Internet Marketing Blog

In a previous post, How To: Create a Facebook Fan Page, I took you through the Fan page creation process.  If you decided to create one you’re probably asking yourself, "Ok, I have this fan page set up, now what do I do with it?"  Well it’s going to take some effort on your part to get the ball rolling, unless you happen to be a well known brand of course.  As much as we all would love to have instant fans in the thousands, in this land of information overload, we are but a small glimmer in front of a big glowing sun.

So before you start inviting or suggesting your Fan Page to your Facebook and business connections, use the following methods to get the biggest bang out your invite.  People will be more likely to join your page if they see there’s an effort being made to stimulate their interest.

1. As I’m sure you’ve heard before "content is king", especially relevant and engaging content.  One of the fastest and easiest ways of producing content for your Fan Page is to feed your company blog to it.  Of course, this will only work if you’re company is posting to the blog at least 2 to 3 times a week, though more would be best.  Your posts should be informative, helpful, conversational, and don’t forget to bring a little of your company’s personality into the mix!

   There are different methods of connecting your blog to the Fan Page.  It can be as simple as setting up your Fan Page Notes to Import your Blog, or you can use a 3rd Party RSS application.  We use NetworkedBlogs to feed our blog which is much more robust than the Notes option.  It’s also a great way to find your Facebook friends’ blogs, if they have it registered on NetworkedBlogs, as well as subscribe to some of your favorite bloggers.

2. Create a "Landing Page" tab that will encourage people to join your Fan Page as well as give them a "Call to Action".  The CTA should be something easy and non-intrusive.  We use the Static FBML application to create custom Landing Page Tabs, it adds a box to your Page in which you can render HTML or FBML (Facebook Markup Language) for enhanced Page customization.

3. Upload Images or Videos of your product(s) or service.  If you are uploading videos, make sure they are short and to the point.  The YouTube Box application is an excellent tool to publish and manage your videos from your YouTube profile if you already have one or are planning on creating one.

4. Place a Fan Page Badge on your company website and/or blog.  Let your current visitors know that they can now interact with you via Facebook.

5. Keep your fans engaged!  They joined your page because they found it interesting, make sure they stay interested.  Update your page with new content as often as you can and then let them know about it.  Use the Insights tool to keep track of what works and what doesn’t and then adjust as best as your company can.

I hope you find this post helpful in getting your Fan Page started and on the road to great success.  As long as you’re providing quality information you will begin to see an increase in your fan numbers.  Just make sure that if a Fan posts a question or comment on your Wall or Discussion board you or someone at your company responds in a timely manner.  After all that is why we’re doing this in the first place

Please feel free to share your experiences in the comment section below or if you have a suggestion to add to the list, I’d love to hear it!

Tags: facebook applications, facebook fan page, group, profile, social media, social networking

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 14th, 2010 at 6:30 am and is filed under Social Media Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.