Today Mike Henry explores Facebook pages (as opposed to profiles) and how they can be use to promote their blog, business, product or profile.
Darren wrote a post recently on 12 tips for building relationships with other bloggers. They are all great tips that could be expanded into individual posts or even an entire blog, particularly in the area of social networks.
Using social networks can be a fantastic source of traffic and generating a community around your site. There is a minefield of information on marketing on social networks, so I would just like to write about one technique that has worked for me with Facebook.
Many people have profiles on Facebook and people are quick to put their URL in their profile. This is great for your friends to see what you are doing, but is difficult to expand beyond your networkd of friends. Most people using Facebook try to keep their “friends” to people they have actually met or have some kind of relationship with.
The answer to this is Facebook pages. Facebook pages were created for authors, businesses, politicians and celebrities to build a community around whatever they are promoting. Unlike Myspace, individual profiles can only have a limited number of “friends” in Facebook and there is no way to send email to all of your friends at one time.
Once you have created a page on Facebook, people can then become your “fan” or “supporter”. You don’t have to accept people as a fan and they can’t see your individual profile. On a page you can then easily add relevant pictures and video. You can have a discussion board and add any of the thousands of applications to your page.
One of most powerful features of Facebook pages for marketers is that you can send email updates to all of your fans. For people who limit their friends to just the people they actually know in Facebook, you can expect that the messages they receive in Facebook have a higher chance of being read than emails sent to their regular address. Also there is no chance of messages going to a “junk mail” inbox, your messages are assured of 100 per cent deliverability.
Barack Obama has one of the most popular pages on Facebook, with over 800,000 fans. Could there be a better or cost effective way for him to reach his voters?
Facebook has cracked down on people putting up pages to businesses, brands and people that they have no claim to and you may have to provide proof that you are the owner of the business or product that you are promoting.
Facebook pages require little maintenance and if you have good keywords in the title of the page you create, people will find your page naturally. You can promote your page through Facebook’s PPC advertising, but personally I haven’t found it necessary to get decent traffic to my page. Facebook also provides interesting analytics to your pages and you can even see gender and age breakdown of your fans.
As it becomes more difficult to compete in search listings and delivering your messages through email, creating a Facebook page is an easy and effective way to connect to your community
By adding an RSS feed to your Facebook Page you can also use it generate targeted inbound links. If you succeed in getting your Facebook Page networked well this can provide you with some good SEO value.
Good post,
Even though I’ve been on the net since about 1994 and making my living from helping others make money – I’m a total newb when it comes to using social sites for marketing. In the past, I’ve only used them for social interaction and pretty much stopped doing that to increase my productivity.
It’s an interesting mental turn for me to use social networks for marketing and money making.
Thanks again,
Meg Meyer
http://MegMeyer.com
Facebook is getting very good to promote your blog with its pages, applications and others stuff. May be I will consider to build a page of my blog over there : ))
I have looked at facebook in the past but stopped short of using it to promote my blog or even get right into facebook.
Facebook has certainly come a long way and it would be worth while to use it to promote your business.
Mike,
I was thinking about creating a facebook page to promote my blog and didn’t have the motivation to do it until I read this post. Now, I’ll create one soon.
Thanks for pointing out the advantages of having facebook pages to promote the blog.
Ramesh
The Geek Stuff
Thanks for the inspiration. I’ve created a page for my company, and another page for one of my Excel books. It’s interesting to try a new medium.
I’ve used Facebook for a couple of years and I have never thought about using the ‘pages’ feature. Thanks for the suggestion.
Michael
http://investmentsplainandsimple.blogspot.com
Thanks for publishing my article. I hope it will help a few people hoping to use Facebook to market their blog or business.
I’m not certain how effective a Facebook page will be for promoting a blog that isn’t already quite popular. Most Facebook pages go unnoticed by the masses unless they already have a large number of fans following them.
So really, you’d have to have one hell of a page setup, or a devout following already, for it to be of much value.
That being said, it certainly couldn’t do any harm.
I can definitely see the value in this. I have around 200 friends in Facebook, but they don’t all necessarily read my blog throughout the week even though they would most likely benefit from it. And when any of them becomes a “fan” of my page – all of THEIR friends see that, and those are people that are outside my immediate friend network.
Another no-cost marketing method – thanks guys!
Scott
The Computer Tutor
Hello Darren
link for the post “12 tips for building relationships with other bloggers” is not working. Need to remove from this link
I haven’t tried Facebook for promoting my blog. I will go through the tips mentioned by by to get some useful tips about Facebook
link fixed
Hi, thanks I’ve found this!! YES I absolutely need to promote my blog, especially that I have just started. I’ve been facebooking since last year but never thought about it!
Do I need to create a group? Please
Thanks in advance, cheers…
This is fantastic news!
I’m just discovering that there are no ‘real’ blogs on my niche (just pretend blogs – no more than five posts just so they can sell videos and advertise). So not only do I blog but it seems I have to create a place for my niche on the web – a daunting task for a beginner. These ‘pretend’ blogs have been so destructive to my niche that it seems I have to get people to trust in my niche again. Well, my motives are pure so I guess it shouldn’t be that hard, right? – I just need to change the opinions of the wide web world – yikes! But I’m definitely game to give Facebook Pages a go. Anything to re-establish value in my blog-niche is a good thing.
I see your point @StephenGlauser. We’ve set up a Facebook Group for PinoyWebStartup but can’t really keep up maintaining the community there. Maybe I’ll try this for my personal finance site.
Hm, does Darren have an FB page where you get to be a “fan”?
Hi,
Great article.
I have added my blog to “my notes” in Facebook (RSS feed).
So everyday my friends can see my posts.
The traffic is only within a small circle of 290 friends ; but at least they know what I am up to.
I get lots of feedbacks that way constantly
That’s a great idea, I hadn’t thought of it. I need these sort of tips to promote my blog, because as long as I promote it I get good results, I’m getting an average of 5 page views per visitor so this is good, but my blog doesn’t talk about something people would search on the net. This is why Facebook might be ideal…Thanks
Hi，a really helpful post. I am new to facebook, but I will explore it carefully after reading this post. thanks.
Yikes! I feel so ashamed for not knowing about the Facebook Page option on Facebook. I suppose that’s what you get when you’re the passive user of the site that I am. In the past, I had tried to figure out a decent way of promoting my blogs through my Facebook profile but, aside from streaming the posts themselves…This is definitely something I’d like to try. Thanks for the heads-up Mike!
Creating a Facebook page seems like a good choice now and easier to be found. But I wonder how long will it be that way. Facebook has 100 million users world wide so it seems that it will soon be just as hard to be found on Facebook as it will on Google. SEO will be a huge factor on promoting “fan” page.
Hi, Thanks very much. Previously, I am getting lot of traffic from Facebook Site. Now, i will try your tricks too.
Just what I needed to hear.
Thanks for the update!
Thanks for the post, maybe its all I need to finally have a good look at Facebook and do something with it.
A few months back I created a facebook page for the company I work for. Since I lauched the page I’ve wondered what would be the facebook page over a facebook group. If you can provide the pro’s/con’s I’d like to see that.
Just glad to see them keeping business ads and such at least a little bit away from the normal profiles, so it doesn’t become so spammy.
Thanks for this. I actually just posted about a similar topic (web 2.0 in general) http://mdesignboutique.typepad.com/meliciouswonders/2008/06/wuwuwuwednesd-1.html
I’m not as familiar with facebook as I should be. My account is fairly passive thus far.
I have already created a Facebook Page but am not sure the best way about utilizing it. I added my RSS to the page so all my blog posts are dynamically added to the profile. Do you have any other tips on what content to add or how to get fans?
Thanks for all the great info Darren and Mike.
Wow, thanks a lot for this!
Does anyone know an effective application for adding an RSS feed to your Facebook Page? The applications i have seen so far seem to just be for adding RSS to your profile or fail to update.
I’m in highschool and my new blog about Facebook Notes is getting lots of attention. My Fan Page and Group grow every day too – it’s really easy!
I created a Group, but I couldnt share long Notes on the Wall. When I created a Fan Page, I could post notes there and I could pull the updates from my blog into the Notes area. Now I just update my blog, and my Fan Page is updated too – and all my fans get a notice. ;-)
Facebook has been a priority for me since I launched my freelance marketing & public relations venture, Renown Promotions. I have been able to create a wide network of friends since I have been a user since 2005, but when it came to getting the word out about Renown, my friends are not necessarily the most interested because they are not client potential. I have not had the most experience with the marketing side of Facebook before because of how I thought of it-as a social media to keep in touch with friends. However, now that I have my own business-that viewpoint has to change. The Facebook Marketer page will be the perfect answer because I can finally have “fans” that will mean something to my business, whether it be a referral, a blog reader, or just a supporter-I can use every bit of it. Thanks for the insight-
Rebekah
Only people who are already popular can get more popular thro. these pages…otherwise no one will care to visit your page…can you quote an example where an unknown guy became popluar thro. a facebook page? For get about obama…
The idea of using a page is a good one. My advice is to enter into it carefully.
It’s easy to setup a page, but difficult to build a community around it. You need a decent number of people actually using the page for it not to look a bit like a graveyard. Which may be worse that not having one at all.
This is what happened at my old page and so when I joined a new website I have changed tactics.
The answer may be to have a plan before you create the page. What are you going to use it for and how are you going to ancorage people to join up and actually use the page?
That’s what I have done this time. Time will tell if it works better.
For a popular blogger like Darren pages simple: build it and they will come. For smaller blogs it’s a more difficult route.
Consider all the alternatives and outcomes before setting off.
Hi Darren,
This is a great idea in principle and there is obviously a lot of potential for driving traffic from Facebook to your other websites.
However, it’s all well and good creating a Facebook fan page, but unless your are already a well known subject, celebrity etc it is going to be difficult to get fans.
Perhaps for a follow up article you could suggest some ways on how to grow the popularity of a Facebook page?
This is a great idea in principle and there is obviously a lot of potential for driving traffic from Facebook to your other websites.
However, it’s all well and good creating a Facebook fan page, but unless your are already a well known subject, celebrity etc it is going to be difficult to get fans.
Perhaps for a follow up article you could suggest some ways on how to grow the popularity of a Facebook page?
Nice one. I have used facebook advertising system and was quite amazed by its power. So yes creating a profile page would definitly help a lot as well :)
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Simple yet complicated talks..
http://www.WakasMir.com
I hate to be devils advocate all the time (as its not in my nature)… I would be concerned about building up such an asset (as it would be worth something and requires investment) that is in the control of someone else, particularly if they can disable it or mess with it without your permission. Worse still, steal it!
How do you promote your blog on facebook, when noone knows about it?
Has anyone succeeded in adding subcribers through facebook? I haven’t been able to do that at all.
Great post, Darren…
You gave people a lot of ideas on ways they can promote their blog (or business, in general) using Facebook Pages. It’s arguably one of the most cost effective (read “free”) ways a blogger can promote their site.
I recommend using Facebook Pages in conjunction with Facebook Groups. One the surface, they appear to be virtually identical. However, there are profound differences among them. Regardless, they both should be used to leverage Facebook’s power.
Using Pages and Groups is an excellent way to build a community around your blog/product/service. Both offer high levels of engagement and can be used to capture the attention of Facebook members.
I’ll leave with this tip: start a group on Facebook. Promote it! And then add “officers.” It’s a superficial feature that really serves no particular purpose. However, it does ENGAGE your group members.
Making someone an officer plays into human behavior. We all want to feel like we’re *really* a part of something. You’ll find that a lot of the most popular groups have a lot of officers. Take notice and follow suit.
I’m interviewing some people who are effectively taking their blogs and businesses to the next level just by using Groups…
They’ll be up soon at my site:
http://www.socialmediasidekick.com
P.S. The ability to add officers is one of the ways Pages differs from Groups.
P.P.S. My apologies for the long reply ;-)
I never thought of Facebook as advertising but this week, when Visa offered free $100 advertising budget for installing their Visa Business Network applications, I jumped on it.
Wow… it really diverted quite a lot of traffic to my web site. The impressions are great (several hundred thousands) but more significant was the clicks (several hundred) which was really great !
Nice post and quite informative too, specially for me. I have never used facebook advertising system and was quite amazed to know about its power. I guess, creating a profile page would definitely would help me a lot.
Another great post for Problogger! I’ve been wondering if I could use Facebook to drive traffic to my blog Novice AffiLiate for some time now, but just couldn’t seem to think of a way. I’m definately going to start a Facebook Page and a Group this week. Thanks man!
Adrian
I am worrying about my blog’s promotion. This article helps me doing better for my blog. Thank you for posting!
Thank you so much for this post!
I created a group for my green networking website (www.altglobe.com) on facebook and now I will create a page too, thanx to your important advice. Free traffic is good and I hope the quality will not disappoint.
Best luck,
Aviad
I have been wanting to set up a face book page for my blog but have yet to find any good information on the process. Thank you for the post. I like that you do not have to have a link to your profile from your Facebook page.
i have a page for medical students
now there are 7,000 fans
can i earn from it ??
Thanks for that Article after Reading the article I followed your advice and created my own facebook page. Now all I have to do is get people to go there.
Thanks again.
Great advice – thanks! Would you also suggest setting up a group or does it become counterproductive to the fan page?
http://www.janehuntart.com
Great article. I will start implementing this strategy A.S.A.P.
Also…keywords DO make a big difference in the “search” option so choose your keywords carefully.
Bill
I have tried using Facebook, but it just wasn’t my style. I am more of a Youtube and Google SEO guy. I think the other stuff is kind of a waste of time. But that’s me. I know it works for some people… it just depends upon the person.