A 4-Part Guide to Using Facebook & Twitter - Part 3: Facebook and a month in the life of a part-time community manager

This is a 4-part guide to using Facebook and Twitter for those already running their own online communities on their own sites.

In Part 1 of this guide to using Facebook and Twitter I explained that you should get into the social media scene and have a look around to find out where you need to be, and how information you share can shape your audience's perception of you.  Click here to view Part 1: Getting into the social media scene.

In Part 2 we discussed your online presence, information overload, and the types of information that I share on Facebook and Twitter. Click here to view Part 2: Your online presence and information overload.

Part 3: Facebook and a month in the life of a part-time community manager

So now that we’ve discussed immersing yourself in the social media scene and how the types of information you share will define your online presence, let’s move into the finer detail.Here’s a detailed breakdown about where I’m at right now with Facebook and how I use the features to balance my routine as a community manager working 2 days a week on one community. These details are for a basic-level Profile and don’t take into consideration the many ways that you could use Facebook for marketing campaigns, fundraising etc. Let’s get started:

• I run a Profile page and a Fan page. In order to have a Fan page, you must first have a Profile. The benefit of having a Fan page is that people who are not members of Facebook can still view your page and the information and discussions which are happening there. Profiles are not so easy to view from a logged-out perspective, and you must use your Privacy Settings to determine how much information is displayed, but even if you’ve got all the options ticked to “display”, it’s still a limited view when someone is not logged in and views your Profile page.
• I only log into Facebook during the week. Some community managers may disagree but I think it’s important to give people space to live their lives. By now, my contacts know that I’m not around at the weekends. But on Monday mornings I’m there with them - ready to share and learn with them. I don’t want them to think I’m around 24/7 because I’m not. We all have lives outside of work, and I don’t want to clutter people’s weekend-Facebook-space. You may need a 24/7 online presence for your audience and if this is the case I suggest that you share this task with a colleague so that you too can switch off.
• As for what types of information I post, please visit the section called “What kind of information I post on both Facebook and Twitter” in Part 2 for a breakdown of how I want to be seen by my contacts and what information I share .
• When I log into Facebook I spend about 30 minutes going through my Live Feed reading people’s posts. I skip over all those surveys and trendy things people do – there’s nothing for me to learn from those items. I exercise a healthy mixture of clicking the “Like” button and posting actual, real comments. I press the “Like” button far less than commenting. People notice your activity, and if someone noticed that I always (and only) click “Like” they may think I’m not really reading things people are posting.  My comments aren’t always long and detailed either – just a “that’s wonderful I’m glad to hear it”, “I hope you feel better soon!” or even a simple smiley face can say a whole lot and lets people know that you’re really listening to them. It also offers me a chance to express my personality in a more informal way (remember that in Part 2 I said that I rarely use my status updates to post personal information about myself).  In 30 minutes I can’t possibly read every post that happened since the last time I logged in. In fact so much is happening with my contacts that 30 minutes takes me back in time by about 1 or 1.5 hours. In other words, I never see everything that everyone says. When I had fewer contacts this was possible but now that I’ve got more than a thousand, I simply do all that I can in 30 minutes (it would probably take me a few hours to read everything).  If your audience is such that you need someone to be ‘listening’ and watching for potential opportunities – sales or customer satisfaction for example – then once again, you’ll need to work out a schedule with colleagues so that you can be aware of everything that everyone is saying, at all times).
• Two days a week I spend as much time as I can beyond 30 minutes – hopefully several hours on each day. I hang out on Facebook and I look at photos, read people’s blogs, comment and discuss things. This quality interaction is the most important piece of work that I do. When I have a busy week and can’t do this, I think it’s detrimental to the relationships I’m building. 
• I do not have an arsenal of responses ready to copy and paste in order to give the appearance of fresh, personalised responses.
• I say hello to all of my new friends. They often have questions about who I am and I answer them every time.
• I say Happy Birthday to everyone. On the Home page of Facebook you can see a list of people with birthdays. I say happy birthday to all of them, and I never copy and paste the same message. I give each one a personalised message, including my name and the web address of my community. On Friday afternoon I say happy birthday to all the Saturday and Sunday birthdays, letting them know that I won’t be online over the weekend and so I had to message them in advance. I get lots of positive feedback about this – people really appreciate it! ...And it only takes a few minutes. One day if my Facebook friends quadruple in size I may not be able to do this, but for now it works well for me.
• Sometimes people ask me to use the “Suggest” feature to get my contacts to become fans of their own Fan page. I always review the page to make sure it’s something I’m comfortable with supporting, and if I’m OK with it then I’m happy to suggest the page to my contacts. I ask the same thing in exchange, and this becomes an instance where two different people have gained something by helping each other.
• Likewise, when people ask me to post a link to their own website, blog, event or service – I review the information and if I’m comfortable with it then I will post it for them. 
• I never join Groups indiscriminately, just because I’ve been invited to join. I approve requests to join only those Groups which make sense for me to join. Remember that all of your contacts can see the Groups you join, and so this very simple action can say a lot about you.  The same goes for becoming a “fan” of a page.
• I don’t accept Gifts, Badges or any things like that. I don’t play games such as Farmville either. There is much that Facebook offers to encourage interaction but these things don’t provide me with the type of interaction I’m looking for right now. I’m flexible about this for the future though, and will participate if ever it seems right for me.
• I don’t use Facebook Chat. This is a time issue for me, as I’m simply not able to spend much time working in my community to start with and therefore I must be careful how and where I spend my time. Chat is wonderful for building relationships but before you know it, your afternoon is gone.

Yes, it’s a lot of information and I’ve only just touched the surface. I haven’t even gone into the hard work of making friends on Facebook and the endless hours that I spend trying to find like-minded people and interact with them. And there’s lots that I would love to do but simply don’t have time on the budget I work with. It’s all about doing what’s right for you within the time that you’ve got.

See you in Part 4 – Twitter and a month in the life of a part-time community manager.