We all want our message heard - but there is so much noise we need to be creative in finding new fans and followers for our Facebook business page. Here we list the 10 best ways that we have found to get quality Facebook fans for your page - who will engage and share your posts.
1. We will take it for granted that you already have a custom url for your page - if not, this is step one - you need to get to have 25 fans on your page to claim a unique and personal username. This can be accessed via 'Edit Page' and then 'Update Info'. Next you need to ensure that you list your Facebook url in your email signature. Old news! Ah - it needs to stand out - most people meet the various legal requirements from around the world in regards email signature. We recommend new start up BrandMyMail - for their free email signature that is totally focused on your social networks. You can even pull in your latest Facebook posts, or your tweets - so when a person opens your email - they are seeing the latest information on your networks - amazing!
2. If you have a website - make sure you mention your own Facebook page in your posts, a mailing list for your newsletter? Again a gentle prompt for your subscribers to check out your Facebook page - sometimes people need to be helped along.
3. Post great content - that is fresh and interesting. This is a challenge...we feel most people use Facebook for fun (our own opinion!) how and why do your friends use it? Once you understand that, then need to tweak how you can get messages about your brand and products or service to your audience so it will engage them. For example - at ProfileTree we feel there are some amazing creative small business people in the world...through trial and error we noticed that pictures are so important on social media, and you can get a message across with some fun as well. We like to post great images or business profiles - but found mixed results depending on the day and time of post - the amount of text we write and the content of the post. This is an example of a post we feel we got right:
4. Do you use other social media? Mention all your properties every where you list - so people can find you easily and connect. This is an excellent oppotunity for you to ensure you fans or followers are with you in every network they use..but also for this strategy to work - you want to have different content in all networks. This can be very tough for small business..but through taking time out to plan your content - you can really have an effective social network effort. You should pick the social networks where your customers are - and focus on these. Every network is different - when we started out we found that one post a day on Facebook worked very well - we tested different times to see when our fans were online and focused on those. It took one person one day to find images, plan them, write the text around them and schedule them - which gave us one post a day for six weeks. We engaged with the comments. Its a bit more ad hoc for us today - but shows that it can be done.
5. Why not give people an incentive to join your page? We have seen that many pages are excellent at this already and have enjoyed seeing many pages giving a percentage off when their page reaches a certain number of likes, etc Just remember Facebook does have some tough competition rules regarding competitions - good to have a read over these to be use everything is okay.
6. A little bit more work - but worth it. If you have a website - you should have a Facebook 'Like Box', 'Activity Feed' or other link to the Facebook network. With nearly a billion people using this system it is a must! Also consider using a Facebook comment box on your articles or blog posts. This enables readers of your blog to sign in with their Facebook account and write a comment, but also quikcly share with their own friends. A seemless way to use the Facebook network and gaining more fans on your page. Since the end of 2011 Facebook comments are Google search friendly - so even more important to get every mention you can.
7. Ever create a word document, or presentation for your business? Any offline material should include your Facebook page to ensure a consistent message and that you miss no opportunity to catch new fans.
8. You have the option to suggest your page to your friends - but also to upload a mailing list to send invites to. An excellent way to covert people who already know of your business, but just may not know your Facebook details...tell them! We would recommend telling them only once - as you do not want to seem too Spammy.
9.You have an option to open or close your wall for messages and also to give visitors to your page an option to private email you. Leave these open - to enable the most possible interaction. Other people may come and post their business on your page - which goes into the "Recent Comments" or may come and ask you a customer service question - respond to these always and don't forget to check youur spam folder for possible over protective Facebook software.
10. Comment on other fan pages - friends pages, signed in as your company page. Make these quality comments and others will see your post. It is very possible that the page owner and other visitors to this page will see your post and visit your page. Not all pages have this option opened - but companies that want to engage with people do. Again this is something we see people do very well on our page every day!
So 10 relatively easy to do points to help improve your fan count on your page. Have you any more points you can share with us? We would love to know.
ProfileTree is a free website where self employed or small business can create a permenant advert for their service that will rank in search engines and be promoted on social networks.