5 Ways To Build Facebook Community

Do you manage a Facebook page?

Have you ever wondered how to build and manage a thriving Facebook community?

In this article I’ll share best practices to apply when using Facebook for Business. You will learn about 5 ways to build your Facebook community. Some content is sourced from the Facebook Success Summit 2011 as hosted by Social Media Examiner.

What is a community?

A community can be defined as follows:

• A group of interacting people
• People who share  a common interest or value
• People who do things for each other
•  People who have a sense of belonging

Why do you build a community?

Most of you have heard about the Know, Like and Trust factor. People only follow and buy from people that they know, like and trust.

A community will also lead to better visibility, higher EdgeRank and more connections. These are good reasons to build a community on Facebook.

How do you create a community?

Here are 5 ways that will help you build a thriving community:

#1: Be a resource

Provide content – your own, as well as shared content. Answer questions, or direct people to your blog or other resources for answers. Post useful information like tips, links to articles and free resources. Think about what is helpful to your community.

#2: Respond and engage

Similarly to being a resource, you want to make sure you are responding to your community. Take note of the following activities to achieve that:

• Respond in a timely manner by setting an email notification on your settings when people post or comment.
• Be helpful, follow up within the thread and keep it fun.
• When people post negative comments, offer assistance or take it offline by sending a direct message. Ban people if necessary.
• Check Hidden Posts, below Wall, frequently. Unhide and respond.
• Watch threads, look at your Notifications and create community by follow-up messages.
• Like your commenters and encourage more comments. Let them know that you saw their posts.

#3: Moderate

Some companies have a separate tab containing a policy for their Facebook Page Protocol. It is easier to delete spam or ban people if you have a policy in place. Watch for comments marked incorrectly as spam; they usually have darker blue colour. It may happen when people share links. Unmark as spam, otherwise no-one sees them.

#4: Connect

There are quite a number of ways to connect within your community.

• Support others by having a Fan of the Week and you may want to highlight other Pages.
• Or else you could connect by Tagging a Page in your post. You do this by using the @ and typing the name of the Page. The Page will appear as a drop-down that you can select. The Page will be a hyperlink in your post.
• Like other Pages as your Page, then watch your Home feed (top right button next to Page name) and comment and add value.
• Be active, because people who comment, get comments. See the Pages who Like your Page.
• Target complementary Pages, by starting with your Page community. You may also want to look at other Pages’ Likes and connect with appropriate Pages.

#5: Measure

There are 7 Insights to watch when you measure your Facebook community:

• Post feedback
• Like/Unlikes
• Page activity (people talking about this)
• Demographics
• Like Sources
• Facebook shares (suggested tools: Sharethis.com, Wibiya, Shareaholic)
• EdgeRank – algorithm for being seen on Facebook. It is recommended to post directly to Facebook to improve EdgeRank instead of using 3^rd party tools.

These are proven practices that work best to build and manage your Facebook community.  It is best to ask questions that anyone can answer and to make it personal.  Look at what other people/Pages are doing and find some ideas that you can adjust to use on your Pages as well.  Most importantly, have fun and don’t take it too seriously!

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