The Top Facebook Marketing Tips from HITEC

I recently chaired a couple of social media panels at HITEC, the world’s largest technology show focused on the hospitality industry, and wanted to share some key learnings from top travel and hospitality brands.

First, Randi Zuckerberg, Facebook’s marketing director (and founder Mark Zuckerberg’s sister), opened with these Top Ten Tips for Marketing on Facebook:

Tip #10: Use crowdsourcing. Ask questions, encourage responses from your Facebook friends and fans.

Tip #9: Post engaging/creative content. Obvious, but overlooked by many businesses.

Tip #8: Connect socially via mobile. Says Zuckerberg, “We’re just on the tip of figuring this out.” As I’ve mentioned before, mobile is often social, too.

Tip #7: Use Facebook as a booking engine/for transactions. Get ready for F-commerce.

Tip #6: Embrace social and sustainable causes.

Tip #5: Stay timely and relevant. Again, obvious. But most people dip into social for a time. If it’s not relevant at the time they’re visiting, you’ve lost the customer.

Tip #4: Track keywords and analytics. Don’t just respond to brand terms, but also locations, etc. Again, as social and mobile merge, this will be more important.

Tip #3: Include & Feature your fans. Consumers like to feel involved. What better way than to feature them in your efforts? (With permission, of course).

Tip #2: Timely contest & promotions. See Tip #5 above.

Tip #1 Treat “fans” special. If your customers are helping tell your story, why not find ways to thank them?

Other interesting tidbits from the conference:

• The fastest growing demographic on Facebook is 50+. Social media’s not just for kids anymore.
• “Monitoring social is the canary in a coal mine. You can be the conduit to solving problems for customers.” This from @JetBlue, who really seems to get social media as a brand.
• The average person on Facebook has about 150 friends (i.e., Dunbar’s number). But, their influence among that group varies.

Are you getting enough value out of your small business website? Want to make sure your business makes the most of the local, mobile, social web? thinks helps you understand how to grow your business via the web, every day. Get more than just news. Get understanding. Add thinks to your feed reader today.

Or subscribe via email.

And while you’re at it, don’t forget to follow Tim on Twitter.

Tim Peter & Associates helps companies from startups to the Fortune 500 use the web to reach more customers, more effectively every day. Take a look and see how we can help you.

Technorati Tags:
E-commerce, e-commerce, E-commerce strategy, e-marketing, ecommerce, internet business, internet marketing, marketing, marketing best practices, online marketing, social commerce, strategy, Groupon, E-commerce, e-commerce, E-commerce strategy, e-marketing, ecommerce, F-commerce, Facebook, facebook, Facebook Insights, Groupon, internet business, internet marketing, marketing, marketing best practices, online marketing, social commerce, strategy