Learning Facebook’s language will help you navigate around the whole site and determine the best calls to action when engaging fans and promoting your Facebook Business Page.
Terms & Strategies Every Facebook Business User Must Know Regarding Social Media Marketing:
#1 Like: The like function can be used for many platforms, including personal profiles, Facebook Business Pages, and personal websites or blogs. When users click the “like” button it means they like the message behind the content they are engaging with. When followers click the “like” button on your Facebook Business Page, website or other social media outlet, their “like” becomes a status update which is visible to all of their friends. This can create a viral effect when their friends see what you posted and like it too.
#2 Status Updates: Just as with likes, status updates can be viewed by all of a unique user’s friends. A status update can be different forms of content, including text, video, photos, music, or links to other websites. People typically post status updates to share their interests or information on Facebook. Using your Facebook Business Page is a great way to have multiple status updates created by users who are interacting with your Fan Page.
#3 Fan Page: Fan Pages allow individuals to create pages within Facebook about brands, causes, people, or businesses. Each Facebook Page is separate from, but must be associated with a personal profile. Your friends on Facebook will only see whether you like a Page. They need to like the Page as well in order to see its updates.
#4 Fan: A fan is simply someone who likes a Fan Page. Fan Pages are created with the interests of their fans in mind. When someone likes a page, their friends become aware via their status update and may choose to become fans of the same page.
#5 Friends: Friends are the people you keep in touch with on your personal profile on Facebook. Their status updates are what create your news feed on Facebook.
#6 News Feed: The news feed is the hub of activity for most users on Facebook. People read their news feeds to see what’s happening in their friends’ lives. Feeds are made up of individual status updates and any comments on those updates. You can post any sales or special events you might be having in your news feed.
#7 Event: An event is a notice or invitation about a live or web-based event that users create to share with their friends on Facebook. You can create events about any special promotions or contests you are having on either your personal Facebook Page or Facebook Business Page.
#8 Apps: Apps are software that expand the functionality of Facebook and enhance the user’s experience. Games are a popular example of apps on Facebook. Facebook apps are available for Fan Pages as well. Shopping cart apps are ideal for vendors who want to sell products on their Page.
#9 Photo Strips: Photo Strips appear on the top portion of personal profiles and Facebook Business Pages. When someone uploads multiple photos to their profiles it creates a strip that features each photo. Photo strips can be used to highlight products and calls to action on Fan Pages as well.
#10 Tagging: Tagging is used to note someone in a photo. When someone is tagged, it appears as a status update in the tagger’s news feed and the news feed of the subject or person who was tagged.
#11 Poke: Poking is a friendly way of saying hello to your friends on Facebook. When you poke someone, it appears in your news feed and the news feed of the person you poked.
#12 Ticker: The ticker allows you to keep up with your friend’s status updates in real time. The most recent status updates can be found on the ticker.
#13 Groups: Groups can be created on Facebook for users who do not want to have a public page. Groups are often created about a common interest or topic. Prior to Pages, groups were more frequently used by businesses that wanted to create a community around their brand on Facebook.
Once you become familiar with it, the language Facebook is relatively easy to understand. By looking at how other people and businesses use Facebook, you can get some great ideas about how you can use it yourself to grow your business.
