If you want to find people, you go to where the people are.
If you want to find people with a common interest, you go to where they gather.
On the internet today, in both cases, Facebook is where its at. Facebook is now the single most popular web application in the world.
- 400 million people use Facebook
- Facebook accounts for five percent of all web traffic
- People spend more time on Facebook than any other website
- Facebook users average 7 hours there each month.
If you have a computer, you’re probably already on Facebook. But if you have a book, or service, website or blog you are trying to promote, Facebook should also be an integral part of your marketing strategy. Because Facebook is also the place people share information about themselves – their hobbies, their likes and dislikes, where they live, where they work, and their relationship status. I have been using Facebook advertising for two years, and I can tell you from experience that, in terms of targeting a market, Facebook offers the most precise audiences you have ever imagined. You can advertise to any audience, based on age, where they work, what city they live in, where they went to school, and what books they read.
Here are the key concepts behind using Facebook for professional purposes.
Profile Page: Using your personal profile is a great way to interact with your audience. You can post links to your website here and, with services like Networked Blogs, you can have your feed sent directly to your profile from your website. However there are two drawbacks to using a personal page for professional purposes. First, if your profile wall is littered with Farmville requests, or embarrassing baby pictures posted by friends and family, this may not be an appropriate venue for trying to portray your professional image. Second: Facebook has capped the number of friends you can have at 5000.
Fan Page: A fan page is similar to a profile page, except that it was designed for many-to-one and one-to-many communication. Instead of friends, the business or celebrity with the page has “fans”.There is no cap to the number of people who can join a fan page. Your fan page can mirror your webpage, or can be completely different from it, or somewhere in between. As an example, this is my Fan Page. (Hope you join me there!)
Who are your fans? Fans are simply anyone who wants to connect with your name, your brand, or your business. Friends, family, customers and future customers. When you publish something on your wall, this will be found in their news feed. You will attract and retain your fans by posting information that is useful to them. The best way to do this is to think about they want before what you want from them, and to be yourself – the professional version of yourself that is.
Interaction: Above all else, remember this is not e-bay. Your Facebook fan page is not a place to sell your stuff. It is a place to develop relationships with people. They may buy something from you, but they may not. People come to Facebook to relax, connect with their friends, and to have fun. They are not looking to buy anything, and the more your fan page is oriented towards selling something, the faster people will steer away. A good strategy for many is to not even talk about themselves or their business in their posts – they publish jokes and humorous videos to entertain their fans instead.
How Do I Get More Fans?
First, of course, invite your Facebook friends. After that, try the following methods:
- Put a link to your fan page on your website. Facebook provides you with some great tools for this.
- Offer discounts and prizes to your fans.
- Advertise your fan page on Facebook
- Most importantly: interact with your fans and provide great content
Create a Facebook profile page here.
Create a Facebook fan page here.
Start Advertising on Facebook here.
Check out my fan page here.
How is your own fan page doing? Have some tips I missed? I’m sure we would all love to hear about it!
