Anatomy of Facebook: Understanding the Basics
by Dori SaltzmanThis is the latest in a series of technology articles featuring practical advice and insights from social media expert Sophie Bujold.
For novices, Facebook can be confusing. Even for people who have been using Facebook awhile, all the terminology and concepts can easily overwhelm. And the more overwhelmed the user or potential user, the more they tend to avoid elements that could benefit their business.
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To help travel sellers navigate the intricacies of Facebook so they can get the most out of it, Travel Market Report asked Sophie Bujold to dissect the social media site and explain its various elements. What follows is a basic guide to the elements of Facebook. Next week we offer best practices for how to use the various pieces.
Personal profile or business page?
Making the most of Facebook starts with understanding the difference between a Facebook profile and a Facebook page and knowing which best suits your purposes.
“Facebook profiles are the pages designed for individual people; it’s your personal life. The Facebook page is business-centric – it can be a public personality, a business or a brand,” Bujold explained.
“First and foremost, travel agents should have a Facebook business page,” Bujold said.
Understand the differences
Though similar, there are subtle differences between a Facebook profile and a Facebook page. Among the differences are:
• On profiles, both parties must accept the relationship to be “friends,” while an individual can “like” a company that has a business page without the business needing to approve;
• Profiles can only have 5,000 friends, but pages can have an unlimited number of “likers;”
• Personal profiles cannot be promoted, but business pages can be promoted in a number of ways;
• There are numerous third-party apps available for businesses pages that make them more effective marketing platforms, whereas most third-party apps for profile pages are time-wasting games and quizzes.
Best choice for you
Bujold emphasized that a travel agency should maintain its presence on Facebook via a business page. Even individual agents (staff and independent contractors) who use Facebook to market to and communicate with clients and prospects should consider starting a business page for themselves.
A Facebook profile is no longer required to set up a Facebook business page, so if you’ve never used Facebook before, and you’re not interested in communicating online with your social circle, skip the profile and just create a page.
Tips for photos, info tab
When creating your Facebook business page, start with the basics – photo, info tab, photo strip, Wall and News Feed.
For a photo that represents your business, use either your company’s logo or a photo of yourself (maybe in an exotic location). Do not leave the photo blank.
The same is true of the info tab. Make sure to fill out all the information, including who you are, your company’s focus, web address, phone number and email address. “This is an important marketing area for first impressions,” Bujold emphasized.
“This is where consumers get a quick glimpse of how you can help them and where they can connect with you when they are ready to buy. It’s also the only part of your page that stays constant as people click around.”
The photo strip & gallery
The photo strip, located at the top of your page in the middle, is composed of the five most recent photos that you have uploaded and tagged with the name of your agency (as it appears on Facebook).
If you have never tagged a photo with your agency’s name, Facebook selects the five most recently posted photographs to display in the photo strip.
You also have a photo gallery that stores all of the photos you’ve uploaded. This is accessible through a tab on the lefthand side of your page.
The Wall is the ‘hub of activity’
Right beneath the photo strip is the Wall. This is the “main hub of activity on a Facebook page,” Bujold said.
The Wall is where you interact with others. It is where updates that you post appear as well as customer comments directed to you and their replies to your updates. The Wall is the first thing business page owners see when they log onto their pages.
“A Wall is concentrated on one brand or one person. If you’re on my wall, the only things you see are what I’ve posted and what I’m actively discussing.”
However, most people don’t go to a company’s Wall to see what’s up with that company. Once they’ve liked a company, they use their own Facebook news feed to keep up-to-date with that company’s posts.
News Feed is a ‘mash-up’
“The News Feed is a mash-up of everything your network is up to,” Bujold explained. (A Facebook user’s network consists of their friends and the companies they like.) The News Feed is the first thing people see when they log onto their Facebook profiles, whereas the Wall is the first thing people see when they visit someone else’s personal profile or a business page.
Keep in mind that when you post on your business page Wall, your posts are identified as coming from your business. When posting to your business page, your business posts will never appear on your personal Wall. And vice versa: when posting to your personal profile, your personal posts will never appear on your business wall.
Promoting events
On the left side of your Facebook Wall is a tab for events. The events tool allows you to market and promote your agency’s upcoming happenings.
“Event pages are a useful tool because they get promoted to Facebook users,” Bujold explained. “Say someone replies, ‘Yes, I’m attending your cruise night,’ that person’s Facebook network will see that this person is attending this event on this date. Then they can check it out too.”
Event pages can be set up in one of three ways: 1) invitation only, where only people you invite may RSVP; 2) extended invitation, where invited guests who RSVP may also invite other people; or 3) RSVP event whose posting includes a discussion area where people can chat about the event.
Administering your page
Administrative tools are located on the righthand side of your Wall. These tools provide access to Facebook ads and to your Facebook statistics, called “insights.”
“Insights are a whole bunch of useful statistics and graphs on who your audience is, how often they’re interacting with you, how many people are unsubscribing, things like that,” Bujold explained.
Next time: Best practices for using the various elements of Facebook.
About Sophie Bujold: Before starting her own social media consulting company for travel agencies, Bujold (www.sophiebujold.com) spent eight years working with first Uniglobe Travel and more recently Ensemble Travel Group in their online marketing divisions.
