Colleen Flood*

What do you do with all your Facebook followers?

How does a brand come to life on Facebook?

These were just some of the questions addressed at a panel on “Developing a Winning Content Strategy to Engage Your Followers” at this year’s PR News Facebook Conference.

Stephanie Agresta, executive vice president and managing director of social media at Weber Shandwick, talked about the importance of assigning roles when it comes to the structure of community management. She highlighted four responsibilities that PR professionals need to consider when developing the structure of their community management team: community manager, trend expert, monitoring expert, and reporting expert.

When it comes to building a successful community, the personality of the community manager is key. It is their job to ensure that the consumer is getting value from the brand, as well as to oversee the reporting and monitoring teams. To be a good community manager, you need to: listen, be authentic and transparent, blog, and develop a social media presence. Maria Baugh, co-owner of Butter Lane Cupcakes, also affirmed that it is very important for the community manager to know your brand.

Some other takeaways for developing a winning content strategy on Facebook:

From Stephanie Agresta

• As your community grows so should the frequency of your posts
• Don’t hide behind your logo. Be real.
• Measure.
• Don’t forget about in real life – offer your community opportunity to come together outside of Facebook.

From Maria Baugh

• Talk about your product with groups that seek you out and choose to engage with you.
• Use Facebook to get instant feedback from and dialogue with customers. Again insights into what’s really taking place and what people want to see.
• Be consistent in your messaging.
• Build an authentic brand by being real – person to person – and avoid marketing speak.
• Use all available tools, including photos, videos, polls, and promotions.
• Decide what and when to invest for growth.

From Paull Younger, director of digital, charity: water

• “Liking” a brand is similar to putting a bumper sticker on your car.
• If you can’t say anything good, don’t say anything at all.
• Focus on sharing, not publishing.
• Every person you are connected with is a publisher – what will people share about your brand?

From Johna Burke, senior vice president of marketing, BurrellesLuce

• All brands should not be everywhere. Understand where you can be most effective.
• Stop using hashtags on Facebook – know the language.
• Focus on the customer experience: awareness, engagement, persuasion, conversion, and retention.
• Have clear calls to action; measure success.

In this way, the function of the community manager and building a Facebook community is similar to that of public relations practitioner. Securing media placements is not unlike securing tweets, blog posts, and Facebook posts. Ensure the target audience – regardless of the outlet – receives something of value and feels connected to your brand or client.

Got more tips for effectively using Facebook and creating quality content? Share your thoughts with me and the readers of BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas.