New Facebook Brand Pages
As of 30th March all Facebook brand pages will be automatically switched over to the new timeline format. This layout is very similar to the format we have now, hopefully, all gotten used to on our individual Facebook pages.
If you haven’t updated your organisations page yet these are the things you need to change/look at updating:
1) Cover Photo
The most important thing to do is upload a cover photo. The dimensions to work to are 850px (width) by 315px. This space is a real opportunity for you to showcase your organisation – it could be that you use a nice photo or have a graphic specifically designed.
2) Application Icons
Under the cover photo there are icons that link to your applications. Only four are on display permanently (you can use the arrow key to view all). ‘Photos’ is ‘stuck’ in number one spot but make sure that you move the others around so that the next three that are most important are constantly displayed on your page.
3) Highlight Posts
Clicking on the star that is displayed in the top right hand corner of a post will highlight it and permanently make it full width on your timeline. Use for posts that were important or special in some way to highlight them.
4) Pin Posts
Clicking on the Edit pen that is displayed in the top right hand corner of a post will give you the option to ‘Pin’ it. This means that it will stay at the top of your timeline for a week, or until you ‘Pin’ another post. Great for making sure those important messages are on permanent view.
5) Review and Update Timeline
This change is a great opportunity to go back through your timeline and remove anything that isn’t on brand or now seems inappropriate and add in any important milestones.
There are other changes that make it easier to manage pages as an administrator and the ability to receive and send direct messages to fans but as a priority the above areas should be looked at before the big switchover on the 30th March!
Examples:
Social Media and Crisis Public Relations Planning
Whether your organisation is using social media or not, if you have a major incident you will be – even if you don’t know it!
Twitter, Facebook and other social media channels are used for sharing information quickly.
Twitter, especially, is well used and recognised as a form of news feed. If your organisation has a major incident e.g. building blow up, product recall or someone die on your premises, you can be pretty much assured that it will be all over Twitter in a matter of hours.
So how can you make sure that you are doing all you can to include this new form of communication in your Crisis Public Relations planning?
1. Be there already..
Make sure that your Marketing and PR strategy already includes having a presence on, and understanding of, the main social media platforms. Currently these would be thought of as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube , LinkedIn and Google+. If you are already engaging with and have relationships on these forums then it will be easier for you to respond to and deal with any issues there.
2. Monitoring
Use Google Alerts, Twilerts and other tools to monitor your organisation in the social media and online sphere, so that you are automatically alerted if a conversation starts up or comment is made about you.
3. Don’t be afraid and act quickly
Social media culture is very different from traditional media. You don’t have time to hang-up on the journalist, pull a team together, write a statement and get it signed-off. You need to be confident enough in your position and knowledge of the organisation to quickly decide on an update, check it off with someone in authority and get it out. Even if it just says something like: ‘We are aware of the [issue] and are working hard to…, we will be updating regularly.’
4. Keep the conversation going
Once the initial crisis is over and you have managed to keep your fans and followers up-to-date with information, you then have time to be more considered. Get the CEO to make a short film in response to the crisis, post it and share it. Keep on engaging and sharing good content to all your new fans and followers! The saying goes that: ‘All publicity is good publicity’ – suddenly your brand is all over social media, maybe initially, for the wrong reasons but you should have been able to turn it around and use the opportunity to build brand awareness.
The main thing is not to stick your head in the sand. Act quickly and be as open and honest as possible, responding on the platforms where the information is being shared.
If you feel that you don’t have the expertise in-house to deal with these forms of communication in a crisis then consider employing a social media agency to help you.
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