5 ways to build a sticky Facebook fan page

 

Screen shot 2011 04 22 at 10 57 13 AM
… The McLellan Marketing Group’s page

With well over 600 million people on Facebook, it’s no wonder that businesses are flocking there to create a fan page for their organization. But what should that page contain?  How should you use it to connect with your customers?

Here are 5 tips for creating a Facebook page that people won’t ignore.

Connected: Be sure you use your Facebook page as a launching point for learning more about your product or service.  Link it to your website, a testimonials page or a third-party site that sells your product.

Good example: Ace Hardware offers us special FB discounts, links to their retail locations and you can even view your own local ad flier.

Be the resource: Know your audience well enough to anticipate what else they might want to know.  If you sell business training, link to other HR and employee related sites or tools.  Think beyond what you specifically sell and build a more well rounded resource center.

Good example: Arbor Springs shares their expertise in dementia by offering a free ebook and other links to resources valuable to families facing this disease. (disclosure — they’re a client and we built the page)

Let them talk: Don’t make the mistake of treating your Facebook page like a one way broadcast tool.  One of the best elements of Facebook is that you can actually talk to your customers and prospects.  Don’t turn off their ability to comment on your page.

Good example: Check out the questions we get asked on our FB fan page.  We might start the question/discussion but sometimes people pop on and ask us something out of the blue.  We love that.  (disclosure…duh, it’s us)

Let the games begin: No matter how old we are chronologically, we like to play games.  One great way to get Facebook page fans or to get them to keep coming back is to create contests and games that hook your audience and keep them coming back for more.  Or, have a regular contest –like a weekly trivia game.

Good example: Northwest Savings Bank offers contests and giveaways to their customers.

Serve with a smile: Use your Facebook page as your customer service portal.  Let customers ask questions, post problems or give you feedback about your product or service.

Good example: Check out how Scrapbooking for Less customers ask questions about products and classes.

Facebook is a very powerful tool.  But just jumping on board and slapping up a page without a strategy will leave you and your page getting chilled from a lack of attention.

Who do you think is doing it better than most?  Post the URL so we can check it out.

 

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10 comments on “5 ways to build a sticky Facebook fan page

  1. Tracy Geier says:

    As usual Drew, very valid points. Too many companies seem to create a FaceBook page just to create a FaceBook page and forget to use it as a business tool.

    1. Tracy,

      That’s the danger with a lot of social media tools. They’re easy to build but then they just sit — dormant.

      Not exactly how you want to be perceived by the marketplace.

      Drew

  2. Social media may be “free” but it takes a lot of time and effort to make it work. If you aren’t willing to make this commitment, it’s not even worth having a page. After all, not many people will care to “like” you if they don’t get any value from doing so.

    1. Nick,

      Absolutely no argument from me on that one! In fact, it may be my next blog post!

      Drew

  3. Jason says:

    How did Ace and Arbor get there icons inserted for the “tab” icon instead of the standard “” that shows for FBML app tabs?

    1. Jason,

      You can code different tabs if you want to. You just need to know a little bit of Facebook’s version of HTML.

      Drew

      1. Jason says:

        Could you provide any website references I could take a look at for examples? I’d really like to get rid of the <> tags that show for the icon.

        Thanks,
        Jason

  4. stylifiq says:

    Honestly speaking, I think I have tried everything to get my fb page numbers up but they just won’t go up. I just wonder what I could be doing wrong

  5. Sherry E. says:

    I have to agree with most people here. But I have to agree with Styliq. Am I not marketing it right? I am working and working. Changing product in albums every 3 days. Invited friends and family to critique it. Still nothing? So frustrated. Any feed back would be great. Thank You

    1. Sherry,

      Sounds like you are trying to sell – not create a community. Rather than pushing product — give them something to talk about, give them some tips/ideas — give them something of value before you ask them to buy.

      Drew

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