How to Use a Facebook Page Effectively

Many websites and services now create Facebook pages for themselves simply because 'it's the thing to do' and it's 'better to have one than not have one', but there's seriously very little point in doing so unless you make the page itself valuable.

You may get hundreds, even thousands (depending on your core base and reach) of 'fans' on your page within weeks or months of creating it, but if you fail to engage these fans, they will soon begin to ignore and disregard your page and the links that you post will be about as useful as posting them into the ether...

I've got some experience in creating and managing Facebook pages and one that I currently run is active, with the fans routinely debating, liking and joining in and then clicking on to my content and giving me good traffic spikes whenever I need.

For those who may be inexperienced or not seeing much results, here's a few tips...

Tip #1 - Post Genuine and Interesting Statuses.

Although people may initially 'like' your page as they are aware of your brand, service or website, they won't stick around unless you're giving them something new here too.

It's almost like many famous comedians have said with stand-up comedy... they get an initial pass for who they are, but then it's like "okay, what ya got?"... your name or stature won't help people stick around, you need to interest them.

If you are knowledgeable and passionate about your sector, then you should be able to do this with ease. You should be able to rattle off thoughts in a flash.

And that's exactly what you do. Rattle off thoughts.

Not everything you post has to be super professional or meaningful all the time. Just think of the amount of musings, ideas and thoughts you have about whatever you do on a daily basis. If people can relate, or find what you say funny, interesting, engaging, provocative or SOMETHING, they will respond. Just make sure it's SOMETHING.

Rather than letting your good thoughts go to waste, for the ones that you don't use for articles or content, start writing them down... start jotting down lines, ideas, musings, ramblings - anything, into an open notepad, and start posting a few a day.

You can even post ideas that you plan to use, and take advantage of your FB page as a testing ground for response. If you have a 'great idea' for an article, before you go slogging out 10,000 words for something that doesn't connect, test a line or two out on your fans, see what kind of... if any, reaction it gets.

Tip #2 - Post Different Kinds of Content.

Nothing is more boring than predictability.

If you post the same kind of content, day in day out, as in... the same kinds of thoughts, over and over, or just continuous videos of the same kind... your page will begin to feel stagnant, people will be able to presume what comes next.

When this happens, your page becomes uninteresting to follow.

Surprise is interesting, new is interesting.

You can accomplish a constant sense of freshness with your page quite easily by simply rotating the kind of content you post.

- Post a few funny thoughts, then a few angry ones... then post a thoughtful video, then post a stat, fact or figure etc.

Don't go by a format, don't follow a pattern. If you don't, there will be no pattern to spot and your page will feel spontaneous and surprising.

Also, don't just treat this is a 'method', GENUINELY do it. GENUINELY search around the web, genuinely sit and think... people can feel sincerity.

Live your page with your fans (don't just try to exploit them), post engaging content, always change, always surprise, always stay a step ahead.

Tip #3 - Engage with Your Fans.

I cannot emphasize the importance of this one enough.

Engaging with your fans is definitely a key to success when it comes to FB pages. Especially at the beginning when your 'likes' and the page sociability may be low... take advantage of every and any response to any status / post you ever make.

If somebody disagrees with you, disagree with them back; spark debate. Stay classy and avoid personally insulting anyone, but give an opinion, make your page a discussion ground; spark discussions, court controversy, within reason.

Not only will doing this make your page feel alive, but if you are a fairly big brand or service, there's no underestimating how valued this will make your users feel, to be genuinely engaged with a service that would normally be silent.

Think about it - can you just have a casual chat with the creators of Google?

No. So, provide that.

You may not be Google, but if you have fans, then you have value, which means that engaging with people who find value in you, will increase it.

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Do all of this, and keep it in the moment...

I would advise building up your page in this way for a good few months before you even start worrying about posting your content or affiliate links.

By building your page in this way, you're making it a secondary base from which you can analyze and engage with your demographic; garner feedback, advice and input and grow WITH your users in a very LIVE setting.

Once you build that strong, tight base - you can begin posting some of your content, and your users won't mind since you have gained their trust and given them initial value and a reason to check out what you post or say.

If you don't do this however, you're asking people to dance to your tune for no apparent reason. You may have built an initial following with your website or service, but you need to essentially RE-ignite that, in the Facebook setting. As FB is its own world, and people are mostly on there to socialize, so until you engage with them on that level, in their world, you won't have much success.

Do this and I promise you - you will get very decent traffic to articles or content that you post. This is a great way to build a valuable base for your service.

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Read this ==> 9 Rules for Successful Facebook Pages

 

Read this ==> 9 Rules for Successful Facebook Pages
http://onlinesuccesscentre.com/2013/02/successful-facebook-pages/

 

Thanks for the information. Quite long article.

 

Thanks buddy.

I have plan to buy few pages and these tips are good.
You have any idea how to grow fans maybe ?

 

No problem!

And yep - okay so... since you said you're going to buy some pages, I'm presuming you're asking how to grow fans with an already somewhat established page?

Getting initial fans is the pulling teeth... once you have some fans to play with, you can leverage..

Some tips:

- Encourage your current fans to share and like things you post.
- Find related pages with similar / more fans: post on their pages, linking to yours.
- Find related pages; contact the owner and propose mutual sharing of fans.
- Find GIANT pages in the niche, post on the walls and images with a funny comment; ask for a like.

- Write very detailed, informative statuses that are provocative or interesting. Try and slightly antagonize(religion and politics are golden) OR inspire - these things will envoke discussion and compel people to involve other people they know, or share for humorous purposes. Don't be afraid of a little negativity within comments; debate fuels the fire of social interaction.

- Think-up games to play with statuses. Games that encourage sharing and liking. When people like your status, some people have these updates showing to their friends; imagine 40 people liking a status, let's say 20 of those show updates, with an average of 200 friends each... that's good exposure.

I hope they helped Good luck!

 

Wow! very informative post you have and thank you for sharing it to us :0

 

I would strongly advise you against buying fans. Follow these tips that the gentleman has given and keep your users in your mind. Your fan base would gradually grow.

 

Can someone help me with Facebook advertising?
I want to start advertising on facebook, but when I signed up I saw it said you have to create a page and then you basically advertise for that page, is that correct? If so how can you make money of that, do you just put your aff link on the page or what?
any help would be appreciated
thanks

 

Many many thanks for this great information...