The Situation:

The planning committee for the 2010 Congressional Medal of Honor Convention came to us because they wanted to get involved in social media to spark interest and ultimately fundraise for the convention. We wanted to help them create a Facebook page with engaging content and a simple way for fans to make donations. The launch of the campaign happened to fall in sync with two major military days: the Marine Corps birthday (Nov. 10), and Veterans Day (Nov. 11). Using these events to help drive momentum, we began our outreach.

Page Design and Content:

When building a Facebook page, there are two main questions you should address: What does our audience want to know, and what do we want them to do? A strong call to action is probably a given, but making sure you have content that your fans want to engage with is just as essential in the social media space. Our first step was to create tabs within the page that addressed both of those questions. What does our audience want to know? Information about the Medal of Honor itself, the convention and people who have received the medal. What do we want them to do? Donate to the Medal of Honor convention. 

After you've laid the foundation, now what? "Now what?" is where a lot of brands seem to struggle with Facebook - they create a page and then leave it stagnant. We've got two great solutions for having new, quality content to share with your fans - current events and recycled content. Watch the headlines that pertain to your industry and share articles that are interesting and informative. Set up Google Alerts for keywords that pertain to your industry so you're always in the know. In addition to news, share media you've already created for other purposes - whitepapers, powerpoints, blog entries, etc - and translate it to a way that works for Facebook. Recycling content has been our best source of content for the Medal of Honor Convention's page - using existing facts and citations of Medal recipients, we've got daily content to last until well after the actual Convention. 

Attracting Fans: 

Now that you've got an attractive page with a content plan, how do you get people to show up? 

1) Reach out to related groups and pages: No matter what your niche, there are sure to be groups, pages and events already on Facebook that fall within the same area as your brand. Join up with these, start interesting conversations and give members a reason to check out YOUR page.

2) Create a targeted Facebook advertisement: Facebook's advertisements are highly targeted and relatively affordable - you can spend as little as $1 a day if you want. We took advantage of a new feature that we like to think of as "peer pressure targeting" - if you see your friends have become a fan of a page, you might want to, too. 

3) Distribute a targeted e-mail directing recipients to fan the Facebook page: In our case, we sent out an e-mail blast to the South Carolina State Guard - people who fell within two of our targets (South Carolina residents and people with military interests). You have a contact database of people who are invested with your brand, don't you?

4) Encourage fans to share the page: Facebook makes sharing content so easy, and simply empowering your fans to share your story can mean the difference between 500 fans and 1,500. We sent out a notification to all fans with instructions about how to share the page with their own networks - and they did.

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