How to Have Successful Facebook Pages

In an earlier section of the my blog, we discussed the main parts of a Facebook page or profile. Let’s move on to the smaller (yet brilliantly useful) elements of a Facebook page.

Note that all of these elements come together to increase the informative nature and usefulness of your Facebook page. Don’t forget to use each element when the need arises.

•  Picture. I’m going to repeat another old adage here: A picture speaks a thousand words. So don’t waste the opportunity of creating a lasting impression on potential fans by posting a bad picture on your Facebook page.

If you run a business, it is considered a best practice to post a shiny, well-crafted logo or insignia as the Facebook page’s main picture.

It’s a worthy investment because people might forget about your status updates and all, but a striking logo can make people remember your business long after they’ve clicked the “Like” button on your Facebook page.

If you run a business such as life coaching or business coaching and you want your name and face to be out there, visit a photo studio to get a bright and winning portrait shot. Themed shots are a great choice because people will associate your business with your physical likeness. There’s instant recall and instant recognition at the same time.

•  Information. People click on the Information tab of Facebook pages to find out more about a business. If you run a specialty burger joint, people will expect to see your operating hours, location/address, ownership details, etc.

If you own a computer retail shop, people will likewise want to know when your store opens and how to contact your store for sales inquiries, repair inquiries, and warranties.

So when you’re filling up the Information area of your Facebook page, think broad and specific. Put yourself in the shoes of your customers and think: What would I want to know if I were a customer?

•  Photos. If you have relevant photos to share with fans, don’t hesitate to tag people in your photos. By tagging people, specific photos will appear on the fans’ Facebook walls. At the same time, this creates a unique item that will appear on your fans’ News Feed.

When you tag someone, people will be able to re-trace the source of the post. This actually helps spread the news of the existence of your page. If done correctly, this may increase the number of fans you have on your Facebook page.

•  Events. Inviting people to events has never been easier with the Events feature in Facebook pages. This feature allows you to send an instant alert to your fans about an upcoming event. The alert will show up on your fans’ home pages.

•  Videos. Whether you have a pricey HD video camera or an iPhone, you can shoot, upload, and share videos with your fans instantly on your page through Facebook’s video platform. In addition to high-speed sharing, you can also tag people in your business videos. Neat!

Facebook Page Design Guidelines

•  Simplicity is still the best way to go even in the age of social media marketing. People are already barraged by endless advertisements throughout the day. When potential fans visit your Facebook page, they’ll appreciate a simple, neat design that’s easy on their eyes.

Avoid bright colors and painfully stimulating animations on your Facebook page. Provide stimulating and engaging content instead.

If you have to use Facebook apps, choose the ones that absolutely have to be on the page and discard the rest. The less the clutter on you Facebook page, the better.

•  As I have mentioned before, content is king. You need to keep your Facebook page fresh and interesting and give your fans a reason to return. If you update your Facebook page once every six months, I can assure you – people will not be interested in what you have to say.

When a Facebook page is rarely updated, people get the impression that you’re only there to dabble in some social media experiment and you don’t really care about your customers. People are very sensitive about these things and if you want participation and feedback from your customers, you have to first interact with them.

•  Always keep in mind that your Facebook page is there for your customers and fans. It’s not about us (the marketers); it’s about them. If your Facebook page is all about “me, me, me and more me”, people will take one good look and never come back.

But if you are able to hook them in with engaging status updates, contests, and other special promotions, you will win over fans for life. And real fans will go to bat for you if your business seems to be in ill shape because of bad press.

Imagine fans voluntarily defending your business when others are more interested in attacking it. That’s the true power of establishing a deep and meaningful connection with customers. Treat them well and they will treat your business well, too.

•  Page visitors can easily trust your business if you show them that you’re an authority or expert in whatever it is that you do.

The key word here is excellence. Position yourself in such a way that people believe that you’re the best in your chosen market. This may take a few hours or a day or two of serious brainstorming, but trust me – it works!

• When it comes to brand awareness, nothing beats a Facebook page that has been designed to project a likable personality.

Remember: people spend a lot of time on the Internet and folks generally have a good idea of what a likable website looks like. A Facebook page is no different. It’s still a website, even though it’s part of a large social networking platform.

Visit the Facebook pages of your favorite brands and see what those companies are up to. You’ll get instant inspiration just by studying what other businesses are doing.

Of course, I don’t recommend that you imitate another Facebook page completely. Focus on how things were done rather than the specifics of the final product.

•  Let’s not take away the social nature of social media. I have observed this in many, many Facebook pages: page administrators/owners simply do not take notice of feedback from fans. Some fans even express their frustration that they seem to be commenting on an inactive business page.

Some Facebook pages may be genuinely inactive, but I bet more than half of those pages have owners who don’t know how valuable customer feedback can be. So don’t be like those guys. When someone leaves a sensible message on your page’s wall, respond to the comment.

If someone complains, respond tactfully. When people see that you value people’s feedback, they’ll fall in love even more with your business or brand.

•  Never forget to reward your fans for any efforts they may exert on your business’ behalf. The reward system is the easiest way to convince someone to be a Facebook page fan, for example.

Many Facebook pages offer exclusive material that will only become available to a Facebook user if he or she clicks on the “Like” button located on the top of the screen.

If a person is really interested in your business, the choice is easy: click once and get exclusive content! Other business owners also use their fan base as a think tank.

For example, if you sell donuts and you want a snazzy slogan for your business, you can offer discounts and freebies to people in exchange for their feedback.

For the price of a few freebies, you’ll be able to access the very heart of your niche or market. And that itself is a priceless opportunity that no marketer worth his or her name should miss.

Read Facebook’s specific rules and guidelines before making your own Facebook page.

How to Set Up Your Facebook Page’s Fan Base

A Facebook page with zero fans is utterly pointless and is of no use to the business owner who wishes to connect to consumers through the social network. Building a Facebook page is the easy part – getting the word out that your page exists and that people should become fans is a completely different challenge.

Is it possible to amass hundreds of thousands of fans? Of course! Anything is possible if you really work on it. Facebook marketing is not a shortcut method though. Just like other marketing approaches, Facebook marketing requires a lot of hard work.

Communicating with people is easy; it’s the search for actual fans that’s hard. That’s why I’m here. I’ve been down that road and I’ve learned a couple of things that will help you amass a large number of fans. Let’s get started!

Fan Base Strategies

 

It’s time to make your Facebook page shine like a rock star!

 

The following are some easy-to-follow strategies that you can use to increase the number of fans of your Facebook business page.

 

      I.     In an early section of this book, I suggested that you create a regular Facebook profile. There is a reason for this. You see, when you start adding personal contacts to your profile’s network, you are actually gaining potential fans for your Facebook page.

We all have to start somewhere, and what better place to start than your own Facebook profile? Your acquaintances will be easy to convince, too! There are several ways to inform your friends and acquaintances about your business page. The simplest way is to take advantage of your contacts’ news feeds.

When you log on to Facebook, the first thing that you’ll see is your news feed. On the top portion of the news feed is your status update box. Write a short, compelling description of your Facebook page and then add a link to the page. Then click “Share.” Your status update will appear on your contacts’ news feeds.

Another way to get your contacts’ attention is by creating a special image of your Facebook page. Put the details of your Facebook page on an image and tag your friends. You can tag many friends in just one picture so feel free to click away.

When an image has reached its maximum tagging capacity, simply upload an identical copy of your first digital poster/image and tag your other contacts. Don’t forget to click “Done Tagging” on the lower left side of the page so any changes on your images will be saved.

Your Facebook page also has a basic sharing feature that will allow you to send an automated message about your page to up to twenty individual contacts. Use this feature, too. I recommend that you use multiple approaches when spreading the word about your Facebook page.

 

      II.    A Facebook page can be optimized so that search engines will be able to index it more quickly.

The idea here is to help interested folks find your page faster when they type specific keywords in a search engine like Yahoo! or Google. (Just make sure that your page can be viewed by anyone. If not, search engines won’t be able to index it!)

For example, if your page is about your sporting goods store, you can add content that is related to sporting goods.

You can add quality information about gym equipment, sports equipment, etc. Use free online keyword tools like Google Adwords (adwords.google.com) to find keywords that have a high local (or global, if you are targeting an international market) search volume.

There are many considerations when choosing keywords to utilize in on-site optimization (and this topic alone will require several books’ worth of discussion), but I can give you this advice: choose keywords with a high monthly search volume but with little or no competition.

This way you won’t have to exert so much effort in outdoing others for specific keywords. You can also try advertising your Facebook page using search engine advertisement programs. You can choose to “pay per click” or pay based on number of impressions or views.

The name of your page also has a large bearing on Facebook search results and search engine results. For example, if you are selling special ice cream with fresh fruit but your Facebook page’s name is just “Judy & Ben’s”, people won’t associate your page immediately with special ice cream with fresh fruit.

Think of more creative ways of representing your page through your page’s title or name, so people are enticed to click when your page appears on search results.

Remember: until your potential fans land on your actual Facebook page, the only thing that matters is that they click on the link that leads to your Facebook page.

People may write a gazillion things about keyword relevance and all that, but in the end, it’s the click that matters. Once a potential fan clicks, your Facebook fan page must then act as fly paper so you can get the most out of each person’s visit.

Of course, the first goal is to get them to click on the  button. You can type something like “We love you guys! Hope you ‘Like’ us too, okay?!”

If you think this won’t work for your particular market, as I’ve already discussed earlier, you can offer them something of value in exchange for clicking the “Like” button.

Offer exclusive content and even resources. If you’re selling products online, offer a small discount for fans (give away digital coupon codes that you can post when someone clicks on the “Like” button).

      III.      Do you see those little boxes on the right column of your Facebook home page? Those are advertisements. As you can see, many of those advertisements are for Facebook pages. If you have the budget for it, you can also try advertising on Facebook to get more Facebook fans to join your page.

 

Who is Your Audience?

Identifying and connecting with your target audience is your primary goal when marketing on a social network like Facebook.

Facebook marketing offers the luxury of having access to a virtually unlimited pool of customers. However, the nature of Facebook (as a social network) also means you have to perform a little paradigm shift if you want to succeed. A social network is not an online marketplace.

People log on to Facebook to connect with friends and family, not to buy stuff. (Well, not primarily.) If people do decide to buy stuff from Facebook, it’s because they are really interested in a product. However, unlike an online marketplace like eBay, a person does not have a buying mindset when on Facebook.

Conventional marketing usually involves making a hard sell to people. That’s the equivalent of using a megaphone to attract people so they buy something from you. Do not use this type of marketing on Facebook. If you want to establish a long-lasting relationship with your buyers, this is not the way to go.

Instead of creating a Facebook page that simply advertises your product or service, it’s better to create a page where people who are interested in your product and service can come to talk about what your business is offering.

Alternatively, you can create a “general interest” Facebook page that easily attracts lots of people – not because of your brand (not outright), but because of the general topic of your Facebook page.

If your Facebook page becomes a viral hit because of the number of fans and the topics being discussed, you can easily make a soft sell of your brand. If you have a good product or service, people will turn to you if they need your product or service.

 

In Focus: Facebook Members That Matter

Don’t expect everyone to be interested in what you have to sell or what you have to say on your Facebook page. Only your market or specialized niche will respond, and this is a good thing.

If you have hundreds of thousands of fans on your Facebook page but no one is actually buying, that doesn’t do your business any good. So before heading out to market your business on a social network, put yourself in the shoes of your average customer.

Here are some things that you should research so you can engage in effective Facebook marketing:

1. What age bracket will most likely be interested in your product or service?

2. If you represent an organization, what specific personal values will be important to potential fans of your organization?

3. What common interests are shared by those in your niche or market?

4. In what way does your product or service enhance the life of your niche/market?

5. How can you attract others to take interest in your product/service?

6. Why would anyone want to hit the “Like” button on your Facebook page and participate in any of your contests, surveys, etc.? What can you offer people so they will willingly participate in brand awareness campaigns, etc.?

 

The Four Main Goals of Facebook Marketing

Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or just starting out in the business, your general marketing plan should always include the following:

- Brand creation and brand awareness

- Boosting actual sales

- Community-building

- Collecting and utilizing feedback about your product or service

 

Crafting a Brand

Branding allows people to immediately recognize and differentiate a product/service from similar brands/services available in the market. A brand is essentially an anchor that reels in people so that they purchase from your business instead of other businesses. A brand attracts and gains loyalty over time.

It’s the brand that penetrates and stays in a person’s buying mindset. That’s why it’s so important to create a strong first impression with your brand. The same principles apply when you’re creating a brand on a social network like Facebook.

Your business/product/service brand is not just the shiny logo and name that you post on your Facebook page. A brand is much more than just a sign or symbol. Your brand personifies a unique experience tied intimately with the use of your product or service.

If you’re selling food, your brand is tied intimately with the texture, color, and flavors that your food products provide when someone purchases some from your business. If your business sells furniture, your brand isn’t just a name – it’s the entire package that your business has to offer.

One of the best things about building brand awareness on a social network like Facebook is that social interaction can occur naturally. People can post their comments and feedback easily.

Other people can respond to fellow fans and the business owner can also respond to negative or positive feedback. Your primary goal when you want to generate interest in what your business has to offer is to get your name out there.

You have to post and share as often as you can to reach as many customers as possible. Your posts also have to generate social stories that will help push along your message. When your Facebook fans begin marketing your business for you, you’ll have the full benefit of Facebook marketing.