet.

Creating a Facebook Business Page

Link is available on the login screen at the bottom.

By allowing Facebook users to become “fans” of your page they act to make your business more “present” and reputable.

Fans can write on your business’ wall, upload pictures, and add content to discussions listed on your page, depending on the permissions set.

A Facebook page also allows mass communication with your fans by posting your changes to their walls.

Sample Business PageThe business page for Rosakranse Web Design

In the sidebar

Fans, Favorite Pages, and PhotosIn this example the Fan photos are not enabled

Leveraging the Facebook Platform

Several applications developed specifically for Facebook provide additional “presence” elements such as blogging applications that allow your RSS feed to be posted to your page.

Flash applications and games can also be embedded in your page.

Changes in any application will appear in your fans’ newsfeed. If they then comment, like or use the application, this will show up in their friends’ newsfeeds.

Word-of-mouth

Each interaction your business starts creates a “social story” that can continue to be shared as your fans and their friends comment, “like”, or otherwise interact with your information.

Check out this page. She

makes such cool clothes.

Facebook Insights

Provides a way for the business owner to analyze the traffic to their page with metrics and analytics.

Interactions are divided into comments, wall post, and likes.

Also provides demographic information of your fans so you can adjust marketing accordingly.

Fan Demographics

The metrics for Fan subscription over time for Rosakranse Web Design.

Facebook Ads

Your business can pay to advertise on Facebook.

The ad shows up in the right hand advertisement bar.

Facebook Polls

Polls engage the participant in a less directly marketing manner.

Allows you to construct and send out a one question poll in a short period of time and to see the results from hundreds of users.

Draw traffic to your page from people who may not already be fans.

Building an Application

A creative application also draws traffic to your page and will gain fans for your business.

Making It Work

In order to make the most of your Facebook page:

post engaging content often

leverage the wall posts, links, and photo elements

add plugins and applications to draw traffic

answer questions and respond to wall posts promptly to keep your fans

promote your page outside of Facebook

Promoting Your Page Outside of Facebook

Facebook is not an island.

You can embed your Facebook link into your other websites and into your blog by selecting the “Add Fan Box to your site” button located beneath your business’ logo.

Keep the “social story” going.

Presence continued.

P.S. Think of your page as your extension into a community of people. Aggressive marketing and a constant information stream will not make you new friends or fans.

Created by Christine Rosakranse for RPI - COMM