When we talk about Facebook pages, we talk about brands. Facebook now has over 1 billion active monthly users. That is a staggering amount of people who brands could potentially be actively connecting and sharing with.

Managing a Facebook brand page takes time and effort, and brands need to step up and ensure they are making the most of Facebook as a communication tool.

This also means brands cannot just ‘talk the talk’, they have to actually put efforts in when it comes to standing out amongst other brands.

How do you use Facebook page to connect with young people?

• By using lots of photos, which bring more attention and engagement than any other type of media on Facebook.
• Keep it personal by liking your fans comments and answering their questions and concerns individually. Also don’t forget to great them on national holidays/occasions.
• Keep it simple so don’t overwhelm your fans with too much complicated information.
• Ask your fans to recommend articles and topics that they would like you to write about.
• Educate them about your project/brand. – Publish popular news/studies in the media, but the ones related to your project/brand.

How frequently should you post things to the page?

Personally, I post things to the Facebook pages which I manage every day, considering the active hours which young people in Egypt spend on Facebook.

Advantages of using Facebook:

# Facebook is free and it’s one of the best tools for communication in Egypt and in most countries in the world.

# Facebook has good settings which gives you the option to target young people according to your wish.

# Your fans and other Fan Pages can tag our Facebook Page.

# Students in Egypt (and many other countries in the world) use Facebook for group study, what allows you to target them and share information about your project/brand.

# Facebook like button is connecting your users to your website and other social media platforms.

# Facebook is well designed! There is no fancy colour or design available which distracts people.

# Not too much of spamming because Facebook allows you to monitor and hid the post of the spammer or block them permanently.

# Facebook advertising is very helpful and very targeted which means that it is a successful marketing tools to promote your project/brand. # Facebook Pages give you the option to like other pages and showcase them on your page.

Disadvantages of using Facebook:

#. Facebook is Addicting! Young people in Egypt are too much addicted, which means that you have to monitor your FB page every now and then. (In other words: 24/7)

# People who like the page are able to post comments and links on it. Some of these comments may be not related ads, negative or abusive. (But you can monitor them)

# Maintaining a Facebook page can be time consuming, to keep adding original and engaging content.

Lately I have been facing a challenge with the page I mange, as Facebook has been repeatedly not allowing my page to make ads if the post include photos uploaded for mothers breastfeeding or Female reproductive system.

Facebook has been criticised in media for that, and there are many campaigns against that action. I had to contact FB many times to let them allow me to make ads for these posts, but I think this problem isn’t facing me only, it is a general problem which face many others.

Lessons learned from managing Facebook pages:

# Giving the Facebook page I manage a human touch was a source of attention and more engagements.

# Our content always educates, entertains and empowers our fans to keep them engaged and coming back for more.

# Facebook and other social media tools are about two-way dialogue, so I make sure to maintain that all the time by being engaged with our fans, like their comments and reply their questions, etc…

# I monitor, measure, and track the FB page all time to know which content got more attention and what didn’t get same attention.

Social media audience are attracted differently to Facebook than Twitter and Instagram, because they are different types of social media platforms. Facebook is far more visual than Twitter, The ability for members to tag people in photos and videos makes the huge Facebook audience seem more intimate — which is something Twitter lacks.

We notice that Twitter timelines move quickly, so it’s important to publish real-time news and information that is useful and interesting to your project/brand’s target audience.

On the other side, Instagram is a mobile photo-sharing app, but it is also a social network. It’s like Twitter with followers, only instead of real-time text updates, you provide photo/video updates. It is also useful because when it’s hard to communicate in words, sometimes photos make the task easier, especially when you’re bumping up against Twitter character limitations. As I mentioned before photos bring more attention and engagement than any other type of media.

BUT, If you wish to ask me which platform is best? The correct answer will be ALL.

However, in some projects which I worked on, I selected Facebook then Twitter to start with because young people in Egypt spends the most time on them, and I wanted to build a network before using any other social media platform.

Egypt has the largest number of Facebook users in the Arab world!

With 16 million users, Egypt is ranked first among the Arab region countries that use Facebook, and 17th worldwide in terms of audience size, according to the eMarketing Egypt Online Competitiveness Intelligence report.

This represents 1.4% of global Facebook users. According to the report, Egypt’s Facebook community witnessed about 41% growth compared to last year, the number of users in 21 July 2012 being 11.3 million. This means that the current number of users is 18.84% of Egypt’s population.

As of 21 July 2013, there are 61 million Facebook users in the Arab world, 26% of whom are Egyptian. The report read: “48.11% of internet users in Egypt are Facebook users.” The report, published in August 2013, also stated that 12 million of Egyptian Facebook users are below 30 years-old.

The gender distribution Facebook users in Egypt has showed that female users are of much younger ages, with females under 30 years-old representing 81% of total female users in Egypt. The number of male users is about 10 million, representing about 63% of total users.

Lately I have been asked to answer this question:

Will Facebook be still the most popular and will continue to remain the most popular in the future?

Talking about the future I wish I know. I actually thought this question is for Mark Zuckerberg not for me 😉

I believe that we deal with what is popular now!!

Surprising new studies on social media platforms are in the news every now and then: Twitter overtakes Facebook as the most popular social network for teens, according to study | Mail Online http://dailym.ai/1hqrEij

I’m also sure things change, there is always competition between the social media platforms and there are always new updates. In the end, brands need to be always ready to adapt to the changes.