What is the best way for a social media consultant to help his client on Facebook?

Posted by Colin Clark on Mar 9th, 2010 | View Comments home title

I’ve been having an ongoing conversation with my boyz over at Marketpath about what the best strategy is when you’re a social media consultant helping your client with Facebook. John Kohlmeyer had a great post about it the other day.

Let me just assert something real quick…

The fastest and easiest way to get lots of fans for your business is to find someone (or hire someone) who has a ton of friends and have them invite all their friends to fan the business… and this has a tendency to piss people off.

Here’s the reason it pisses people off…

When someone friends you on Facebook, they are giving you permission to stay in contact with them. If I promote a client’s fan page simply because they are paying me to do so, it takes advantage of that permission. People hate being taken advantage of.

So what place does the consultant have on Facebook???

The consultant’s ONLY job should be to educate his client, lead by example, inspire action, and have an open phone line so the client can call for technical support.

Listen, because this is important. Social media is an amazing marketing tool. It encourages people to talk to you, and about you (hopefully in a positive light), and it does a great job of getting you exposure.

The problem is that once you stop being authentic… which is just a fancy way of saying, once you start promoting things with an ulterior motive, the personal brand of the consultant, as well as the brand of the client starts to get damaged.

The consultant can draw a map and show the way, but the client is the only one that can build a lasting brand.

Full Disclosure:

I’m not saying I haven’t leveraged my friends on Facebook to get fans for clients in the past, because that would be a lie. I have engaged in these practices myself and I’m seeing the error in my ways. I vow from this point on to only engage in authentic behavior on Facebook.

Colin Clark

I totally agree, however it can be a very helpful first step to 'prime' a facebook page with fans. If you're getting paid to do it (as a consultant) then it makes a pretty good impression with the client to say "we've got another 500 fans this week".

While the best long-term strategy might be to grow slowly with a focus on authentic communication, it's all too easy to just go out and suggest a page to anyone and everyone.
Douglas Karr

Why would you concentrate on high numbers anyways? I'd rather simply try to connect with the customers or prospects interested in what I have to offer. Promoting Facebook on sites, blogs, and email will let those who are interested connect with you.

If you're just after eyeballs, then Facebook Marketing is a great, low cost, way to promote your brand on Facebook. Target an advertisement and let it run.