You might need help with your Facebook page if . . .

Posted on | January 2, 2013 | No Comments

Patriotic bullfighter

I do some work for a friend/colleague who has a communications consulting practice not unlike my own.

One of the more interesting clients I’ve assisted him with recently is a local gent who is a bullfighter (they used to be called rodeo clowns) named Lance Brittan. He once won a world championship. He is a great guy with a great story, a lovely family, beautiful wife and two darling daughters. An all American type of thing.

He does the bullfighter gig part time, and is well liked; but he frankly is looking at the latter part of his career, and he has done little to capitalize on his expertise and relative fame in his particular profession. We’ve been able to start and grow a nice Facebook presence for him, and are actively seeking opportunities to find him sponsors and other opportunities.

With the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo coming up in Denver, we’ve been looking at how we might help him leverage that and his participation to his advantage. I noticed that a fellow bullfighter, Flint Rasmussen, is actually given top billing (or at least co-star status with the bulls and riders) for some of the bull riding events this year, and wondered about how that came about. My friend/colleague thought it was that this gent had maybe been at it longer, or was older, or did it more as more of a full-time profession.

Turns out he has a similar story – lifelong cowboy, breeds horses professionally, has a nice family, pretty wife, darling daughters. He has a strong resume of awards and titles as a bullfighter. He has nearly 13,000 fans/likes on Facebook. But when I visited his Facebook page, some issues were immediately obvious.

First, he has no cover photo – which is a great, and much under-utilized, but very basic piece of real estate. Especially for as dramatic an activity as bullfighting is, that is a huge missed opportunity to post an eye-catching photo and revolve through a number of different images as days/weeks go by.

Second, he has posted mostly text updates – when tons of research shows that graphic, visual posts – photos, videos, links – are what catches eyes and leads to engagement.

And speaking of engagement – he had lots, but much of it is not good. He has posted a number of comments where, while it seems his heart is in the right place, in execution comes across as clumsy, judgmental, ill-informed, or worse.

One of the more recent posts was: “As I was sitting at the kitchen counter this morning as my kids ate breakfast, asking them how they were feeling and what their day had in store, I had a thought…maybe school breakfast should only be offered to those who truly need it. School programs have provided some good things, but they have also enabled parents to not truly be involved in their kids lives. After so many tragedies, the parents “had no idea.” We should raise our children, not the school….Stay involved!”

At a basic level, sure, stay involved. Eat meals with your kids. Ask them questions. Listen to their answers. BUT when he throws in the ditty about only offering school breakfast to “those who truly need it” and that it has “enabled parents to not truly be involved in their kids lives” he charges like a bull into a china shop; and the responses are as polarizing as you might expect.

Where to begin? Does he really think that parents are lazy, neglectful moochers who send their kids to get a breakfast they don’t really need as a way to shirk the responsibility of interacting with and raising their kids? Does he really not think that parents would rather feed their own kids and eat with them and be more involved with them? Does he not understand the challenges faced by parents today to raise kids and work a job – or multiple jobs? It smacks of a holier-than-thou attitude likely to upset and alienate a significant segment of his fans.

After the mess that post made with a long string of comments, he was unrepentant, following up with: “And arguments with my previous post have shown what we have become. I believe I stated that programs have provided some good things. I also stated that it is good to talk and have a meal with your kids. You can NOT argue with that! I judged nobody, so don’t judge me either. Some unbelievable comments looking way deeper into this than I intended. Thanks for the eye-opener…”

Tone deaf. I’d love to see his page data and how many likes he lost through this little incident – not to mention how many folks don’t buy tickets to the next rodeo he appears at near them because he same across as a judgmental jerk.

As my friend noted: “. . . what a nightmare in terms of comments, another example of why people can’t manage their own page.”

I’m not convinced that people cannot and should not manage their own pages, but it never hurts to think before you post, and get feedback from others on what you are thinking about posting. And if you step in it, it never hurts to apologize, reel things in, or at least explain further for those who might have taken a post in a way you had not intended.

It might seem likely to be boring if all you ever post is positive, but social media – Facebook pages in particular – are not the places to be provocative (intentionally or unintentionally). Unless you’re Rush Limbaugh or Matt Drudge, it is a place to be authentic and share good news, inspirational material, bad news at times, and news/events.

I’m sure there are plenty out there, but I’ve begun drafting a Top X list of don’ts and dos for your Facebook page – I’ll look to flesh that out and post it here soon.

Meanwhile, if you have concerns about social media and your Facbook page, or anything related to public relations or marketing communications, drop me a line at brad@shannonmarcom.com or call me at 970-461-4906 or 970-420-8793 and I’d be happy to discuss it with you.

Brad

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