Facebook is the largest social networking site ever, with well over 500 million users, and a whopping 70 percent of those people log on and participate daily. Additionally, Facebook’s statistics tell us that the average user is connected to 60 groups or pages at any time. Obviously, there is a lot to grab a reader’s attention, including their social activities with their friends. Certainly, to be effective in marketing via Facebook, your pages need to be engaging and dynamic for fans to return frequently and recommend them to their friends. Quick growth of your pages will come if your fans are delighted to come to your page often, and if they share information that you post. Here are a few ideas to get your pages “liked” by lots of Facebookers.
Uniqueness
Creating a profile for your business or yourself establishes your online identity, which helps develop relationships with other users and position your business while interacting on a personal basis. Bland pages will get you nowhere. You should give a lot of thought to how your Facebook page can be different from others before you even start to create it. It needs to stand out from other pages and be unique, even if there are several pages in the same niche. What can you give your Facebook fans? How can you provide value, resources, or help? Things like this will have them joining your page and returning again and again. Be creative in designing your Facebook fan pages as well. If your company or website has a logo, use it for your fan page also. Investing some time or resources into your Facebook page will be well spent.
Compelling Landing Pages
You can customize where your users land on your pages; they do not have to end up on your wall. The wall is great for discussion, but does little to tell about your company or your brand, so it has little impact on new visitors. In fact, it’s possible to show new visitors to your page a totally diverse message from those who are already fans. Do tailor a page specifically for potential users that gives some background about you, your company, or your website. Also, try to give them a great reason for joining.
Giveaways
Die-hard fans will follow your page without any incentive. However, to really grow your Facebook presence quickly, consider a giveaway of some sort in return for “liking” your page. Giveaways will help you reach fans in your niche that otherwise wouldn’t have known about your page. There have been lots of examples of Facebook success: TGIFriday’s, Southwest Airlines, and KFC have all done giveaway promotions to build a large base of followers.
The Big Picture
Photos on Facebook are BIG! Not just in terms of size, but Facebookers love to see pictures, so be sure that your page has a nice big photo of your brand or logo as the profile picture, and add lots of others for them to view as well.