Did you Know? Getting a handle on what you have to work with, what you are up against, and what the most successful Facebook brands are doing is a great way to get your Facebook marketing activities underway.

Budget & Resources

Before you get started you will want to come up with a realistic idea of what kind of budget and resources you can allocate to Facebook marketing. While many of the activities you can engage in have no monetary cost, they certainly have a cost when it comes to resourcing. This can escalate quickly, so it is best to set some expectations before getting underway. Making managing your Facebook Page (or community management in general) a formal part of someone’s role helps ensure that your presence is actively and effectively managed. It is unlikely to require a dedicated person immediately, but adding these tasks to someone’s existing role is a great way to start. If you are able to, you should consider setting a budget to accompany your efforts also. This budget can be used for a variety of things, from useful applications, to Facebook advertising. Even a relatively modest budget (less than $500 a month) can make a big difference to the effectiveness of your Facebook marketing efforts. As you progress through this guide, you will see how setting clear measurable objectives is an important way to ensure that you are getting real value from this investment. These objectives should relate directly to how you measure your business sucess.

See What Your Competition is Up To

Before you dive right in, it is a good idea to take a look at what your competition is up to. You can often learn a lot from them by looking at what they do that gets people interacting with their brand. This can help you avoid mistakes, as well as set some realistic goals for your Facebook presence. It is also a chance to look at ways in which you can differentiate yourself. Look for these things

1. How active are they? Do they update their page regularly?
2. Are they treating Facebook as a purely one-way communication channel, or are they actually listening, responding, and interacting with their fans?
3. Are they using any special applications to run competitions, give their fans special offers, or anything else?
4. How many fans do they have?
5. How many people are ‘talking about them’?

You might also like to take a look at some of the biggest, most innovative brands in the world. While these pages are often dealing with millions of fans, you can still learn some valuable lessons about what works when creating a great Facebook presence. A brief list of brands you might like to check out to start with:

• H&M
• Redbull
• Zara
• Coca-Cola
• Converse
• Skittles
• Starbucks
• Victoria’s Secret
• Walmart

You can see a list of the biggest Facebook Pages for brands by fan count on fanpagelist. com. It is often good to get in a few pages and check out what some of the larger challengers are doing on Facebook, as it is often a little more edgy (and effective) than the biggest brands. You are also able to sort the pages by their rate of growth. Why not check in and see what the fastest growing pages are doing right?