Great suggestions. My only gripe, though, is how tight-fisted Facebook's control over the look and feel of Fan Pages is. I maintain one for a non-profit, and it lacks so many features that we need but are only on other types of pages. The whole idea of making you choose a genre for your page and then deciding what information and features fit that genre is so 1990s Geocities.Biggest need: ability to post sticky things on the front page (not hidden back in tabs where no one ever goes.)
MattWilsontv
· 8 months ago
The analytics that facebook can provide really blows my mind. You'd think there'd be some serious money in analyzing all this information and selling it to the people who are serious about their fan pages...
princess
· 3 months ago
yah ryt
Craig Rhett Goodall
· 8 months ago
Excellent article thank you
clarissa27
· 4 months ago
Hello Craig....Remember me....Long time ago...funny what you bump into on the internet. Not Mrs Goodall any more.... Hope you are happy.. All good wishes, Clarissa
SRivera
· 8 months ago
Thanks for the info!
Melissa
· 8 months ago
Excellent resource, thanks for sharing! We were just looking at ways to revamp our Facebook fan page the other day, this is perfect.
rick
· 8 months ago
Good information. I just deleted my personal Facebook page in favor of creating a business page.
Keith Winestein
· 8 months ago
Be inventive and innovative. With campaigns I developed to encourage people to volunteer e.g. Time Banking I loaded links and content to "Time" related fanpages from Fans of Big Ben to retail sites like Timex, Omega, Tag H etc. Sporting campaigns I linked to major football team fan pages e.g. Everton FC, Chelsea, Arsenal etc. Great fun. Just needs imagination to join the dots!
Ben Parr
· 8 months ago
Amazing post! I'm referring to this when I talk to businesses about Fb strategy.
Michael
· 8 months ago
How did sears create the 'Special Offers' tab with the linked coupon? I searched for a 'Special Offers' application and found nothing.
Ed Bisquera
· 8 months ago
Seesmic video reply from Disqus.
Jared O'Toole
· 8 months ago
I like the contest idea. Haven't seen a page that has offered one yet but hopefully a bunch of my fans haven't either. That'll make my business look damn good.
maruxz
· 8 months ago
Article is great, but as a FB marketer I would like to know more about the existing tools and third party applications, which can be used in the Wall tab, rather than creating new ones just for my brand. With old design there was a possibility to add such boxes as RSS connect, HTML profile (i saw someone adding the login box to their sites directly), YoutubeBox etc. to the main screen. Now they are all in Boxes, so people may not be seeing that.
virtuallyready
· 8 months ago
It's somewhat convoluted, but you can still add custom options such as rss, notes, custom html, etc. to the left sidebar on the wall page - you just have to mindful of width for things such as a sign-up form. This can be accomplished via the "Edit Page" function. When you add new elements, they will default to your boxes tab. Then you navigate over to the boxes tab, go to that particular box and click the edit option in the top right corner, then select "move to wall tab".
MayankDhingra
· 6 months ago
Many Thanks for sharing this :)
powstash
· 6 months ago
Thank you for your insights. I've been searching for some time about how to add RSS to a fan page and move it to the wall. Once again, comments are as valuable if not more so than the original post (not that the OP wasn't insightful)
Henry Elliss
· 8 months ago
Great article, though I'd definitely question Quantcast's estimates of Facebook's demographic!
Kobi Gamliel
· 8 months ago
Great Stuff, that's insight shows that marketing campaign can't boost without Social Media
Rob Bunting
· 8 months ago
Nice straight-forward article with good case studies as examples. While most companies don't have the brand cache of Pink or Coke, we all can learn about what facets of their success we can replicate by understanding how to provide value to the consumer (that's why the coupons from Sears work so well).
Sam
· 8 months ago
I have a question, if anyone can answer this, it will make me very very grateful.
Is there a reason to create a fan page if you are not an established brand? Can you give one example of any start up or non-established brand that created and got any benefit out of a facebook fan page.
As a matter of fact, it seems like all of this is a waste of time. If i have a brand name, like, Dell, Coke, victoria secrects etc... would i not be better off with a active community on my blog.
Am i missing the point of a facebook page?
Kimber MacLean
· 8 months ago
I think I can tackle this one. I work with mostly very small businesses with local appeal.
The one client I'm thinking of in particular is a restaurant with two locations and an online gift shop of shippable products. Since I opened the fan page for them they have seen a steady response from people across the country. The numbers have translated to their website visits and pageviews. They are beginning to see a response in their online gift shop too. The best part about it is that their fan page is not yet a month old and they are already seeing results. They are tickled, needless to say.
Here's my reasoning to the client for having a Facebook fan page:
For every person that a client engages in the real world they have an opportunity to create a fan for their Facebook page with enticements such as those mentioned in today's article.
Say they are at a networking event or a festival and hand out take-aways that promote their Facebook page. If only 100 take-aways generate 10 responses of a person 'fanning' the brand on Facebook the potential to reach new eyeballs is exponential to the number of friends each of these new fans has in their list. It's viral marketing at it's best.
So-and-so likes product X and becomes a fan, so-and-so's friend sees that on her Facebook page and is intrigued. They chat about it or whatever. That correspondence entices friend to also 'fan' the page. And on it goes.
Facebook give the opportunity to get your brand out in the stream of people, not just waiting for them to come to you on your website or blog. Really, I don't think you can have too many methods of getting to the masses. You've got to swim where the fishes are.
Hope that helps as one persons opinion
princess
· 3 months ago
Not really its just ok! its your belief so i understand
Bastiano
· 8 months ago
Thanks for so useful information.
Mike Street
· 8 months ago
Thank you mashable...this is exactly what I wanted to read today!!!
Kimber MacLean
· 8 months ago
This was a great article. I have been working with a website client on growing his brand through a Facebook fan page and the success for him has been more than he could have hoped for.
We already incorporate some of the tactics mentioned above, but we had been kicking around the idea of also building an ad campaign on Facebook to help grow the fan level. Now I understand better the concept of organic growth for engaged fans.
Thanks again for a great, thought provoking article.
Simple Health Exercises
· 8 months ago
Great page and so true to form to what any one would be delighted with once landing on this website thanks for this informative info
All my best to you and your profile Phillip Skinner
froggertv
· 8 months ago
Thanks for your great insight.
benin
· 8 months ago
This is very timely information. I like the 1st two examples that you gave. The landing page and Dell's becoming a resource.
@MattWilsontv. I think you are absolutely correct. The consumer preferences data and member stats that Facebook has access to is gargantuan. Does anyone know whether they are actively incorporating this data pool into their business model?
hopefully you found the answer to your question already, but I just saw something about this today... the vanity urls were only offered to some of the big companies involved in the fb page start-up, so not yet available to the rest of us
goLIVEmiami
· 7 months ago
What I'm wondering is how I can adjust the boxes and tabs on the Facebook Page. Like the old Pages where you could insert email address boxes & such. Help! Who is posting that info?
Wow, I really like the format of this blog post, i.e. the 'takeaways.' You should format more posts like this!
Sylvia Buetow
· 7 months ago
Knowing the demographics of Facebook is useful in posting a business page. The tips for growing and keeping the page active are also great. I can see now that a business page would work for me.
Massimo Burgio
· 7 months ago
good tips! thnx!
Katie Freiling
· 7 months ago
Thanks so much for the great info! I'm definitely going to look into creating a FB fan page now for my business! :)
Darci Niszczak
· 6 months ago
Great article, thanks, Samir!
Anisha Mayor
· 6 months ago
Thats very informative. I am curious about the Feacebook pages that are specific to a cause....see ADHD Moms by McNeil Pediatrics, Bayer@Strong by Bayer. A lot of large pharma havd joined the Facebook bandwagon and are now promoting a cause through lightly branded pages. What are the successful elements of such a strategy specifically for the helathcare industry?
Hamza Isa
· 6 months ago
Great post, really helpful
Michelle
· 6 months ago
Some friendly feedback on some technical issues: I am disappointed to not be able to figure out how to print his page. The font is rather large and there is no "printable version"? It is possible I missed it, but I have looked both high and low. :) Since I now wear reading glasses and staring at the computer screen means my attention span's a little short, I would print the article for the purposes of reading as well as making notes. The left margin on the page is almost non-existent, and that's no problem except that it makes it slightly more difficult to read for some reason. The old white-space effect at play?
Samantha Ferguson
· 6 months ago
This is very helpful information! I'm lookinig to start a fan page on facebook, but I was wondering about landing pages. I am aware I can control the landing pages of fans versus non-fans, but waht if my business has has a few different market segments? I want to know if I can control the landing pages for different segments of my market???
Mike the Gardener
· 6 months ago
thanks, I just created my fan page and definitely can use the advice
Very informative and helpful. These Apps will definitely empower online marketers and fanpage owners too.
Bill M
· 5 months ago
Speaking of being successful with business on Facebook, I want you to see this whole video, I was blown away...toward the end with Facebook is very profound!
"Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed sense of fear and no concept of the odds against them." -- Robert Jarvik, Developer of the Artificial Heart
Phil Novara
· 5 months ago
We just created our fan page and have yet to publish it, so this information helps tremendously! I was in the dark on building a fan page.
I think we will attempt to leverage our personal pages to the fan page. Any thoughts on this?
Carter
· 4 months ago
Good article. I am a Facebook Pages expert. If anyone needs help then please feel free to contact me and see what we can work out. mwjwork [at] gmail [dot] com.
Sean Rusinko
· 4 months ago
I think #2 is the most important. You leave out one key component: the necessity of being able to maintain the page. I think it's more of an effort than most expect because you want the page to get stale - but at the same time, you don't want to be too loud and annoy people. So, choosing the most relevant content and steadily posting it will keep fan coming. Thanks! 3 questions to determine whether a fan page is appropriate for your business: http://www.verndale.com/Our-Thinking/Facebook-F...
Sean Rusinko
· 4 months ago
and by want, i meant don't want your page to get stale
Julianna
· 4 months ago
These are great tips. My company's fan page had a rush of fans when it first launched, but then we hit a bit of a lull. We then offered a iTunes gift certificate to the 100th fan. It was a great way to build momentum again. I also link my company's blog to the fan page. I only do it once a week, though, to avoid being annoying. I get irritated by certain fan pages that come up in my news feed several times a day, and have turned off their notifications. I want to stay on their minds, but not necessarily in their faces.
Great article, it is tough however to get too excited about some products and industries and therefore develop a fan following.
Does anyone know how Victoria's Secret gets that homepage that seems to be customisable?
Toby Dayton
· 3 months ago
This is an excellent article with outstanding advice for companies. Companies are doing incredibly creative and engaging things on Facebook, but there are also many companies that need help in understanding how to best leverage Facebook (and social media in general). This article is a great start.
Another tip that I would add is looking for ways in which Facebook can integrate content, features, resources, and features from a company's own corporate website (which is similar in some ways to your #1 and #2 but more specific to a company's website). Some might scream that a company's Facebook page should be entirely distinct from their company website and no duplication should exist, but I'd vehemently disagree. A company might have phenomenal material on their site, and using Facebook to distribute that to fans who may or may not ever get to the company's website itself makes a lot of sense.
In the area of jobs, for example, there is a new Facebook app released by LinkUp (which is part of JobDig) that allows companies to publish job listings from their company's career portal on their corporate website on to their corporate fan page on Facebook. Jobs can appear in a box on the company's Facebook Wall and/or in a separate Jobs tab on the Facebook page. All jobs link back to the specific listing on the company's website where job seekers can apply straight into the company's applicant tracking system (ATS). The app (called 'Current Jobs At Our Company') works automatically, as LinkUp's search engine indexes sites every day and makes all necessary changes automatically. It's a great Facebook app that allows companies to more effectively leverage the tremendous power of social media in their recruiting efforts.
laurabetterly
· 2 months ago
Great article.
I personally think that Facebook Fan pages as well as groups will become more valuable when it's relatively easier to find the ones you belong to from the navigation.
I have a group I'm a moderator of, and it takes me a ton of time to get others who are members to be able to find again.
Yes, I know it's on the bottom left of the page and all you have to do is click on it. I'm just telling you that the average human can't find it even with those instructions. I don't tend to think the group I'm working with have particularly low IQ's, so I think that Facebook needs to rework their strategy on this.
All Comments
Not Mrs Goodall any more....
Hope you are happy..
All good wishes,
Clarissa
Is there a reason to create a fan page if you are not an established brand? Can you give one example of any start up or non-established brand that created and got any benefit out of a facebook fan page.
As a matter of fact, it seems like all of this is a waste of time. If i have a brand name, like, Dell, Coke, victoria secrects etc... would i not be better off with a active community on my blog.
Am i missing the point of a facebook page?
The one client I'm thinking of in particular is a restaurant with two locations and an online gift shop of shippable products. Since I opened the fan page for them they have seen a steady response from people across the country. The numbers have translated to their website visits and pageviews. They are beginning to see a response in their online gift shop too. The best part about it is that their fan page is not yet a month old and they are already seeing results. They are tickled, needless to say.
Here's my reasoning to the client for having a Facebook fan page:
For every person that a client engages in the real world they have an opportunity to create a fan for their Facebook page with enticements such as those mentioned in today's article.
Say they are at a networking event or a festival and hand out take-aways that promote their Facebook page. If only 100 take-aways generate 10 responses of a person 'fanning' the brand on Facebook the potential to reach new eyeballs is exponential to the number of friends each of these new fans has in their list. It's viral marketing at it's best.
So-and-so likes product X and becomes a fan, so-and-so's friend sees that on her Facebook page and is intrigued. They chat about it or whatever. That correspondence entices friend to also 'fan' the page. And on it goes.
Facebook give the opportunity to get your brand out in the stream of people, not just waiting for them to come to you on your website or blog. Really, I don't think you can have too many methods of getting to the masses. You've got to swim where the fishes are.
Hope that helps as one persons opinion
We already incorporate some of the tactics mentioned above, but we had been kicking around the idea of also building an ad campaign on Facebook to help grow the fan level. Now I understand better the concept of organic growth for engaged fans.
Thanks again for a great, thought provoking article.
All my best to you and your profile
Phillip Skinner
@MattWilsontv. I think you are absolutely correct. The consumer preferences data and member stats that Facebook has access to is gargantuan. Does anyone know whether they are actively incorporating this data pool into their business model?
Thanks
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Go-Live-Miami-goL...
I am disappointed to not be able to figure out how to print his page. The font is rather large and there is no "printable version"? It is possible I missed it, but I have looked both high and low. :) Since I now wear reading glasses and staring at the computer screen means my attention span's a little short, I would print the article for the purposes of reading as well as making notes. The left margin on the page is almost non-existent, and that's no problem except that it makes it slightly more difficult to read for some reason. The old white-space effect at play?
I am aware I can control the landing pages of fans versus non-fans, but waht if my business has has a few different market segments?
I want to know if I can control the landing pages for different segments of my market???
Regards,
Mike the Gardener
http://www.viddler.com/explore/billhealth/videos/2 (make sure you watch the whole video for how this connects with Facebook)
Contact me when you are done, I want to know your opinion.
Bill Muth
(847) 682-4511
billhealth@aol.com
"Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed sense of fear and no concept of the odds against them."
-- Robert Jarvik, Developer of the Artificial Heart
I think we will attempt to leverage our personal pages to the fan page. Any thoughts on this?
3 questions to determine whether a fan page is appropriate for your business:
http://www.verndale.com/Our-Thinking/Facebook-F...
I want to stay on their minds, but not necessarily in their faces.
Julianna Walters
www.facetimepdx.com
Here is an example of how we have used these things to make this page a success
http://www.facebook.com/indiaistrulyincredible
Check it
Does anyone know how Victoria's Secret gets that homepage that seems to be customisable?
Another tip that I would add is looking for ways in which Facebook can integrate content, features, resources, and features from a company's own corporate website (which is similar in some ways to your #1 and #2 but more specific to a company's website). Some might scream that a company's Facebook page should be entirely distinct from their company website and no duplication should exist, but I'd vehemently disagree. A company might have phenomenal material on their site, and using Facebook to distribute that to fans who may or may not ever get to the company's website itself makes a lot of sense.
In the area of jobs, for example, there is a new Facebook app released by LinkUp (which is part of JobDig) that allows companies to publish job listings from their company's career portal on their corporate website on to their corporate fan page on Facebook. Jobs can appear in a box on the company's Facebook Wall and/or in a separate Jobs tab on the Facebook page. All jobs link back to the specific listing on the company's website where job seekers can apply straight into the company's applicant tracking system (ATS). The app (called 'Current Jobs At Our Company') works automatically, as LinkUp's search engine indexes sites every day and makes all necessary changes automatically. It's a great Facebook app that allows companies to more effectively leverage the tremendous power of social media in their recruiting efforts.
I personally think that Facebook Fan pages as well as groups will become more valuable when it's relatively easier to find the ones you belong to from the navigation.
I have a group I'm a moderator of, and it takes me a ton of time to get others who are members to be able to find again.
Yes, I know it's on the bottom left of the page and all you have to do is click on it. I'm just telling you that the average human can't find it even with those instructions. I don't tend to think the group I'm working with have particularly low IQ's, so I think that Facebook needs to rework their strategy on this.
My .02
Laura Betterly
http://www.yadayadamarketing.com
www.contentunltd.com