As you all may have heard Facebook has launched its version of the group/local deal platform.  Facebook is trying to compete directly with companies like Groupon and Livingsocial.  Now Facebook users in San Francisco, San Diego, Atlanta, Dallas and Austin can take part in Facebook deals.  Users can use their credit card to purchase the deal or use it to purchase credits to purchase the deal.  Facebook will be creating a page for each new daily deal, and in some cases the deal will be advertised on a user’s wall.

Though everyone at TemplateZone is a Facebook advocate, so much that we created our own Facebook Page Designer (www.highimpactdesigner.com), we are a little skeptical about the success of this venture.

Too Little Too Late

Facebook announced their group buying deal campaign on Monday April 25^th 2011 to be released in 5 US cities.  Groupon was originally launched in 2008, and though it is losing some market share from competitors like Buywithme and LivingSocial, Groupon is still a leader in the group buying market.  Simply put, Facebook started their daily deal program too late, and now with more group buying companies coming out of the woodwork it is becoming increasingly difficult to stay relevant in the group buying sphere.

Unsatisfied retailers

More and more companies are taking issue with group buying deals.  Group deals (in general) require a 50% discount on the product or service, then the agency takes their cut and the business gets the rest.  Groupon claims that people who use their voucher will ultimately return for another full priced sale or even buy more products when they are using the Groupon.  This is mere speculation on Groupons behalf, the reality of the situation is that when you market to deal hunters they are going to use the deal and try not to exceed the parameters of their voucher.

It is going to become difficult in the next few years to continually bring in companies who are willing to sell a product or give a service for ¼ of its worth.  Since Facebook is coming into the game as there is more discontent with the group buying model, it will be even more difficult for them to gain traction.

Out of Context

Facebook is still not a ‘place of business’ it is a casual atmosphere where people look at pictures, talk with friends, or simply unwind.  A Facebook user is nowhere in the same marketing funnel as a person who opens a Groupon or LivingSocial email.  The casual tone of Facebook will ultimately undermine the success of Facebook Deals.

Facebook Places?

Remember Facebook Places?  This was Facebook’s attempt to compete with Foursquare, needless to say it couldn’t hold a candle to the traction Foursquare already had generated.  Now that Facebook has set its eyes on group buying do you think these results will be any different?

This is the last installment of the WWWWWH for Facebook.  Today we are tackeling the ‘Why?’ and the ‘How?’.

Why

There are two ‘Whys’ you should be asking when creating and moderating a Facebook page.

1)    Why am I doing this?

When asking yourself ‘Why am I doing this’ you need to come up with a goal and a plan to achieve that goal.  ‘I am using Facebook to increase leads on my website, by generating a personality people can relate to.’  This is a good answer to ‘why am I doing this?’, but you have to create a plan and a way to track your results.  This alone is another future blog post, so stay posted!

2)    Why should people care?

This is by far the most important question you should be asking yourself, if you are not creating content that people care about then they will not interact with your page or even visit it again.  Content is the most important part of social media, if you do not create ‘likeworthy’ content then you will not get ‘likes’.

How

It is important that you create a social media plan, do not create a page haphazardly and just expect your page to flourish.  You need a content schedule and someone dedicated to interacting with your fan base.  Do not ‘do’ Facebook halfway, it is a time commitment, both in terms of content creation and interactions.  A bad/incomplete page is more detrimental to your company than no page.

One of my favorite ‘how’ tactics is to create exclusive fan-only content by developing a ‘like’ tab that reveals a special offer exclusive to your page’s fans.  This requires a fair amount of coding know-how and is a TemplateZone blog ‘coming soon’.

What would you to see in a later blog post, a further discussion on the Facebook ‘Hows’ or ‘Whys’?

In yesterday’s blog post we covered the ‘Who?’ and ‘What?’ of the WWWWWH of Facebook (Read it here).  Today we will cover the ‘When?’ and the ‘Where?’ of Facebook.  Come back tomorrow for arguably the most important questions to ask when developing a Facebook page, ‘Why?’ and ‘How?’

When

Timing is everything, I am not so worried about what time you post, though you should track your posts to see what times get the best reactions.  I am particularly concerned about how OFTEN you post.  Feel free to comment on any posts created by your users throughout the day (the sooner you answer these, the better).  However, don’t post a new status update every 20 minutes.  If you post too often your followers might hide your feed.

Personally, I feel that someone hiding your feed is far worse than them unliking (Check out an old post for the top reasons people ‘unfriend’) your page.  The user is still represented in your number of ‘Likes’ but your posts are no longer being seen on that follower’s status feed.  If they are not seeing the status feed, then they can’t interact, and if they can’t interact you will not be able to reach out to those that aren’t already directly connected to you.

So simply put: Post regularly yet frugally.

Where

Always know WHERE your customers are landing.  This is as simple as going to ‘Edit’ page selecting ‘Manage permissions’ in the left hand margin and selecting the desired ‘Default Landing Tab’.  This will make it so any non-fan who comes to your site lands on this particular portion of your page.

Similar to my points in ‘What’ you also have to consider the state of mind your fans are in.  They are not arriving at your page from a place of business; they are more than likely visiting your page from their home or their mobile device.  Keep this in mind when you are designing your content, understand where your fans are in the ‘funnel’ and that content creation on your Facebook page is the first step in converting your ‘likes’ to ‘leads’.

Journalists have always been asking the questions ‘Who’, ‘What’, ‘When’, ‘Where’, ‘Why’ and ‘How’ whenever they report a news story. Answering these questions is crucial to any successful and interesting story. Since businesses are moving into the content sphere it is important that we consider these questions for all of our content.

Social media is all about content creation, so we must begin to ask ourselves these questions when we approach our social media business plans. If you haven’t created a Facebook page yet, or your page is lacking it is time to consider the WWWWWH of Facebook.

Let’s look at the ‘Who’ and the ‘What’ today.

Who

You need to create a personality on your Facebook page. Customers will interact with you directly on your wall, so you need a consistent voice to respond to your audience. Keep in mind that Facebook has a very casual atmosphere, so your page should reflect this attitude. People use Facebook at their leisure, so meet them halfway.

By no means am I saying every business should start using ‘lolz’, ‘j/k’ or other such internet speak, but when it comes to your tone, aim for business casual!

What

You need to identify WHAT Facebook is before you start creating your page. Facebook is a social platform that brings together over 500 million users. It is a tool used by people to connect with their friends and brands they identify with. Keep Facebook social, it is not a market place.

Do you know anyone who has their credit card out and are ready to buy something while on Facebook? You will be working against yourself if you focus on the hard sell on Facebook, so don’t.

Come back tomorrow to learn about the ‘When’ and ‘Where’ of Facebook.

Check out some of the designs made by our BETA users.

Flowers &Plants, ETC

Flowers & Plants, Etc. used one of our templates to create a ‘Like Us’ page. Though they kept the color scheme the same, there were some pretty major modifications done to this template. The inclusion of a photo and frame is the biggest change from the original template. Great work! Thanks for using our BETA. Visit Flowers & Plants, Etc. on Facebook

Bill Barbosa Photography

Bill Barbosa was very enthusiastic when he started using High Impact Designer to modify his Facebook page. Bill used one of our specially tailored ‘Like Us’ pages to generate more Likes for his page. Hopefully he set this as his ‘Default Landing Tab’ which can be found under ‘Manage Permissions’ while editing his page.

Visit Bill Barbosa Photography on Facebook