Dear Facebook Please Make People ‘Like’ My Facebook Fan Page

facebookfanpagesmarketingSo this is what most online marketers and offline businesses are asking themselves, how do I increase my Website, product, or brand awareness on the world’s largest undisputed social media and marketing site that is Facebook. And the answer to most may not quite be what they want to hear. But it is doable, provided you follow some guidelines and exert a bit of effort as well as initial expense.

That ubiquitous little Facebook “Like” button which appears everywhere on the Internet is courtesy of Facebook Connect. But nowhere does it leverage more power than on a site or brand’s Facebook Page. The number of fans that your page is able to attract directly on Facebook serves as an indicator of its social value, and the more “Likes” that it gets, simply results in more views and impressions on the news-feeds, all in real-time.

Keep in mind that the number of those who “Like” a particular brand, product or service does not necessarily translate into the amount of impressions that a product or brand makes directly with its posts. Also, not all of the “Likes” are always created equally.

As marketing on Facebook continues it’s evolution, online marketers should be keeping some basic fundamental questions in mind when they are casting their social media net. Since the basic foundation of Facebook is all about keeping all of the users happy once they “Like” your page.

Are People Going To “Like” My Product Or Brand
If you are considering getting into the Facebook fray, you’ll initially need to evaluate your particular brand or product and determine if the users will be able to find any social value in it, is it strong enough to associate their Facebook persona with yours.

Someone for example, who happens to “Like” as well as “Shares” your page and your brand isn’t much different that they wearing your cool trendy T-Shirt with your brand or logo on it. Why would someone want to even bother to wear that T-Shirt and walk around downtown in the first place?

If your target demographic consumer is someone who’s active on Facebook, or there’s a demonstrated brand following that preexisted on Facebook previously by someone else creating a Fan Page about your brand on your behalf, or even a competitor who has made their Facebook claim, then you should definitely be considering building your own Facebook Fan Page of your own. But one rule of thumb is… If no one likes your brand or product, then no one will bother to “Like” you either.

Use Facebook Media Ads Or Let People Find And Then “Like” You?
So should you be spending money by buying Facebook Media Ads for your Fan Page. Should you be using Facebook Ad’s to attract users just for the purpose of getting them to “Like” your Page, or should they just naturally find your page.

There has been some brands or products which are has been able to grow their Pages without using Facebook paid ads, by virally attracting users to give a “Like” to their page. But they obviously are the iconic established brands such as Subway who has close to 5.3 million fans.

Most however don’t even bother to look for any of their favorite brands while they’re on Facebook. They wouldn’t say, well, how the heck is Smarties doing today on Facebook? It’s more about making the user aware by making them notice and getting into their kitchen, such as … Hey, how do you like this brand?

One of the most common mistakes made by marketers may be by not properly taking advantage or leveraging the power of Facebook’s ad targeting marketing tools by attempting to achieving more efficient media buys. There seems to be a balance when attempting to growing fan pages, a realistic approach somewhere between paid ads and natural search. It’s more about deciding what the impact of the paid media effort is, or what the viral effect of your brand or product is socially. So what Facebook needs is perhaps a better analytics program that will reveal these statistics.

So You’ve Constructed Your Fan Page With Content… Now What?

Other than some rare instances, there is absolutely no truth in: “If you build it, they will come.” All of the conventional marketing rules still apply, marketers are still required to use all of their resources with social media marketing as well. It goes beyond just providing fresh and unique content that clogs up the Facebook newsfeeds with irreverence. You should be giving your fans the opportunity as well as the incentive in “real-time” to be able to experience your brand.

Comments, complaints and all questions should be responded to as quick and accurately as possible, and those who advocates or praises your brand should be encouraged as well as recognized. You have to continuously feed and nurture your Fan Page, and not ignore it after an initial promotion or campaign.

Content That Facebook Users Will Respond To The Most
This will obviously differ from brand to brand or product, but giving the fans a real genuine reason to continuously return to read your content as well as they “Sharing” it with their friends and it going viral is the key to any social-media based success.

When a product or brand has fans, they’re just one “Share” button click away from all of their friends being fans as well. Getting to that next step is the key because of the immense viral opportunity it offers, but it can also be your biggest challenge as well. When it comes down to getting your fans to “Share” your content, it’s because those fans are genuinely wanting to share your page willingly, and not because you asked them to by offering them an incentive such as a coupon.

Most people like experiences, and once they have one that they like, they will usually talk about it as well as share it with people they know. So getting those users to propagate their messages about your brand or product to their friends is what’s required.

What’s More Important, “Likes” “Comments” or “Shares” Of Your Facebook Content?

While some will tell you that the number of “Likes” that you get on your page is the best way to gauge its influence, but it may not be the most telling stat. If you consider the amount of impressions that your actual posts are receiving, it may actually be a lot closer to half of how many actual fans that you have.

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There is also the question of actual engagement. If you happen to have 100,000 “Likes” on your page, but there are only 100 or so people that are actually engaging with you, then it can’t be considered a successful page. It comes down to what the product, brand or service actually wants to do. Some just wants a large fan base, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but what is their ultimate goal?

Also, when they are growing their fan bases, it’s important that they do not treat their pages as a free one way advertising platform. It’s better to have less “Likes” but twice the comments. The number of “Likes” you may have is an easy number to get your head around, and it is to most considered a badge of honor for many marketers. But daily or weekly users that are actually active and provides feedback are more important.

Facebook And It’s Ever Changing Rules
Like Google, when Facebook decides to change or tweak a few rules, there’s nothing the marketer can do about it. Facebook will periodically change their policies, page functionality (Hello iFrames), their design, and all everyone can do is pay attention, try to keep up and then adapt.

Marketers who may be outsourcing their social-media presence and efforts as well as those who manage their own pages, should be anticipating or know what changes are about to take place. What you do today may no longer be relevant three months from now. Facebook is at least getting a lot better of late by alerting everyone when significant changes are coming, but the reality is that you are using their virtual real estate, and they could change the rules of the land at any time.

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