Tag Archives: Business Page

10 ways get more fans on Facebook

Below are 10 ideas on how to get more fans on Facebook to help you build your audience and extend the reach and effectiveness of your Posts.

1) Ask fans to suggest Page to their Friends and Share  - There might be a little value in asking your Friends to like your Page but extend this principle by asking your Fans to suggest your Page to their Friends.

2) Invite email contacts via Build Audience - An under used but handy feature is the ability to access the contacts in your address book and then invite them to like your Page. Go to Build Audience/Import Contacts and follow the instructions. Your Contacts on Facebook will receive a recommendation (see below) and those not on Facebook will receive an email.

3) Engage and reward fans - Give people a reason to Like your Page. Engage and reward Fans with promos, discounts, draws and competitions. You can use a tool like Shortstack to help with this. For more advice get in touch.

4) Consider Facebook Ads - You might not be too keen to spend money on Facebook but the fact is their adverts do work; you can increase the number of your Fans dramatically in a short space of time  Advertising works best in conjunction with engaging and rewarding fans (see 3 above). Remember that Fans can unlike you too so you’ll need to keep the engagement going for existing and new Fans.

5) Share your Page and Posts -  Regularly share your Page and Posts onto your Profile and into relevant Groups, although be careful only to share valuable content. Don’t spam.

6) Use your other channels to promote Page - Cross promote your Page on your other channels. For example, add a Like box or button onto your website, icons onto your newsletter and YouTube channel.

7) Use your Profile - Add your website to your personal profile and highlight your Page as your Employer.

8) Encourage check-ins - If you own or manage a venue, encourage check-ins with signage or perhaps a competition. This will help you to reach your visitors Facebook friends and raise the profile of your business.

9) Add social sharing to your website - As with 8) above, tap into the power of your Fans friends by adding Like and/or share buttons to your website (see share buttons on left) or items for sale on www.prettylittlething.com.

10) Don’t neglect offline promotion - Ensure your Facebook URL is on your business card, leaflets, posters, brochures, pop-up banners and other printed materials. Don’t forget to give people a reason to Like your Page (see point 3). If your business has workwear then ensure that your Facebook web address is displayed on shirts or uniforms.

Bonus tip - Add Facebook Commenting to your blog. Readers’ comments are then posted into their News Feeds so as with 8) and 9) you are using the marketing power of your Fans to promote to their friends. See below this article or any other on this blog for an example.

For more advice on how to obtain more Likes and make more of your Facebook Page please get in touch or book a call.

Facebook Profile vs Page

There continues to be a lot of misunderstanding about Facebook Profiles and Pages, so here’s a summary of how they differ plus the advantages of having a Page to promote your business.

Profiles and Pages are two of the three ways that you can be represented on Facebook; Groups are the third option - read more in A Guide to Facebook Groups.

So let’s start with Facebook Profiles. When you sign up for Facebook you are given a Profile which are for people and NOT businesses. So Chris Smith is fine but ABC Plumbers is not. The main reason for this is simple; Facebook state in their Terms that ‘you will not use your personal timeline primarily for your own commercial gain.’ It’s possible for Facebook to close down your Profile with immediate effect, although in reality they’re more likely to give you a warning first. But why take the risk, especially given the many advantages in promoting your business using a Page and not a Profile?

To set up a Page, you’ll first need a Profile. If you don’t yet have one go to Facebook.com to create one. If you’re not familiar with Facebook, I’d advise you to get comfortable with it before setting up your Page. When your ready you can use this link - create a Facebook Page - or simply visit any other Page and select the green Create Page button on the top right. Your Profile then becomes an Manager/Administrator of your Page - it’s good practice to add other Managers too to cover in the event of sickness, holidays or emergencies.

It is possible to have what’s known as  a ‘business account’ thereby avoiding have a personal Profile but it’s not a good idea, as you don’t have access to all of a Pages features or indeed Facebook. For example, business accounts don’t have a Search bar. Therefore, I’d strongly recommend you (and at least one other) become the Manager of your Page.

Let’s take a look at a Pages advantages for a business compared with a Profile:

• Facebook Page Insights is a great tool to displays the performance of your Page and helps you improve aspects such as engagement and audience growth.
• You can use Tabs (or Apps as they are sometimes known) to provide extra features for your Page like competitions, discount coupons. You can also obtain sign-ups for your newsletter.
• With Facebook Timeline you can add milestones illustrating the history of your business.
• Facebook Ads allow you to reach a large but targeted audience and using Facebook Insights you can measure results.
• By using multiple Admins you can professionally manage your Page without the need to swap user names/passwords and you can allocate permission based roles.
• You can switch on Moderation which automatically blocks posting of bad language being posted.
• Schedule posts up to 6 months in advance.
• If you have a venue based business you can encourage customers to check-in to raise awareness of your business.
• With a Pages you can have an unlimited number in your audience - people who Like your Page.  The Coke Page has over 83 million Likes. Profiles are limited to 5000 friends.
• Businesses don’t fit the format of a Profile; they don’t have friends, an education or a birthday. All a bit odd to a potential customer.
• Privacy issues - with a Profile you’ll have access to all your customers private information, family photos and so on. Hardly professional and something they are unlikely to be too keen on.

If you need any further information or would like to discuss whether a Page or a Profile is appropriate for you, please book some time on the phone with me.