If you don’t know about the new Facebook privacy controls you are missing out on a very useful feature!
There one new feature in particular that can really help you stay in contact with your prospects, clients and business partners without annoying your “other friends” with info they’re not interested in. The new feature is called Publisher Privacy Control. When you combine this feature with the ability to create lists in Facebook you now have a powerful tool at your fingertips.
This is how you can use this new feature to your advantage for business and friendships alike.
What problem does this feature solve?
People have different groups of friends and interests. Up until now Facebook didn’t really help you control what information you shared with these different groups.
Suppose your Business isn’t the only passion in your life. (What – how could this be?) Well say you also have other businesses, or maybe a group of friends or family you don’t want to share certain updates with, because they may not be interested. In the past you could exclude people on a list, but you couldn’t really target a specific list. This made it really difficult to do any kind of relationship building or sharing of info with people that represented different groups in your life.
By the way, there is still a proper way to behave on Facebook. It is after all a social place where you need to remember how to interact with people. Do not create lists and just market to them. That’s a quick way to getting “unfriended!” This is called social media for a reason! You want to be social with people! Not spam them with “all business” messages and announcements! You don’t want everyone to be clicking the hide button on your posts! It’s the same thing if you’re at a party. You don’t want people to avoid you. So don’t be annoying, even if you’re sending a message for your business lists.
Even with business posts, just like your regular friendly posts, you should be sharing your personal life and helpful information that will help your prospects. Remember to “be cool”, and let people see that you’re a regular person. So, most normal posts can go to all lists. However, sometimes you may want to share specific information about your business with prospects, associates or clients and keep that information hidden from people in your other areas of life. You may also have specific training or skills building materials that only apply only to a certain group of people. This was difficult to manage before in Facebook.
Now it is Easy! Keep reading for step by step instructions to find out how!
Here is a scenario: Let’s say you have prospects for your company that you want to communicate with in Facebook. You’ve done a good job of networking and people that may be interested in your business are starting to ask to be your friend on Facebook. Here is what you could do.
Step 1: Create a list in Facebook called “Prospects”. To do this click on the “more” link under you Newsfeed link on the left side of the main facebook page. You should a box pop-up that looks like this:
Enter a name for your list like “prospects” then add the appropriate people from your list of friends to this list. Also, of course, make one for or “clients” or “family” or “partners” or whatever you want. (Later as you accept friendship requests you can add them directly to their perspective list.)
Step 2: Now that you have different lists you can create posts in facebook that are directly related to them. None of your other Facebook friends will be able to see the post that is meant for another list of people! Are you starting to see the benefits?!?!
To do this, click in the “what’s on my mind” box and then click on the little lock icon that appears on the bottom right next to the share link.
Step 3: Now click on the custom link and you will see the below Custom Privacy box appear.
Choose “Specific People” from the drop down list and then type in the name of your list and click Save Setting.
Step 4: You are now ready to type in your update. It will only be visible in the newsfeed of people on that specific list.
How I recommend you use this feature with regards to business lists.
- Start posting content on your website or blog that allows you to put your facebook link on your profile.
- Join a site like forum about your business that allows you to build list of prospects and include your facebook link in your email messages to your subscribers.
- Create a list of prospects and a list of partners and a list of clients.
- Start posting information (not spam) of interest to those specific groups of people. For example, prospects can receive generic updates on what’s going on in the industry in general, and how your company is involved. Partners can receive posts regarding real training to help them build their business. Clients can see posts related to your product and how it benefits the world, and maybe you and others as a testimonial. Family and friends can get your personal updates. People you “do not like” can get your Farmville updates. No matter what, keep it light and fun! Post in the spirit of offering great information regardless of who is targeted. (If you even saw this post reference on Facebook, you must be a business associate, since this is useful business information)
You will find that people appreciate getting good, useful information and your non-prospects/clients/partners will appreciate NOT getting this information even more!
Have fun and keep smiling!
Ric
www.RicParks.biz
