Yesterday, we discussed the Facebook Nine and looked at how they were doing with likes and engagement on Facebook. Today, we’ll look deeper into how one of the big guys out of these Facebook featured retailers is doing with the new update: Nike, which has a 1.55 engagement rate ( 8,884,875 likes / 137, 752 talking), which easily exceeds the hallowed 1% engagement rate most social media marketers like to shoot for, is doing OK, but like others on the list, not as well as it could be.
When we look closely at how Nike is marketing on Facebook, we see it’s not so much what they are doing, as much as what they aren’t. One of the main benefits to the new Facebook Pages update for businesses is that the Timeline allows a full embrace on the story behind the brand. While most companies started Facebook recently (2008. 2009, 2010, etc.), the new Timeline allows businesses to go back and fill in for decades of achievements, news, seminal moments, awards, high points, etc.
To date, it looks like Nike hasn’t done a thing with Timeline, except let their posts migrate over into the new Timeline, auto-filling back to 2008. Many Americans, especially runners, are familiar with Nike’s rich history and would most likely engage and reminisce if Nike started taking the Timeline update seriously.
Nike isn’t alone in not bothering with the Timeline, as other top retailers have just continued posting as usual. However, it is worth noting that Nike, and others on the Facebook Nine list are posting regularly on Facebook with engaging questions, non-profit affiliations, high resolution photos, video, and anything else that will engage “likers”.
Want a good example of how to really leverage Facebook’s new Timeline? Check out NYTimes’s Facebook Page; they’ve gone back and are filling in their entire history, effectively telling their rich story and reminding readers of all the news that really counted over the last century and a half.
At first glance bystanders might wonder who would ever care about looking through the years of a company’s past. But visit NYTimes’s FB Page, and you’ll see people liking and commenting on posts reflecting decades of old news. People do care, especially about your history, and they like to see that you care too. They want to know how you started. They want to know about your staff. They want to know what defines your core philosophy and how it relates to them. Use Timeline to share your story with them.
Not taking ownership of this Timeline story boarding opportunity is like losing a part of your company to the kind of blase consumers like to avoid–no one likes a steely corporate voice emitting mundane deal of the day specials–people need to feel the emotional connection of a story. That’s the power Timeline gives businesses.
