Many businesses and organizations have taken advantage of Facebook’s popularity, and the efficiency of social media, to promote awareness for their businesses –and for good reason. This year, Facebook has overtaken Google as the site most visited by US Internet users, and is again the top-searched term on the web, according a just-published study by Experian Hitwise (www.hitwise.com). The Facebook community is over 500 million users strong, 50% of whom log on every day. Each month, users spend more than 700 BILLION minutes on the site.
How can you tap into this community? What does it take for you to create a dynamic and growing Facebook fan page to spread the word about your own business or organization? Keep reading to find out!
Step 1: Build a Fan Page (Or optimize your existing page): Ensure that your fan page has plenty of up-to-date and relevant information. For example, YouTube videos, photos, and links to your website. Or a discussion page. This way, when people click on your fan page, there is a well-developed, informative, and active page for them to interact with.
Step 2: Get Fans: Once you’ve built your page, you can start suggesting the page to your network. To expand further, think about your target market or audience.
Contests or campaigns or giveaways to keep people interested or get more fans. For example:
- The American Express Members project allows for volunteers, voting, and donations from the Facebook fan page, allowing for a seamless transition between Facebook use and interaction with the project
- On the Regal Entertainment fan page, they have continuous sweepstakes for winning a variety of different prizes through participation and interaction with the fan page
- On the Starbucks fan page, you can re-load your Starbucks card right on Facebook.
Other suggestions include coupons, games, activities, and blog posts right on your company or organization’s Facebook page.
Step 3: Grow business, become well “like’d”: Once you have a customer/client-friendly page, the next step is promoting the page to your network, client, and patrons!
