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Do you remember Abraham Maslow and his theory of the hierarchy of needs?  I don’t remember much from anything other than music classes in high school since I went to public schools in Nashville, Tennessee, where higher philosophy was somewhere between whether Lynyrd Skynyrd was superior to the Average White Band or whether it was all right for a girl to call a guy in the ninth grade, but I remember Maslow’s triangle.

It’s easy. Basically it says that our more sophisticated needs, like being understood and appreciated, don’t rank very high when we haven’t had anything to eat for a while and are looking at sleeping on a park bench instead of a cushy bed. This has a direct application to the mother-of-all-social-apps right now, Facebook. Facebook is where it’s all happening. All of it. And it is the basis, the bottom, the support, of your social hierarchy of needs. You really can’t move on to anything more sophisticated and targeted until you get Facebook right.

Here’s why Facebook is where it’s all happening:

• Facebook has more than 500 million users worldwide
• 50% of them log on to Facebook in any given day
• The average user has 130 friends
• There are more than 700 billion minutes per month spent on Facebook

If you’re selling a consumer product, ignoring Facebook is like deciding it’s just better to set up a popsicle stand on your corner instead of getting your popsicles sold in Walmart.  That’s not smart.  If you’re in tourism, ignoring Facebook, is like saying, “ya’ll go on out west for your vacation this year.  I’m a little too busy to talk to you.”  That’s not smart either.

Facebook is your best chance to talk to people who want to have a conversation with and are willing to tell you almost intimate details of their life.  Sorta like sitting in their therapist’s office with them.  A little TMI?  Sometimes, but I promise you, Michigan is listening.

When you get serious about Facebook, consider these things:

• People want to be heard.  That’s the basic premise of all social (IMHO).
• It’s about conversation - not marketing.  Talk to people for love’s sake.  Answer their questions.  Ask them questions.  Dialogue.  Not monologue.  The most important thing on your Facebook fan page is the conversations you have with your fans.  Talk to them every day.  Every day.
• It’s about the people who are following the people who are following you.  With an average of 130 friends per user, if you have 10,000 fans you’re actually reaching 1.3 million people.
• It’s also about brand.  Make sure your branding on Facebook is consistent with your branding on your website.  And don’t change it!  People need to know they’re at the right place, and your profile picture will reassure them of that.
• People are visual - so use visuals.  Pictures are important.  Use them often in your conversations.  Ask people to share their pictures in response to yours.
• Use the custom tabs to promote things like vacation guides, contests and e-mail sign-ups.
• Be respectful, relevant and useful to the audience you serve.  That’s the social media ethic.  Don’t just market to them - they’ll see through that.  Talk to them, and help them solve their problems.
• Get your followers to help each other by re-posting their questions.  I promise people will share their favorite places to eat, sleep and play with each other.
• Maximizing Facebook is the most important thing you can do.  Don’t move on to Flickr, YouTube, Twitter or FourSquare until your Facebook fan page is the best it can be.

I’m working on being less bossy with my therapist, but this is my column, so I think you’re going to have to cut me some slack for a bit while I learn this lesson.  Better yet, you could be my friend on Facebook and help me self-actualize.  Thank you, Abraham.

Facebook.com/hannahparamore

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