We’ve had an interesting time trying to put together these digests.  As you may or may not know, wthashtag.com is no longer so in creating a digest from the transcript has been nothing short of a task.  Luckily Janet from OneForty suggested RowFeeder and it now creates a google doc of all the tweets.  So if you would like the transcript from these chats, please leave a comment below or send me an email and I’ll forward it over!

This week’s chat is the start of our Building Community series and we’ll be looking at various platforms in depth.  We start with that behemoth, Facebook, and figuring out what it all looks like.

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Q1.  Is your goal always to increase likes? What other goals/priorities do you have on Facebook?

SocialMedBtrfly: Likes are good, comments better, shares are the end-all-be-all 🙂

evanhamilton:  I’m mainly posting links to blog content, so likes are less interesting than actual clickthroughs.

LovelyLu: Goal is to engage the audience, would rather seen comments than likes!

SYRDT: Engagement is a HUGE focus, we want to hear from people… the good, the bad and hopefully not too often the ugly!

HSirhan: Talking about FB ‘engagement’ is difficult. FB is *not* a community replacement but an audience platform

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Q2) What are the key data points you focus on in FB insights & what are “Good” numbers?

evanhamilton: Upwards growth. If it’s flat or going down at all, something is bad. Other than that, I look at the % engagement on each post.

mhandy1: Steady lines on FB data are also important… fewer spikes = more consistent/ committed community.

duncan_alney: daily, weekly, monthly users – also tracking evangelist and detractor activity

Craig_Law: Sharing and Commenting, watching videos or viewing images, interacting with apps

GregHollings: I look for positive growth trends to paint the full picture.

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Q3) What extras do you pump into Facebook – Landing Pages? Polls? Tabs? What are good resources?

SocialMedBtrfly: Statistics show more people “like” a page coming through Landing page than through the wall

SocialMedBtrfly: For some clients, I really like to target the updates. Geographically, demographically, etc.

evanhamilton: I try to keep the page simple, but we do have our @UserVoice feedback tab in there. (disclaimer: I work at UV)

_faith: Landing pages are great for 1st time users, but have found profile pictures are good for guiding current fans to tabs/content #cmgrchat

omgitsamr: Not sure if it counts as “extra” but videos & photos are key – anything visual to keep folks on the page

RachelYeomans:  I think landing pages are necessary with the new Facebook page layout but it should be interactive in some way

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Q4) How do you cultivate community on Facebook to keep ppl coming back? What are best practices?

HSirhan: Best practice is to ask, honestly, whether it’s the right step for your client

jprimost: Acknowledge people’s answers, participate in the comment section (in an authentic way)

omgitsamr: Mentioning people helps engagement – grabs users’ attention and sort of places responsibility on them to respond

_Faith: Sharing content from other pages, esp. partners and assoc. businesses, also commenting on their walls encourages convo.

RachelYeomans: Create engaging content, ask questions, feature semi-regular deals – keep it fun and conversational (it’s FB not your website)

7Huck: Ask fans that engage w the same topic to further develop the topic w you & share w rest of community A4 ** 🙂

tmonhollon: We underestimate the power of asking! Try asking what people active fans want from you, and doing that.

Lovelylu: You have to be part of the community, can’t just be the facilitator

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Thanks to all who participated!  Make sure to come back to #cmgrchat every Wednesday from 2-3pm EST for more chats!

If you have any ideas or suggestions for future topics, leave comments or get in touch with myself or Kelly!