One thing is certain. If you want to make money from Facebook, you need friends AND fans. Friends for your personal page, and fans for your business page (aka fan page).
Assuming you have a business page already set up, you will want lots of fans. When you have fans any updates you add to your fan page will be seen on your fans wall, which their friends of course can view. The viral effect can then kick in when you get some interaction happening with your fans (which their friends can also see).
Here are some tips:
- Facebook Ads. This is the quickest and easiest way to get fans. To get started all you need to do is go to your account, scroll to the bottom and click on the Advertising link. Set up an account, and submit some ads for approval. Simple. (Be warned that you may have to submit many ads before you get approved).
- Offer Fan Only Content. This is a great way to boost the number of likes you get. Offer valuable free content to people who visit your fan page and click Like. It’s an ethical bribe that will dramatically boost the number of likes you get. To do it you need a reveal tab that has to be clicked by non fans if they want to access the free info. Works a treat.
- Facebook Notes Strategy. Create a note a day, then post it on your wall and other people’s walls (such as targeted group walls). Make the note interesting and non ‘salesy’. Always include a signature at the bottom of the note with the link to your fan page. To find the note link, go to your Facebook home page and look for the word ‘Note’ towards the top on the left hand side. Simple.
- Be Active in Targeted Groups. Groups are a good way to get the message out. Join lots of groups that are relevant for your niche. Then post notes (see above) and comments in the groups.
- Provide Good Content. Fan pages are great because your fan base can grow exponentially, because dedicated fans will recommend you to their friends. To facilitate this outcome make sure you put valuable content on your fan page. Promotions that reek of hard sell will turn people off, and the viral effect simply will not happen.
- Twitter Works. If you have followers on Twitter, suggest they visit your fan page. Understand that with Twitter you need lots of followers to make it work – you need thousands.
- Contact Lists. If you have an email list prepare an email blast about your fan page and send it out. If you have contacts offline let them know about your fan page and send them to it. Make it easy for them to click your Like button.
- Be Active. A great tip comes from Rachael MacGregor: “Here’s how Facebook determines who appears on your ‘newsfeed’ on the home page. Every time you ‘like’ someone, send a message, look at someone’s photo, comment or click a link that they share, Facebook recognizes that you have recently interacted, so their stuff appears more regularly on your news feed. The same goes for fan pages. If you interact on a fan page it will show up more frequently in the future. Utilize this by getting your fans to interact on your page the moment they click like. Tell them to get involved in a discussion or post some photos for them to look at. When they interact by ‘liking’ or commenting this appears on their profile for all of THEIR friends to see, increasing your exposure.” Thanks Rachael.
Final Point. You don’t need a huge fan base to get a worthwhile result. A couple of hundred quality fans maybe all you need. Quality over quantity usually works every time. By the way, if you haven’t been to my fan page yet, go ahead and do it now. Make sure you click LIKE!
Good one Kim; thanks for sharing this info. It’s a good strategy to build a solid fan base. All the best.
hey thanks Otoabasi
Great tips Kim….thanks for the info. It doesn’t take much to create Success. we just have to implement already working tactics to make it work. But we are the only one who can create the following we are after and we are the ones who have to do the work and have a presence. That is what Social Media is all about. We are past the hard sale stage, now it’s all about building relationships and building trust, sharing and assisting each other along the way towards our individual goals.
I totally agree Brian
I mean Rita!
Hi Kim,
Found you thanks to BWB group on facebook.
I recently built my first fan or like page and the numbers are a bit slow so your post came at a good time…will need to try some of your suggestions.
You live in a great city 🙂
Cheers
Bryan
good luck Bryan
With the new tool Facebook personal user profiles can be converted into an official business page eventually converting all friends in the list into fans..Tagged as tool will help out Facebook users who created their personal profiles for a business purpose. Those users have also added certain fans as friends….Facebook describes the new tool as .Be aware that when you convert your profile to a Page your profile pictures will be transferred and all of your friends will be automatically added as people who like your Page.
this is great Christina.