Facebook Tips (Part 2) - Growing Your Fan Page

We previously discussed a lot of quick tips on Building your Facebook Fan Page and managing it successfully. In this second part of the series, I want to switch gears a little and talk specifically about growth strategies for your Fan Page.

I Need Fans, FAST! –Growth Strategies:

1.  Send out an email to your entire email list letting them know about your Facebook Fan Page. This is very important because up until now, you have had somewhat of a soft launch of your page.

• Include: “Your Business Name” is now on FACEBOOK! Come Join Us! In the Subject Line.
• Make it a fun announcement with pictures; tell them “Why” they should come to be a part of your page.
• Make it easy for them to join. You can embed a “Become a Fan” button or a “Fan Page Badge” in your email. (*Described Below)

2.  Update your page frequently (2-3 times daily) with pictures, polls, questions, ask for feedback; let your fans know what is going on in your world. I would encourage more but if this is too much; set a goal and realize that the more you can do, the better.

3.  The most important part of you posting is to encourage your Fans to post. Encourage engagement by your Fans!

• Example: Post a photo on your page with a comment: Say a little something about the photo or who’s in the photo then mention “Click “LIKE” if you like this photo”
• Quick response time is key to an active page

4.  Suggest your page to all of your friends on Facebook

• Go to your Fan page and click on “Suggest to Friends” (this is located just under your profile picture to the left). Then it will pop up a box with all of your friends and have “ALL” highlighted. You then have to go through all of your friends and click on each one individually. Then click “Send Invitation”

5.  Ask Friends, Family, and Clients to “Share” your page.

• They can do this by going to your page, scroll down to the bottom of the left sidebar under your profile picture, and click “Share”. This will post a message on their personal page to come look at you.
• They can also do #4 described just above!

6.  Put the URL to your Facebook Page on Business Cards, Marketing Material, Workshop & Tradeshow Material, etc… Anywhere you can! Just put it right next to your website link.

7.  Network with other Platforms- Connect with other networks like Twitter, Linked In, Myspace & your Blog.

8.  Create a Resource - Offer pertinent information to users that may be interested and use your product.

9.  Create Contests that include participation - Encourage participation and community growth by having giveaways, coupons, discounts, etc…

10.  Link Facebook to your Website!! Here are a few different ways you can look at as an example:

http://MOYALARA.com :: http://LARRYPEREZ.com :: http://MATTANDREWS.biz

http://MICHELLEMOORESENIORS.com :: http://IMPACTMARKETINGPHOTOS.com

Notice that I didn’t mention Facebook Ads. These can be very effective but should be utilized as a last resort because they will cost you Marketing Dollars.

Additional Tips and How To’s:

Jason Stair’s Tip: The maximum size for your profile picture is 200×600 pixels. Use all of this real estate to maximize impact!

*Creating a Facebook Badge: Go to your Fan Page and click on “Add Fan Box to Your Site”. There are a lot of options here so spend some time customizing your badge. Again, you can post this on your blog, website (Splash Page Footer), and many more places so use it effectively.

*Creating a Vanity URL: This is an easy one that is absolutely necessary! If your Facebook Fan Page has over 25 fans, while you are logged into your Facebook account, go to http://facebook.com/username. Be sure to look below the names that it originally suggests and click on “Set a username for your Pages”. Here it will let you search for the availability of your chosen name and start using it immediately. *NOTE: Be sure to choose the right name as it CANNOT ever be changed! (as far as I know)

*Using the FBML Application: I might recommend this to be used only if you are comfortable using HTML coding or willing to learn.

• Adding the Application: Browse applications and search for “Static FBML”. It will allow you to add this application to any of the pages that you are an admin of.
• Editing the Application: Once you have added it to your page, go to “Edit Page” and find this under the “applications” section. Click on the modification button to the right of this FBML application and click on “Edit”. Here you can title the page, add FBML code (which is very similar to HTML) and save. *You can also add up to 10 boxes below where it says “Add another FBML box”.
• Creating a “Tab”: You can make this become a tab at the top by going to your page, click on the (+) sign to the right of your tabs, and select the FBML box that you wish.
• Landing Page: You can designate a particular tab to be the landing page like Coca Cola (http://www.facebook.com/cocacola) (They are using the Static FBML application)
• Linking to Tabs: Did you know that each Tab at the top of your Facebook Fan page has a unique URL that you can send people to? 1) Go to “Edit” your page, 2) Click on the Modify Button (Pencil), 3) Click “Link to this Tab”

*Getting Notifications: There are a few different ways to receive notifications. This is the single biggest improvement that Facebook needs to make in my mind. (Unless I am missing something too)

• You can subscribe to your page’s updates via SMS (text message), however, it does not send you all of the updates.
• Click on “Settings” on the very top bar, and then click on “Notifications”. You will be able to sign up for any email or SMS text messaging notifications that you would like. As I receive email to my phone, I choose to opt out of any text messages here to avoid double alerts for the same thing.

It is important to set goals for your social media efforts like you would with your business. Utilize your “Insights” that tell you all types of information. Set benchmarks for fan growth, Interactions, and much more as you can export this into Excel.

If you found this to be helpful, we would greatly appreciate you sharing the love with #4 & #5 of the growth section for PhotoBiz. Don’t keep us a secret!

Feel free to REPUBLISH this post on your own blog, SHARE a link to it on your Facebook Pages and RETWEET this on Twitter!