A Facebook ‘Fan’ Page is a way for a business, commercially based organisation or concern, or a category other than just a single individual to not just ‘network’, but to get new and repeat business, and communicate with target audiences. A Facebook Page (which was more commonly known as a ‘Fan Page’) can be indexed by search engines. This means that your Page can be found and viewed by anybody whether they have / are logged into a Facebook account or not. You need and are only allowed to have a personal Facebook ‘Profile’ to enable you to set up a ‘Page’, but then you are not limited to the number of Pages you can set up. Just as is the situation with a web page however, your Facebook Page needs to increase the level of its importance to and use by a wide audience. You also need to make sure that there are as many clicks as there can be on the ‘Like’ button for your page, and this can happen inside and outside of Facebook. Here are some suggestions of how you can build the numbers of Fans of your Facebook Page.

A Strategic and Organised Approach

One way to make sure that your Facebook Page communications are handled well in the long term is to make sure that you have a clear strategy for your content, promotion, and conversion, and create a manageable way of integrating and leveraging the use of your many online channels e.g. Facebook Page, Blog, Website, and others including Twitter and Linked In.

First Things First

Have a clear aim and purpose for the page as part of your overall strategy i.e. is it for raising awareness, customer service, getting new sign ups or multi purpose?

It is also important that you create the right Page Title and choose the right category when setting up your page as this can’t be changed later on. A relevant and memorable name can help things along. If you generate more than 25 fans you can also choose a special username which could be used as part of a campaign to generate SMS / Text enquiries through Facebook as part of a promotion. This should therefore be simple and relevant, and should tie in with your overall strategies.

If your business has more than one person, a Facebook Page allows equal access to a number of different Page administrators. This means that several members of your business can post and contribute. This can be a good way of sharing the work, adding different and relevant dimensions to the page, maintaining a shared focus and awareness of company-wide communications among staff, and keeping up the level of activity on the page, thus making its visibility and higher ‘engagement’ value more likely.

Ways to Build Your Fan Base

• The visibility of Facebook Pages to all means that studying competitor Fan Pages is a great way to get some relevant ideas for use on your own Page.
• As with a web page, for those who arrive at your Facebook Page you’ll want to create the right impression, communicate clearly what the page is about, and encourage increased or further interaction with the Page. A high quality welcome video and graphic on the Page can work well for this and can lead at least to a quick click on the ‘Like’ button.
• Loading videos to the Page for other aspects of your services and products can help to provide a mix of content as well as to help to increase engagement and to get marketing messages across in a way that is easy to process. These videos could be shared among the website, blog and Facebook Page. Making use of YouTube for videos at the same time can add extra leverage.
• Engagement with and activity on your Page can be increased by posting a mix of your own and 3rd party content. To this end it's worth selecting, and monitoring sites to get access to current and interesting content from e.g. Listerious for content from Twitter, Technorati for content from relevant Blogs, and industry news / information blogs and news sources.
• Whatever events you / representatives of your organisation attend e.g. promotional or customer hosted events, make sure you take photos, post the photos on your ‘Page’ and encourage interested or featured parties to Tag the photos.
• Use Facebook Apps on your Page to increase engagement and increase the chances of ‘Like’ button clicks.
• Add Facebook Social Plugins / Widgets to your website and Blog to gather ‘Like’ button clicks outside of Facebook e.g. the Like Box or the Like button.
• Make use of Facebook Social Ads to reach relevant target audiences.
• Link to Twitter from your Facebook Page so that your Facebook content is posted automatically on Twitter (although Twitter will shorten it accordingly).
• Make sure your Facebook information is on all offline promotion and stationery.
• In your Profile, go your Page and make use of the ‘share’ button to raise the visibility of your Page among your Friends.
• Integrate the Comment Feature so that likes and comments are posted on your Profile. The activity can then be given more visibility by finding its way into friends’ News Feeds.
• Make sure the page is regularly moderated and monitored. Consider developing a rota among Administrators to make sure this happens. This can ensure prompt answers to comments, allow any concerns and relevant information to be picked up and answered / acted upon quickly, and help to keep up a high ongoing level of activity on the Page. This can help maintain visibility, repeat visits and building of the Fan base.
• Host regular and unique (to your company and brand) events on the Facebook Page. These could embrace and involve interaction with Fans e.g. featuring their pictures, or using ‘expert’ status to answer questions live or conduct interviews live.
• Get more leverage from the content and information gained in any events by transcribing and transferring it onto e.g. your Blog and your website.