Creating a fanpage after a few clicks and then? You would be wondering how to grow it, you would have read so many articles and posts; helpful, indeed but how effectively you have applied it. Here then are 10 easy ways to grow your fanpage as organically as possible:
1. Suggest to Friends
Just below your fanpage picture you’ll find a link that says “Suggest to Friends”. This allows you to invite all of your friends on Facebook. Unfortunately, in the “Suggest to Friends” window Facebook hasn’t allowed a “Select All” feature. This is because the social network giant is trying to limit spamming and hopes that you will only select people that would have an interest in joining. Inviting all your friends is therefore a bit of a “click, click, scroll, click, click” mission, but it is worth it.
It needn’t stop there though – and this is the continuous tightrope you’ll be treading between spamming bastard and Facebook friend – because you need to encourage your friends to invite all of their friends. Don’t be too pushy though, a friendly request will do from time-to-time.
2. Link Seeding
As previously mentioned, there is a thin line between spam and being legitimate, so be careful. After suggesting to your Facebook friends, you should now be searching Facebook for similar interest groups and fanpages. Once similar pages are found, then make a relevant comment on the wall and provide a link to your group for further information. This should be a systematic daily chore. Additionally, use your own status updates to promote the link to your page. You can also seed your link off of Facebook in forums and comment sections on other websites, blogs and Twitter of course.
3. Promoting your Facebook Page
Social media is still an afterthought in many marketing campaigns, but these days it is essential to implement a fully-integrated campaign. This means that your social media efforts must be included in all your marketing collateral. For example, if you send out a newsletter, make sure you include a link to your Facebook Page. You can even send out a dedicated mail telling people about your Facebook presence. Make sure you also have a Facebook badge on your website. Include “Join us on Facebook” in your print, radio and TV ads. I’m still astounded by how few TV ads include Facebook, Twitter or even the website address.
4. Competitions and Promotions
A great way to increase membership is to run competitions and promotions on Facebook. There are many creative ways of doing this, but please take note of Facebook’s promotion guidelines. Many companies are actually running “illegal” promotions on Facebook.
Facebook doesn’t say what the consequences will be if you are caught out, but you could risk having your page banned, and losing everything you’ve worked to achieve in terms of membership.
5. Regular Updates
Creating a Facebook Page means that it must be administered correctly and provide value to people who join or “Like” it. It is NOT just a new channel to push out your crappy press releases. You must provide value in terms of content, information, personal interactivity and support. Make an effort to update ever day and try using different media – status updates, notes, discussions, videos and pictures. If possible, create shareable content that will further spread your page in the network.
- Post atleast weekly regarding your niche. It does not need to be a big article created being done a lot of research; a paragraph or two with an attractive photo will do just fine. Frequently asked questions is a good way to start.
- Post a what is happening with you: A news post with a picture, telling your customers what is happening in your business.
- Curate 5-10 top articles related to your niche: From web you will find too many items of interests. Do the exercise weekly. Describe why you liked them.
- Interview someone in the industry
In terms of value, please take note of this Adweek article which says: “A study of ‘digitally connected’ consumers found that over 40% are following brands on Twitter just because of exclusive offers or deals distributed by the brand on Twitter. The numbers are about the same for Facebook or MySpace, with 37% saying they had “friended” a brand in order to get special deals.”
People want value and it will also help grow your page when you offer social media specific deals. For example, give out a discount code on your Facebook Page. You will be able to track the success of these campaigns accurately as people will use the code to redeem the discount.
6. Cross-Platform Pollination
Having fresh contents is first step, the second important thing is that you need to make it shareable. Social share plugin and/or Facebook Share buttons.
Example Digg Digg plugin (have all of the buttons, floats along the side while scrolling through the article)
You can cross-pollinate from your other social media efforts. If you’re posting videos on YouTube, make sure you include a clickable link in the video to join your Facebook Page. You can also link your Facebook and Twitter accounts so that any Facebook update gets published on Twitter too. This will drive your Twitter followers to your Facebook page and vice-versa.
Optimize other places on Facebook to add links to your website. Paste link to generate the snapshot, instead of placing a rough link. Add links to your photos. Optimize your profile, aboutus page, make them visible and informative right at hand.
7. Social Bookmarking
Use the same SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) principles that you use to promote your website. Submit your Facebook Page to social bookmarking sites like Delicious, Digg, Reddit, Mixx, Stumbleupon and others.
8. Email Signatures
You’ve got your contact details in your email signature, but most people don’t include their Twitter or Facebook links in there. If you’ve got a couple of thousand employees, imagine how much exposure your page will get if the link to your brand’s Facebook Page is in every single email they send?
9. Events
Events are a great way to get exposure as it promotes the “Invite Friends” functionality on Facebook. Consider sponsoring a local band or DJ, or throw a charity event, and then you can promote it on your Facebook Page and encourage members to invite their friends.
10. Advertising
Facebook ads are incredibly effective as they offer granular targeting. You can specify keywords, geo-location, age groups, gender and more.
BUT
One issue that I see is that when boosting a post, it don’t return you lot of link clicks though you get likes and comments on the post. If you really want to use Facebook to promote your website, use Ads Manager and choose that objective “Better click rate for your website”
In order to improve click through rate improvement, use the news feed ads because comparatively the ads don’t get clicked much.
Now as you know how to guide the ads to get to your business website but if your website is not better acquainted and don’t have call to action, then its pointless.
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