Beckhams Family ALS Ice Bucket Challenge!

When you start you own online store, it is almost inevitable that you will end up with a dedicated Facebook page. If you haven’t noticed anyone on Facebook attempting the Ice Bucket Challenge recently, you may need to take a long hard look at your friends list! Although this social media phenomenon was originally set up to raise money for various charities, its unstoppable spread across the Internet has a number of lessons that businesses should take on board when coming up with their own Facebook creative. You should remember that Facebook is still very much a ‘two way’ medium, and there is nothing worse than a page with 95% of the content from the owner.

Tips

1. Fans Should Engage And Get Other People Involved As Much As Possible.

Ice Bucket participants have been told to nominate other people to carry out the challenge, and this has helped the whole craze to perpetuate. To mimic this pattern, why not ask your Facebook fan base to nominate who they think would deserve one of your products - this could even be the basis of a reputation-building competition. With the correct tagging in place, your page will suddenly appear in a whole range of different news feeds.

Supadupa store Plum Lyon a cooking school, show a great example of engaging with their fan base by sharing delicious pastries made during class.

2. Forget About Dancing Cats, And Create Unique Material.

Encouraging people to induce near-hypothermia is really thinking outside of the box, and it goes to show that the most viral content will offer something that is truly different. If your online store provides a service like no other, you need to leverage this in your Facebook material - you should also never be afraid to start slightly controversial discussions. No matter what people may think, any activity will usually raise your online profile.

3. Encourage Users To Create Their Own Content And Share.

Video evidence of Ice Bucket tipping is a must for those taking part, and being able to upload movies also offers page owners an exciting contest opportunity. If you sell physical products, there is nothing to stop your happy customers recording a video review, and the bottom line is that any content on your page can be monitored and removed if necessary. If un-moderated user submissions send a chill down your spine, don’t forget that you can collect video media from fans in other ways and then use Facebook to showcase the best content.

Mission Bicycle get their fan base liking and sharing by posting an awesome video promoting their new bicycle Lumen, the world's first commercially available retro-reflective bike.