5 Key Ways to Engage your Facebook Business Page Fans

We’ve all heard that if you are in business, you need to have a Facebook Business page or Fan page.

Now that you’ve gone ahead and built your Facebook fan page, what’s the next step?

If you build it they will come… or will they?

If you now do nothing with your Facebook page, it will do nothing for you. Congratulations, you have a cyber-slug!

If you don’t have the time to spend keeping your page updated, or you don’t have the cash in your business to pay someone else to keep your page updated, you are wasting your time. It’s that simple.

We’re a fickle crowd. If you are not keeping your page current and populated with new and interesting bits and pieces to read, you won’t be top of mind with those that have liked your page.

Without posting on your wall, your fans are not seeing your page in their newsfeed. Your fans will have to remember to find and revisit your page. They won’t.

When was the last time you actively visited a page on Facebook purely because you thought of it?

Or did you see a post or comment in your newsfeed from a friend that caught your eye and you clicked through to find out more.

My guess is option 2. Most of us operate that way. We see what others are doing or talking about and then go and have a look see.

With that in mind, how can you apply the browsing habits of most online users to your Facebook page strategy to ensure people continue to visit your page?

1. Post 2 to 3 times per week

Yes, per week. Be on your wall posting articles, comments, questions, videos, photos, etc at least 2 to 3 times per week to keep your page fans engaged.

If you are not talking to your page visitors, someone else will be.

2. Post at different times of the day / different days of the week

Unless you know exactly when your page fans are online, make an effort to post at different times of the day and also, post on different days of the week.

By posting at different times of the day, you can make sure you are appearing in the newsfeed of your fans at differing times. People are online at different times of the day. Some like to early morning browse. Some jump online after lunch. Others do a quick catch up on what’s happening at dinner time or when they’ve finally put the kids to bed and have a few moments to themselves.

Likewise, some people are more active on weekdays. Others browse on the weekend when things have slowed down at work.

Know when your target market is online and post specifically to tap into their peak browsing times.

3. Repost your content

It’s perfectly fine to write one single article and post the same article to your wall 2 or 3 times. Just make sure you spread out the time between the posting.

For example, you may post an article at the start of the month and repost it at the end of the month. Why? No one can possibly be on Facebook 24 hours a day. There will be fans that would love to read your content but were not online when you first posted it.

Reposting gives people the chance to catch it on the second time around.

4. Post Content from other Sources

Be seen as in information disseminator. As well as sharing your own information, source material that you know will appeal to your target market.

If you read an article that was helpful to you in business, chances are, it will also benefit others. So share it.

Your Facebook page visitors will appreciate the gesture and may even “on-share” it, citing you as the reference point where they found it.

This is where the ability to tag in Facebook can be really useful. An article you found and posted can easily be shared as a link by someone else, with a tag to your page as a thank you for sharing. Win-win!

5. Respond to Comments or Questions

If someone posts a question or a comment on your page, reply. Sounds simple, but I’m amazed how many people don’t even bother to visit their own page to see what is happening on the wall.

Engaging with your visitors is an ideal way to establish rapport and build up a following of loyal fans who will love to hear from you.

If you do this, chances are next time they have a question in your field of expertise, they’ll ask you. Their friends will also see that they’ve posted on your Facebook business page wall and some will click through to see why.

Why Did you Build a Facebook Business Page?

Your aim when building a Facebook business page should be to generate traffic to your page, as a source of potential leads, clients and customers.

Your challenge is to keep them interested when they get there. Keep them engaged. Keep them coming back.

That way they’ll see you as the expert and seek your advice and opinion when they have an issue to solve or question to ask.

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Social Networking Sites Leading To Identity Crisis!

Internet and social networking sites have definitely made life simpler, no doubt about that, but even with such technological advances,  we need to get a life. A random geek’s routine is something like- Wake up, start the computer, login, check mails and notifications, eat food, put up another depressing status update, wait for notifications to pour, keep checking at regular intervals for new notifications, eat, sleep. See,  life revolves around internet and not in a good way.

A leading scientist has pointed out that social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have produced a generation obsessed with themselves, who have got short attention spans and a childish want for ceaseless feedback on their lives. Baroness Greenfield, professor of pharmacology at Oxford University, thinks that the growth of Internet “friendships”, as well as greater application of computer games, could “rewire” the brain in an effective manner.  This can result in decreased level of concentration, a need for instant satisfaction and poor non-verbal skills, such as the ability to make eye contact during conversations.

“What concerns me is the banality of so much that goes out on Twitter,” said Baroness Greenfield, former director of research body the Royal Institution. “Why should someone be interested in what someone else has had for breakfast? It reminds me of a small child (saying): “Look at me Mummy, I”m doing this”, “Look at me Mummy I”m doing that. It’s almost as if they’re in some kind of identity crisis. In a sense it’s keeping the brain in a sort of time warp,” Greenfield added. The academic suggested that some Facebook users feel the need to become “mini celebrities” who are watched and admired by others on a daily basis. They do things that are “Facebook worthy” because the only way they can define themselves is by “people knowing about them. It”s almost as if people are living in a world that”s not a real world, but a world where what counts is what people think of you or (if they) can click on you,” she added.

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Easy Facebook Business Tips Can Get Excellent Results

Facebook is increasingly becoming the hotspot for many businesses since they are diverting their traffic to their fan page. The reason why Facebook is working out so well, for so many businesses is because it’s a social network is active. This means that the people on Facebook who log in daily are often the very people you’re hoping to reach out to. Facebook makes the process of reaching out to your target market easier and more personal, which is part of the secret of its success.

Get the best possible results from your Facebook marketing strategy with these tips.

Facebook is filled with user generated content. People are always sharing their status updates, writing notes, commenting, etc. This is pure content – as a business owner you need to put careful thought into the content that you’ll post on your page. The content on your page is what is used to attract new fans to your page as well as to set your “fan page” apart from other similar pages. Besides that, Facebook makes it easy for people to spread around your content throughout the social network by sharing it. Most people fail to properly anticipate just how much traffic good content can bring in. You can use Facebook as a testing ground to see how well certain content may perform on blogs or with other social networks.

Facebook has starting authorizing vanity URLs to their members. This equates to having a Facebook page listed as Facebook.com/YourBusinessName. This is really important because you want people to look at your page’s URL and recognize it, remember it. Make it simple for your fans by utilizing the vanity URL feature. Besides that, this will let you put your company’s name in the URL, which is a good way to rev up SEO.

In addition, it is possible to track traffic to your fan page and even see if you’re getting repeat traffic through Google Analytics. Even though Facebook provides extensive data with its Facebook insights feature, having Analytics installed on your page may give you additional information. For many marketers, the longevity of Google Analytics alone makes it a more reliable and trusted source of information. You can decide to or not to use it but it’s a good idea, and will cause no harm, to install Analytics on your page. Facebook is changing the face of businesses, it’s time to get on the social marketing band wagon and reach out to your audience. Any business that isn’t leveraging the power of Facebook, no matter how big or small is missing out on a huge market share they could otherwise be enjoying.

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