Why are Superbowl Commercials My Favorite Part of the Superbowl?

Well? Why ARE Superbowl ads so popular? Why is it the one day a year when people don't get up to go to the bathroom when the commercials come on? Because they're funny! And entertaining! And they don't take themselves seriously! Yes, companies spend lots of money on these particular commercials so they are definitely hoping to make some serious revenue off of them; but they also know that to be one of the best commercials of the day they have to make you laugh, be creative, think outside the box.

So what does this have to do with social media? Take your Facebook fan page for instance. If all you post are updates about what event is coming up or that they should visit you... your fans aren't going to respond very much. I take for example (and I apologize if you are the person running this, but if you are take this as constructive criticism!) the Facebook page of Connecticut Landmarks. They are such a cool organization with a bunch of amazing houses to talk about, but to me their posts are pretty boring and feels a bit like a sales pitch. Buy this, sign up for this, visit us... OK, we get it. I would love to see fun facts about their houses and the people that lived there and stories and quotes from visitors and staff and some contests. I've love to be able to make some sort of connection with the person behind their page.

Now on the flip side of that, there are some pages that use Facebook to its fullest potential. One of my favorites is the page of MASS MoCa. They do an amazing job of engaging their fans and having fun with it! They let their interns post as well as staff and they create a picture for fans of what it's like to be at the museum; to visit, to work and to intern. They do great trivia days where they get at least over 100 interactions (likes, comments, etc) and they pull in content that isn't necessarily directly related to the museum. One intern posted a link to a blog about cake wrecks. She was able to link it back to the museum by talking about food as art, and therefore got to show this super cool website about strange and funny cakes. I spend about 20 minutes browsing the pictures and every time I see it I'll remember that I saw it first on the MASS MoCa fan page.

And as for me, I just posted a story about how Conan O'Brien took out a Craiglist ad for his TV show on The Mark Twain House & Museum wall. Why you ask? Well you'd be right that other than the fact that Conan and Sam both told jokes, they don't have a lot in common. EXCEPT that I wrote a blog post a couple months ago asking if Mark Twain would have sold his family on Craigslist. So I linked the two.

So the moral of the story: HAVE FUN! Use your Facebook page to promote your organization, but also be aware that pages shouldn't be used solely for marketing purposes. Social media is supposed to be social! Give your fans a reason to interact and engage with you! Tell them your name, tell them a funny story that happened on a tour or at a staff meeting, paint a picture of what your organization is really like, don't be formal, don't take yourself too seriously and enjoy yourself! This is supposed to be fun!

Share with us! What are some of your favorite fan pages on Facebook? Any pages you're a fan of that you think could use some extra oomph? Let us know!

Get the Most out of Your Facebook Fan Page

Facebook fan pages can be tricky business; unless you're Coca-Cola or Adidas, you won't have 100,000 fans in a month. Fan pages take time to grow, time to build trust and time to try different approaches to find your niche. When you first start out, don't be discouraged when it takes a couple of months to get a hundred or a few hundred fans. Don't give up when you post something and no one comments on it. You may feel pretty alone for a while, but sooner or later someone will reply to something you post and you'll jump for joy!!... but make sure to respond to them! Very important to respond to everything someone posts on your wall. Social media is all about making a connection with your audience; they want to know that there is a person behind the Facebook page and that you're listening to what they're saying. A simple "thank you for your comment" will suffice. But if you can, try to engage them further. Ask a question, probe a little deeper and you just may be able to engage others. It's all about breaking the ice.

Try different posting techniques; news articles, event announcements, quotes, personal comments... you'll have to figure out what mix of post types will engage your audience the best. Listen to your fans to see what they want to see posted, even ask them directly. Try out the discussion boards, link a blog to the fan page, link your Twitter account, put a link to your website. Do everything possible to link all your marketing platforms together for maximum brand exposure. There are lots of applications you can add to your fan page in order to do this.

A fan page has the ability to spread your message faster and farther than you might believe. There are over 350 million users on Facebook, which provides your organization endless opportunities and with all of the fan pages, those 350 million users total 5.3 billion fans. If your organization can reach even the tiniest percentage of those fans, you'll see the difference a fan page can make.

Choosing your Social Media

A list recently got published with the names of 250 social media networks categorized by type and detailed with their Alexa rank (a number given based on how many visits the website has, the lower the number the most visits the site has had). 250 social media networks. That's just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many social media platforms out there that no one can really call themselves a social media expert; there's no such thing. No one can know about and be active on every social media site out there, there aren't enough hours in the day. This list tells me two things; one, that for someone who isn't entirely comfortable with social media, thinking about joining can be completely overwhelming; and two, that organizations should be very careful when choosing which social media networks to join.

On this list, under "Networking" there are 15 different sites. Facebook has an Alexa ranking of 2, while another site, ECpod has a ranking of 1,634,342. For a network like Twitter (categorized as a microblog) they are they only one in their category with an Alexa ranking under 15,000. Twitter is ranked 14, the next most visited is ranked 16, 349.

So as an organization looking to join social media, you should be thinking very carefully about which platforms to use. Think about how much time you want to spend on social media daily; how many sites do you want to update and maintain? We typically only work with a handful of platforms because they are the most frequented sites and will get you the most bang for your buck. Some sites out there are meant for niche markets; auto clubs, pet services, gaming, fashion etc and if you are an organization that has a niche market they may be right for you. The standard Facebook and Twitter, however, should be your first move before jumping into a site with fewer members and where there will be less interaction with your organization.

Our Official Welcome!

Welcome and thank you for your interest in Thayer Consulting, LLC! We are excited to be in business and we're looking forward to working with non-profits and small businesses throughout New England. We interested in helping organizations connect to the world through social media. We believe in what non-profits and small businesses have to offer and we want to help you share your mission with the world.

We know that times are tough and money is tight. We are happy to work within your budget to create social media platforms that will benefit your organization. We know that the power of social media can help successfully promote your organization's brand and mission while giving you the power to interact and engage with your supporters.

We hope you will visit our website for more information and up to date news articles about the power of social media, and contact us with questions.

We also hope you will continue to follow our blog for tips of the trade and to follow the progress of Thayer Consulting!

-Caitlin Thayer
Principal & CEO