effective Facebook pages
YOU can create right now
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by Dana VanDen Heuvel
principal, MarketingSavant Group
www.marketingsavant.com
I'm as much a fan of some of the awesome Facebook pages created for
the world's top brands like Starbucks, Cranium, Threadless and Harley-Da-
vidson, but what about for the rest of us who don't have that kind of budget
or, frankly, the "need" for the level of sophistication that those brands have
applied to their pages. We just need some solid design, some creativity
and an overall engaging experience.
Here is a list of 7 pages that I'm I fan of for just that sort of thing. These are
page designs and ideas that are within reach of nearly every business with-
out the need for thousands of dollars in Facebook development. Whether
you're a small business or a mega-enterprise, there are ideas here for you!
7 effective Facebook pages YOU can create
www.marketingsavant.com
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contents
Lake Nona Pools 2
Ocean City Maryland 3
AGCO 4
AJ Bombers 6
Sainsbury's 7
Jo to Go Coffee 8
Queens Museum of Art 9
Recap: Top 23 Ideas! 10
About the author 13
Aside from the fact that these guys need to update their welcome page to
comply with Facebook's new 520px page size format, these guys have a

significant number of comments and likes on each post, further spreading their
message.
Their photo page is outstanding. They have over 1200 user submitted photos.
Think about what kind of "virtual travel brochure" that makes! Your company/
city/department couldn't possibly capture all of the exciting moments that are
possible when people interface with your brand. This is truly a great example of
letting your customers do your marketing for you!
Ocean City Maryland
www.facebook.com/OceanCity

Integrate Facebook Connect on your website and Facebook page

Sustain a consistent and "often as your audience finds interesting" content
publishing regiment

Do everything you can to encourage photo posting from fans, customers and
everyone who experiences your brand

Share as many of those photos as you can in your own Facebook postings
2
What YOU
can do
7 effective Facebook pages YOU can create
www.marketingsavant.com
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This has to be one of my favorite Facebook pages, and it's not just
because a few friends run it. I've always loved tractors and AGCO
taps into the emotional aspects of their customers' attachment to
their farm machinery in a way that few B2B companies have done to
date. While the AGCO Facebook site is a collaborative effort, there


Attend trade shows with still and video camera in hand and interview your customers, dis-
tribution partners and everyone in between ― make them slightly famous by posting on
Facebook and encourage sharing

Sustain a consistent and "often as your audience finds interesting" content publishing regi-
ment

Use your tabs wisely. AGCO makes excellent use of the Facebook tabs featuring everything
from new product launches to contests to integrating the blog and video content

Share photos as often as you can in your own Facebook postings
What YOU
can do
Facebook audience current by leveraging the power of the tabs to put information on new
products and features that would likely be of great interest to their fans which might otherwise
get lost on a large corporate website.
AGCO
www.facebook.com/AGCOcorp
3
7 effective Facebook pages YOU can create
www.marketingsavant.com
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AJ Bombers is the best burger joint in Milwaukee. Period. While they are "huge on Four-
square" their Facebook presence is pretty admirable as well. These guys have done
a great job of integrating Foursquare and "location based marketing" into their overall
online strategy. They also have a rock solid (albeit a bit more complex) integration that
brings their website content into the site through "More AJB" tab on Facebook and offer a
link to their gift card site through Facebook as well. If you did nothing but fan AJ Bomb-
ers on Facebook, you'd be in the loop on everything they do. Specials, media mentions,

point to answer nearly every question posed on their page. Fans know that they can get a response from the
brand using Facebook.
Sainsbury’s
www.facebook.com/sainsburys
 Make an AWESOME welcome page to get
potential fans hooked on the immense val-
ue that you deliver through your page
 If your organization relies at all on any
"how-to"information, create and host videos to share with fans. Sainsbury's
uses their kitchen facilities to shoot video of things that they'd be doing
anyway (testing recipes and preparing deli food) that fans will also find
interesting.
 Answer every question. Sainsbury's is constantly monitoring their Facebook
page for questions & comments and makes a point to get in touch with
fans who have concerns or questions, often answering them publically (as
shown above) and sometimes privately as well.
 Mention your other activities in the community on your page
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What YOU
can do
7 effective Facebook pages YOU can create
www.marketingsavant.com
7
I use this example in almost every one of my social media classes as an il-
lustration of a brand that's gone all the way with the concept of the "siteless
web" in that they've gotten rid of their website and run the web presence for
the business using a combination of Facebook, Google maps, Scribd.com
and other lightweight and low cost apps. Jo To Go does a good job of keep-
ing up with some regular posts on Facebook about happenings at all of their
locations. They have also smartly leveraged things like Google maps to map out the locations of their stores.

value to your audience.
 Events! Post all of them. If you have something going on, put it on Face-
book. Facebook events show up for your fans on the right hand side of the
page when you invite them, so keep posting those events!
 Use the Extended Info tab to share even more information and background
about your organization.
 Use photos extensively. The more visual your product or service, the more
you should use Facebook's photos component (or integrate with Flickr or
another photo sharing site) to get the visual message across.
7
What YOU
can do
7 effective Facebook pages YOU can create
www.marketingsavant.com
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Let's Recap:
These are some examples that I thought were both smart AND approachable ― stuff that can be
done by almost any business with their Facebook page. What smart examples have you seen?
top 23 ieas
recap
Top 23 ideas
1. Make an AWESOME welcome page to get potential fans hooked on the immense value that you
deliver through your page Create "Facebook rituals" that engage your audience daily or weekly
2. Answer any and all questions that come in through your page. Sainsbury's is constantly monitor-
ing their Facebook page for questions & comments and makes a point to get in touch with fans who
have concerns or questions, often answering them publically and sometimes privately as well.
3. Be helpful to engage your audience on Facebook.
4. Integrate Facebook Connect on your website and Facebook page
5. Sustain a consistent and "often as your audience finds interesting" content publishing regiment
7 effective Facebook pages YOU can create

database!)
19. Replace your website, or even make your next micro-site out of Facebook
20. Integrate other cloud apps to augment the Facebook functionality as needed, such as Scribed
and Google Apps
21. Solicit reviews from patrons on Facebook (and anywhere else that makes sense for that mat-
ter!) and respond to those (both positive and negative) to bolster the community around the reviews.
22. Offer deals, specials and other incentives to Facebook fans. Another coffee shop/restaurant,
the Dessert Gallery in Houston, has some great, proven results in this case study on how valuable
their Facebook fans are to their establishment
23. If your organization relies at all on any "how-to" information, create and host videos to share
with fans. Sainsbury's uses their kitchen facilities to shoot video of things that they'd be doing any-
way (testing recipes and preparing deli food) that fans will also find interesting.
top 23 ieas
7 effective Facebook pages YOU can create
www.marketingsavant.com
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Dana VanDen Heuvel and The MarketingSavant Group
Marketing Consultancy :: The MarketingSavant Group
Are You Looking for a Marketing Firm You Can Trust? One Who Really Gets It?
Not only does Dana VanDen Heuvel and his company, The MarketingSavant Group, have more than
15 years of internet marketing experience, he's been an entrepreneur and business owner since he
started his first business at age 13. As a marketing trainer, Dana has helped hundreds of market-
ers with their internet, thought leadership and social media marketing challenges.
Marketing consultants are everywhere. Whether you're looking for help now, or just want to bat
around a few ideas, why not trust someone who's taught hundreds about the latest marketing
techniques, spoken at dozens of conferences, and helped businesses just like yours achieve suc-
cess through marketing.
With The MarketingSavant Group, you'll never encounter freshly minted MBA's who've never seen
the inside of a boardroom or an inexperienced account manager or a poorly written strategy. When
you work with us, you get our best and brightest talent every time, all the time.

ing to interactive marketing. I turn to him not only for consulta-
tion on my own projects and challenges, but also to help enrich
AMA member benets by providing information and insights to
our membership. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend him or work
with him again!”
- Amy (Komenda) Zelenka, Marketing Manager, American
Marketing Association
7 effective Facebook pages YOU can create
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