Understanding Facebook Status Updates
Because there are just too many social network terms out there, let’s start this article by distinguishing early on what a Facebook status actually is. A Facebook status is a post that appears for your contacts to read. Whereas before, Facebook statuses were immediately broadcasted for everyone, now there are plenty of privacy settings to protect the person by letting him choose who can actually read his message. He can block some contacts if he wants to.
One can also interact through Facebook statuses. Friends and other contacts are allowed to comment on the Facebook status or simply Like the status. Recently, Facebook has added a tagging feature to Facebook statuses. Put @ in the beginning and you are allowed to tag as many as 6 people in a post. Friends and contacts that are tagged will be notified in the same way that they are also notified when somebody else or the status owner has replied a status he commented on.
How are Facebook statuses important for professionals, you may ask? Well, Facebook statuses are what many consider as the very essence of Facebook. Here, customers, potential customers and other interested parties can interact on a particular piece of information in a casual manner that is way more convenient and conversational than email or even Twitter actually will. With Facebook statuses also, almost everyone can join in the conversation (that is if you want them to) which makes for a casual promotion of your product, service or company. The Facebook status is a powerful device. The number of Likes and comments for ever Facebook status will help your page skyrocket in its search engine position.
Facebook statuses also help the company with their branding efforts. That is why, the company Page moderator must be very careful in keeping Facebook statuses enthusiastic but professional at the same time. While it is tempting to place something instantly catching, hilarious or even shocking, you need to ask yourself first whether this will help the company’s reputation in the long run or will it just be victim to temporary entertainment?
It is important to optimize Facebook statuses in order to make it more searchable for potential customers. A good feature to use is Facebook status tagging. What makes this so advantageous for companies is that when you tag affiliated companies in the post, it will also appear in their page. And therefore expose your company to customers who may be looking at a related site. You can also do these with community pages. When you tag a community page, you will gain access to millions of potential customers who may have the same interests as your company.
While it is important to organize your Facebook status updates, it isn’t recommended that you leave all the work to organizing sites like Hootsuite. Checking through a Profile or Fan Page that are dominated by RSS Feeds is a turnoff for most potential customers. Clients want to feel like they’re interacting with a real person in the company, so be mindful of interaction. They are the start and end to Facebook statuses.
Tags: Facebook, Facebook status, Facebook updates, online promotion, social networking
