The Brain Aneurysm Foundation hired Inbound Zombie in June to help create a stronger presence on Facebook. Following is a case study in launching their Facebook Page.
Problems
There were several challenges they had with their current use of Facebook:
- Too Many Places - The Brain Aneurysm Foundation had a Group Page, a Cause Page, and even a Profile. But they didn’t have a Facebook Page. This caused confusion with Facebook users and unnecessary work with BAF staff members.
- Creating A Strong Launch – Because their presence up to that point was unfocused and weak, they wanted to do the opposite with their Page. We weren’t sure exactly how many people would initially become a fan of the Page, but we set a goal of 500 fans in the first 30 days – a goal we thought was attainable.
- Confused By Facebook – Turned out, they needed some training on how to properly manage a Facebook Page.
Solutions
- Set The Table – The first thing Inbound Zombie did was to create a custom Static FBML tab and main image. Pages with custom welcome tabs have a higher fan conversion rate than Pages that don’t.
- Send Out Dinner Invitations – The Brain Aneurysm Foundation leveraged two major assets to promote the Page – NING and their email list. But we didn’t just say “Big news! We’re on Facebook” (yawn). We crafted a simple message that was sincere and compelling.
- Serve Nutritious Food – Once people started joining the Page, we made a point of engaging fans in positive ways that created a lively and welcoming atmosphere. This meant posting valuable stories and thoughtful questions on the Page.
- Train The Chef - A critical factor in a sustainable Facebook Page is proper training. We accomplished this with live training, a set of video tutorials on using Facebook, and a series of model updates on the Page.
Lessons Learned
- First Impressions Are Powerful – Explaining the purpose of the Page to their supporters – with bullet points – set the tone for how the community now behaves. They share with each other, ask good questions and keep coming back.
- How To Create Great Content In Three Minutes – Like most nonprofits, their “social media staff” consists of one person who is also the office administrator, IT manager and receptionist. Asking them to create content from scratch was just asking for failure. Instead, they reposted their best stuff from the NING community (forum posts with the highest number of replies), asked meaningful questions to engage fans, and shared resources from their information library.
Results
For a brand new Page on Facebook, we achieved pretty impressive results:
- Over 730 fans in first 30 days
- Consistent Five-Star Post Quality
- A Happy Page Admin
