Fan posts or brand posts?
Comscore’s announcement of over 110 million unique visitors to Facebook in December should have been enough to convince any brand not living under a rock that it’s time to be on the platform and be there in a big way. Still Facebook is a relatively new channel for businesses and it can be difficult deciding just how involved to get.
One trend I’m still noticing is brands hiding their fan comments by using the “Posts by Page” option. This strikes me as a interesting decision to make in a world where you’re trying to engage the individual rather than just throw messages at them.
Choosing to put your fan comments on the second page has upsides; it lets you control the initial impression someone gets when they come to your page or wall and it lets people find your old posts and announcements much quicker.
But when it’s all said and done isn’t your page about engagement first and old content as an afterthought? Letting fans post to the main page gives your visitors something to immediately be involved in even if you haven’t made a post in a few days. It keeps things exciting and turns your page from a billboard of updates into community of individual discussions. If you’re doing things well and responding back on inquiries and posts it also gives your brand a chance to show that you are using social in an effective way – if your not, well, then perhaps you should be hiding your fan’s pleas for help a little more.
I’d like to hear what others think – are you enabling fan posts on the main wall or not? And why?
