It’s been one week since I launched a social media initiative for my employer, and I think the results have been good thus far.

Specifically, I’m very pleased with the rate in which we have increased the fan base on the Facebook page. In less than one week almost 4,000 people have become a fan – and that’s fantastic.

There’s another credit union of equal size that I was using as somewhat of a baseline prior to the launch, but we surpassed their 898 fans in about 12 hours. I don’t know this for a fact, but we may have one of the largest credit union fan bases on Facebook.

How do you get the fans?

That question should be answered when you develop your social media strategy. There are a number of different answers, but you need to determine what works best for you. (For example, will the Facebook page be promoted on your homepage? What will the content be?)

What do you post on Facebook?

Relevant content that you think your audience will appreciate is a good start. The fact that people have chosen to be your fan is an honor, always keep that in mind and provide compelling content that adds value.

But then, I’m also a fan of mixing it up. For example, last night prior to the Super Bowl I did a post asking fans who they thought would win the game. The question quickly generated a series of comments and allowed for interaction amongst fans.

I have a lot of additional Facebook/Twitter info to share, but I’ll do that in subsequent posts.

I have a long time friend that lives in Charlotte, NC, and we don’t talk nearly as much as we’d both probably like. She recently had a baby, which has understandably taken up a significant amount of her time, and we haven’t talked in seven or eight months.

She sent me an email late last week to figure out a time we could chat, and given that I’m pretty busy during the day, and she’s busy with the baby at night, our schedules don’t exactly sync up. After I told her I couldn’t talk (on the phone) until around 9 pm that night she sent me the follow email.

“9pm? Seriously?  Do you ever sleep?!?!  From my social media (Twitter/FB) stalking, here’s what I know about you right now…

1. You’re trying to eat healthier (no fries…how in the world do you do that?)
2. You’re skating again
3. You had some big shindig with Kay Hagan yesterday (do tell…)
4. You still do HOA stuff **I think**
5. You’re the busiest person I know

Are you a glutton for punishment or do you just love bouncing around like a ping pong ball all of the time?  Do you ever just sit on the couch and watch TV or nap?”

This works in reverse as well. Through Facebook I’ve been kept up-to-date with things going on in her life, and I also know that the new baby hasn’t stopped her from shopping more than she probably should. After reading the email I couldn’t help but laugh a bit and appreciate the reach of social media.

The awareness that Facebook (and other social tools) can create is very important for businesses to remember. While your friends/fans might not comment (friend above hardly ever leaves me a comment) on everything you post, it’s likely they are seeing the information you’re putting out there.

If you receive email alerts when someone comments on your Facebook profile, or responds to a comment you’ve left, you may have noticed a new feature?

Facebook now gives you the chance to respond to comments straight from email. All you have to do is hit reply, type your comment and hit send.

I’m not sure if they are doing a beta test or not, but if you don’t see the feature just yet, you should in the near future.

Yesterday I talked about how a media outlet took action to implement social media suggestions, but today I’d like to talk about the exact opposite.

My hometown paper, the News & Record, doesn’t seem to be as keen to change. And to be clear, I know lots of great people that work for the paper and think they do good work (most of the time).

For this post I’ll stick to their activity on Facebook (their reporters are active on Twitter and do a good job with that) and how they are using the network.

Click to enlarge.

On the News & Record home page you’ll occasionally see a blue banner (highlighted in the photo above) that tells readers to “Join News-Record.com on Facebook Now and Stay Up-To-Date on the Latest News and Headlines.”

Out of curiosity I’ve monitored their page during the last month; during that time their fan base has grown by around 150 people (totaling 889 as of this writing) – not exactly huge growth.

Click to enlarge.

Their Facebook page can be seen above, and if you are an avid reader of this blog you’ll immediately notice two things:

• The landing page could use some work
• The updates are simply a push of news, which provides no added value

I’ve casually talked with a few folks at the paper about their Facebook content and tossed out some ideas, but I’ve not seen any implemented thus far. Here are a few:

• Publish parts of stories that didn’t make the cut. There’s bound to be interesting parts of various stories that didn’t make print due to space limitations.
• Have photographers (they have several very talented folks on staff) post shots that didn’t make the story. When I suggested this I received the response of, “We already do that online.” My response was, “Yeah, but people on Facebook don’t know that. You should post a few photos each day along with a link to the full photo gallery on your site. That will drive traffic.”
• Use the space to poll readers about various local topics and ask for story ideas.

I’m sure lots of other ideas could be thought of as well, but I surely hope they make a change at some point – for their own good. The lack of fan growth over the past month is proof that something isn’t working.

As more people move to online sources for news, it’s important that print publications have a clear understanding of how to drive traffic to their site and engage readers in the social space – and I say that as a reader and an advertiser.

PS – Like my ideas or not, using social media to simply push is not a best practice – and down right dull.

This is a follow up post to my previous post about the newspaper industry.

After reading this, and receiving the comment below on Twitter on Monday, I’m more convinced that newspapers need to do something – now.

By the way, if you are on twitter follow me @ryanshell.com. And if you are on facebook you can track me down at www.ImOnFacebook.com. Yes, I know that I am a complete nerd for buying that domain name… and I’m okay with that.