General thoughts

A few Facebook fan pages stand out as good potential models for the BYU Speeches Facebook fan page:

Simple and elegant:

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Strong branding throughout:

The Economist

Reader interaction prompting a loyal following:

BYU Alumni

Careful selection of Facebook applications:

BYU Museum of Art

See below for recommendations of specific elements to include on the Speeches page. Incorporating all the suggestions below of course would be too time consuming, particularly in terms of maintenance, and make the page cluttered. But from among them perhaps there are a few that seem best.

Name

This is the title of the fan page, which will be displayed on the top of the page and appear in search results.

To have brand continuity we should give the Facebook fan page the same name as our official Web site: Speeches (verses "Devotional Speeches," "Devotional and Forums," etc.).

In regard to attaching the name of the university to it, there are two options:

BYU Speeches

Brigham Young University Speeches

Some BYU entities that have used the full "Brigham Young University" in the official name of their page do not show up in Facebook search results if "BYU" is typed in instead. (Try searching for "BYU Alumni" or "BYU Museum of Art"—their official pages will not show up in search results, and in fact searching for "BYU Alumni" brings up only related and unofficial pages. The only way to locate the pages for these two entities is by typing out the full name "Brigham Young University Museum of Art" or "Brigham Young University Alumni.")

I recommend we forego this confusion by titling the page simply "BYU Speeches."

Username

Facebook allows the URLs of fan pages to be personalized, meaning that instead of the URL consisting of random characters, it can reflect the name of the fan page.

Other BYU-related fan pages have used this feature:

http://www.facebook.com/byualumni
http://www.facebook.com/BYUmoa
http://www.facebook.com/byumagazine

This could be applied to the Speeches fan page:

http://www.facebook.com/byuspeeches

Note: This can only be done once and can never be changed or transferred in the future to a different Facebook page.

Left panel: Profile photo

Below are four profile photo concepts: brand emphasis, products, talking heads, the experience. A profile photo can be rotated and updated at will. (Note: We don’t have the rights to all of these images—they are just conceptual models.)

Brand Emphasis
This one is more of a concept: we could design something similar using the words BYU Speeches, if we don’t already have something like that.

Products

Talking Heads

The Experience

Left panel: Welcome

A small box beneath the profile photo could contain a welcome message for visitors.

Possible text:

Welcome to the BYU Speeches Facebook fan page, where you can keep up on the latest news and offerings from BYU Speeches, discover new and classic talks, and discuss your favorites with other BYU Speeches fans.

Left panel: Upcoming schedule

This could either be a list of upcoming BYU Speeches events as derived from the events tab or a graphic that links to a list of upcoming Speeches that we maintain either on the Speeches site). BYU Broadcasting's Facebook Page maintains both, but one or the other would probably suffice.

One thing to note is that BYU policy does not allow us to release the names of General Authority speakers until five days before the speech.

Left panel: Become a fan

We could create our own version of this widget used by the New York Times Facebook page and feature it prominently on our page and the Speeches site.

Left panel: RSS

Social RSS is a third-party Facebook application that allows you to display several feeds on your Facebook page. We could feature the Speeches syndicated feeds here. At left is an example from the BYU Broadcasting Facebook Page.

Left panel: Product plugs / current product cover

Product Plugs

Here is an example on Newsweek’s Facebook page:

We could do something similar by slightly redesigning the promotions that run on the Speeches site (see two examples below) to fit the Facebook template, post each as it applies, and link it directly to the purchase page on the Speeches site:

Current Cover

Another similar option is to feature the latest BYU Speeches of the Year book, or other currently offered products as The Economist Facebook page has done.

Think of something in this format...

Featuring images like these:

Left panel: Quote of the Week

We could develop a Facebook application similar to this Daily Bible Verse application that displays a new Speeches quote every week and links directly the the source of the quote on the Speeches site. This could be displayed on the Speeches site and Facebook users could install it on their own pages that links directly to speeches.byu.edu.

A simpler option (and probably the recommended one) is to display a new quote/source link each week but not turn it into an application that others could use on their pages.

Tabs: Wall

The wall will be the most interesting part of the Speeches Facebook fan page! The most important posts generated by the Speeches team should look something like this (from the Church's Facebook page):

And should include product promotions like this (from Deseret Book's Facebook page):

And possibly coupons/discounts like this (also from Deseret Book's page):

It can also include things like:

• Announcements of speech transcripts/mp3s being posted
• Links to talks that are applicable to current news items and issues: In April or October—“How to prepare for General Conference," at the beginning of a new semester—"How to prioritize," on Valentine's Day—"The best of BYU Speeches dating and marriage advice," at graduation—"Roundup of most popular commencement talks," etc.
• Promotion of interesting things being said: "President Samuelson talks about the first time he got a direct instruction from a prophet—and flubbed it up"
• Interesting teasers, hooks, and questions (see the BYU Alumni Facebook page for great examples)
  
• Mentions of BYU Speeches coverage in news media (Deseret News coverage of a speech, etc.)
• Tabulations of most popular/most downloaded speeches
• Nods to bloggers who talk about attending/reading a BYU devotional
• A poll to determine the subject of future Speeches compilations
  
• Reminders of Speeches services (iTunes podcasts, RSS feeds, etc.)

While it's probably best to allow fans to comment on items posted on the wall, one thing we need to decide is whether or not to let them generate those posts. See KSL NewsRadio's page for an example of a page that does not allow fans to generate wall posts. See Doug Wright's page for an example of a page that allows anyone to generate them.

Tabs: Photos

We could include shots of covers of our products, speaker head shots, shots of the Marriott Center during a devotional, and even photos of people using Speeches products—streaming on a computer, listening on an iPod, teaching a lesson using a PDF printout of talk, reading a transcript, etc.

This feature is less vital because the strength of our product is its text and audio, not its visual images, so there may not even be a need to include additional photos.

For another example of what we could include here, see how Newsweek's Facebook page features its covers:

Tabs: Info

This section would be pretty straightforward, listing such things as:

• Purpose of BYU Speeches
• Contact information
• Hours of operation
• How to order products
• Where to locate RSS feeds/iTunes podcast subscription information

Tabs: Products

Here's an example of how we could feature Speeches products from Avon's Facebook page:

In a similar manner, this tab could feature the products currently being offered on the Speeches Web site, each with a link directly to the site's purchasing page.

An additional possibility is to promote specific volumes by highlighting passages that would be be particularly interesting to potential buyers.

Tabs: Events

The events tab could include the profile shots of upcoming speakers alongside the biographical text that appears in the Daily Universe devotional and forum announcements.

Below is an example from the Harold B. Lee Library's events tab:

Intriguing—but probably infeasible—additional features

Search from Within
Harold B. Lee Library Facebook page
The Economist Facebook page

Listen from Within
Mormon Channel Facebook page

Looking forward

1. Integration with a Speeches YouTube channel
National Geographic's Facebook page has a simple, streamlined videos tab as well as a YouTube Box. Readers Digest's YouTube tab is another good example. A small box of recently posted videos can also appear in the left panel—see NPR's Weekend Edition page for a good example.

2. Integration with a Speeches blog
Facebook applications such as Social RSS allow blog posts to automatically appear on the Facebook fan page wall the instant they hit the blogosphere.