Facebook is an excellent resource for building strong connections with the student and graduate community, but achieving Facebook success is not as straightforward as it may seem.  Some pages such as the Oxford University page have achieved a high number of followers by really understanding the medium and using it to its full advantage. Other corporate pages are left behind with few followers and lacking impact or a strategy.

In our work with the Actuarial Profession we have taken a strategic approach by linking offline activities to social media in a carefully timed and orchestrated campaign. The result is a 7,000 strong Facebook community – a great achievement for one of the smallest and most elite of the professional bodies.

Since Facebook’s population has now risen to over 400 million active users, a size equivalent to the world’s third largest country, no one involved in communications can afford to ignore it – even those in the professional space who until now may have placed it in the “not for business” box.

Facebook tells us that half of their users are logged on in any given day and the average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on the site. With an average age of 33 and the 35+ group the fastest rising, business audiences are certainly present, providing great opportunities for HR and internal marketing teams to build company-wide communities.

At the same time as arranging their weekend plans and keeping in touch with friends and family, Facebook users are also busy learning and keeping up to date with the latest business thinking as the popularity of pages such as the following testify:

TED with over 384,000 (fans – has now given way to likers) we prefer – followers
The Harvard Business Review with over 100,000 followers
The Financial Times with over 39,000 followers

Linkedin can feel like a more natural home for business connections, but while it is a great place to make direct sales or supplier contacts and to speak to people one to one, the mechanics of the site are not ideal for creating a sense of community in a managed environment. Facebook’s sheer simplicity makes it perfect for integrating media and creating a sharing and listening environment.  All posts can be monitored and deleted so there is no fear of any comments companies would prefer not to hear.

One of the most important rules is to take a planned approach that considers both the nature of Facebook and the interests of the audience. Followers need to understand quickly why they’re on your page and what’s expected of them. While that may sound daunting, it is only a matter of combining imagination and organisation.

Engaging audiences’ interest does not mean you have to start from scratch. You probably already have a host of potential material tried and tested in past activities that could offer a potential central theme.  Supporting the central theme could be issues of particular interest to both the business and graduate audience, such as corporate social responsibility.

Uniting staff to share ideas and a common sense of purpose is a goal most organisations aim to achieve and Deloitte’s Facebook page with over 22,500 followers is a good place to see it in action.

Getting to the Deloitte level of activity doesn’t happen overnight, it requires a kick-off campaign around themes of genuine interest to the target audience and a carefully planned content strategy. While interactions and updated content are required ongoing to keep the page fresh, once the following reaches a few thousand members it becomes increasingly self-supporting.  We have been monitoring and managing ‘actuaries’ for over a year, successfully building awareness, promoting a positive image and uniting the profession around the world.

Actuaries on Facebook

Deloitte on Facebook