Intro to More Facebook Fans
On Your Way To More Facebook Fans
Facebook went and changed things up, recently switching the "Become a Fan" of a page option to now encouraging people to "Like" a page. People are still technically "fans" of a Facebook page, however -- the terminology is just different now.
Everyone wants more Facebook fans -- it's not fun to only have 2 fans of a page. However, getting Facebook fans isn't always easy if you don't already have a huge fan base or audience elsewhere. Sure, Techcrunch or Mashable can set up a Facebook Page and have thousands of fans within a few days, if not hours, but their sites, Twitter accounts, and other networks already have a dedicated - and large - following.
So how does the average local business, ecommerce site, or person with a hobby grow their Facebook fan page? Through my own hobby site and then Facebook fan page, I've learned a few tricks.
I need more Facebook Fans ASAP!
My hobby site, Girly Drinks, started in 2008 with 0 readers and now -- in 2010 -- boasts a humble 5,000 to 10,000 unique visitors a month.
In 2009, I decided to create a Facebook Fan Page [facebook.com/girlydrinks]. For the longest time, I didn't pay much attention to the page, and it stayed at 100-200 fans. Then I started noticing that my Facebook fans were clicking on my posts and visiting my site more frequently than any other sites I was using, including Twitter and StumbleUpon, so I decided to focus more of my efforts on creating content for my Facebook fans and increasing the fans on my Facebook page. My big push came around October of 2009 and due to a few efforts, I saw my Facebook fan base gradually increase over the next few months. As of May 2010, my Facebook fans are at (previous #'s: 919 ) 1,149, and I hope to add a minimum of 100 fans a month over the next few months.
How did I do it? Trial and error. I've found the best way to increase the number of Facebook fans is to employ a number of methods, each of which I outline below.
The Keyword Academy
I've mentioned in other hubs about my love for The Keyword Academy. Mark and Court, two successful entrepreneurs, were responsible for teaching me how to effectively research keywords that would make money (my main goal) through AdSense, but also taught me the ways to optimize and rank for those keywords. Choosing a keyword that no one searches for means that you'll have to work even harder to promote the page, but choosing a keyword that can make you money (especially via Facebook), is just an added benefit. Find out more about The Keyword Academy.
Use Keywords
Facebook and Google announced that they would be indexing Facebook posts as long as those posts and pages weren't private, so ensure that your posts, page, and URL is optimized for popular keywords.
A popular keyword for a URL (such as facebook.com/twitter) means that with enough links, your Facebook page could appear in search engines when someone searches for Twitter. Similarly, your Facebook page could appear in search engines for your name, company name, or one of your products or services.
I've yet to see a post appear in the search engines, but with engines like Google who now has a "most recent" and "news" filters, a timely and relevant Facebook page post could likely appear in the engines for at least a short while. Say you had a sports page about the Red Wings and you decided to live blog Game 7 of the NHL playoffs. If you were to write the score and up to date information on your Facebook page, someone searching for the current score may come across your Facebook Page under "Most Recent" in Google and then become a fan of your page.
The Facebook Like Box
Formally known as the Facebook Fan Box, the Facebook Like Box helps to cross promote your fan page on your website.
Adding The Like Box
The Like Box is located within your Facebook Fan Page settings.
Facebook Fan Box
The Facebook Like Box, formally known as the Facebook Fan Box, is an application that you can grab from your Facebook Fan Page settings page and add to the website of your choosing.
I have a Facebook Like Box on my website that is directly related to my Facebook Fan Page, and I place it in the sidebar of my wordpress run site, allowing anyone that visits my site to see how many fans I have, that I have a Facebook Fan Page for the site, and some of the latest posts on my Facebook Fan Page.
Often, I'll post links to my latest blog post on my Facebook Fan Page, but I also post recipes and special links *only* on my Facebook Fan Page. This encourages people to visit both my site and become a fan of my Facebook Page so as not to miss anything.
To add a Facebook Like Box to your website:
- Visit your Facebook page
- Click on "Edit Page"
- On the right hand sidebar underneath "Promote Your Page," click on "Promote with a Like Box"
- Set the desired width and height of your Facebook Like Box. I place my Like Box in the sidebar of my website for the most visibility, but you may need to do some testing to see what works best for you.
- I select "Show Stream" and "Show Header" so that people can read my latest Facebook Page posts and links or click thru to the Facebook page immediately.
- Select "Get Code"
- Place the iFrame or XFBML code on your website
Promote Your Facebook Fan Page
I choose a recent Facebook Fan Page post to promote with an ad.
Facebook Advertising
The Facebook Advertising ad that I ran for one day.
How Much Money Do You Spend Before Calling A Facebook Advertising Campaign A Failure?
Since writing this hub, I've joined the Shoemoney System and learned quite a bit more about Facebook advertising. I've also since started a number of Facebook advertising campaigns to different fan pages I own, including Girly Drinks, with successful results. The biggest takeaways were to:
- Start your ad campaigns as CPC instead of CPM (Shoemoney explains the reasoning much better than I ever could, but it's perfect for testing your ads to get the best ROI and determine which ads perform the best/have the lowest CPC and best conversion rate before switching over to CPM)
- Make use of the reporting features to determine which age groups/locations/demographics have the lowest CPC and best CTR
- Create multiple versions of the same ad to test in order to determine the best images, ad copy, and age groups; this will allow you to choose the best performing ads and have a successful campaign
Facebook Ads
If you only have a Facebook Fan Page for ego purposes, spending money on increasing your Facebook Likes or fans may not make much sense. But if you hope to send your Facebook fans to your website and convert them to customers, whether through an ecommerce purchase, clicking on an AdSense ad/Affiliate link/advertising banner, or getting them to sign up for your newsletter/email list/etc, spending a few dollars each month to get highly targeted customers is worth it.
I've used Facebook Advertising a number of times, and each time I learn something new. When I use Facebook Advertising to promote my Facebook page, I make sure that I'm promoting something that is actually on my Facebook page and recent, is newsworthy or timely, and that I know will convert Facebook users from Ad viewers to fans of my Facebook page.
One of the recent Facebook ads I ran was for a relevant and timely topic -- Skyy Vodka had just been featured in US Weekly for their newest cocktails promoting the release of the Sex and the City 2 movie. I drafted up a quick Facebook Fan Page post with relevant keywords and linked to an image of the article and cocktail recipes, then Facebook suggested that I "promote" that post. You'll notice at the bottom of the post, there's a button that says "Promote," which is only visible to the Facebook Fan Page admin.
When you click on "Promote," Facebook lets me know that if I target a specific demographic, I can get a specific number of impressions for a low CPM (cost per thousand impressions). On top of the low cost, I can narrow down the keywords to target potential fans that like the movie Sex and the City, are female, over 21, and like Girly Drinks. If that's not the perfect fan, I don't know what is. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on this advert, so I chose to run it for 1 day only, at $2.00 (yes, only $2.00), and at a CPM of $.32. At the end of the day, I was up 50 clicks, had received 9,159 impressions, only spent $2, and went from 869 fans to 919 fans. Not only do I consider that a successful way of gaining new and targeted fans, but I know that over the next few days, friends of my new fans will see that their friends "Liked" the Girly Drinks Facebook Fan page or a post on my fan page, and that maybe those friends will also "Like" my page.
Facebook Like Button On Wordpress
You can add a "Like" button on Wordpress.
The Wordpress Like Plugin
Facebook Like Button Wordpress Plugin
The Facebook Like Button Wordpress plugin is a new development that has helped me both increase website traffic and Facebook fans.
When Facebook introduced the "Like" functionality, the Wordpress Like Plugin was developed shortly after.
With the Wordpress Like Plugin, the "Like" button shows up after each of your Wordpress blog posts. When a reader of your website clicks on the "Like" button after a post on your site, a status update will appear on the person's Facebook profile and in their friend's Facebook stream, letting everyone know that they like a specific post on your website. This doesn't add Facebook fans immediately, but if a reader clicked on the "Like" button and a friend ends up clicking on their status update and visiting your website, because they are already on Facebook, they may just see your Facebook Like Box or a link to your Facebook page and become a fan immediately. Either way, the Wordpress Like Plugin has been a significant source of traffic for me and I've seen a direct relationship between adding that button to my site and an increase in Facebook Fans.
 | Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day Amazon Price: $15.86 List Price: $29.99 |
 | Facebook Advertising For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)) Amazon Price: $14.53 List Price: $24.99 |
Facebook Photo Tagging
Want to reach friends of your current fans? Ask your fans to:
- Take a picture with you/your business/product/something related
- Upload the picture to your Facebook page
- Tag themselves in the picture they just uploaded
In my example, I could have people upload pictures of cocktails to my page then tag themselves. Those photos would then appear on my Facebook fan page in a "Fan Photos" folder, but more importantly, those photos will appear in the fan's profile stream and their friends -- who may not yet be fans of your page -- will see those photos and that someone/your page is tagged.
The potential to reach new friends with this gimmick is great. Lets say you have 100 Facebook fans and each of those fans has a minimum (usually much greater) of 100 friends. If only 10 people were to participate in the uploading and tagging of a picture, you would still reach at least 1,000 people. Even if only 10% of those 1,000 people clicked on the image and your Facebook Page and became a fan, that's still 100 new fans.
Why would people upload a picture to your page and tag themselves? I gave this example to a friend who runs the social media for a campaigning governor, and they implemented it on their Facebook page by suggesting that fans take pictures next to the campaigning governor when they met him at Town Hall meetings or take a picture of billboards or advertisements with the campaigning governor's name. The participation has been tremendous and their Facebook Fans have grown steadily.
If you were a restaurant, you could suggest people take pictures of your food and upload and tag it for a discount on their next meal, while a car dealership could encourage fans that have bought cars from them to upload and tag pictures of their new car for a free carwash/tire rotation/detailing on their next visit. The opportunities are endless.
Tagging Popular Facebook Pages
Tag popular Facebook pages from your own page to get in front of a new audience.
Using Notes and @replies
Facebook allows tagging within status updates on both profiles and Facebook Pages. The functionality is similar to twitter, in which when you include the "@" symbol in front of someone's name, the name then becomes clickable and links to that person's profile.
For a Facebook Page admin, they could promote a recent post on another companies page, using the @ function to tag the person in the note on your page. When you tag another page, your whole note will then appear on that companies page. Be careful though: spamming can get you banned, and if you're a competitor trying to appear on another companies Facebook page, they may do the same back to you.
For my site, I've tried to use holiday's and special events to appear on popular pages. A niche holiday, World Nutella Day, was the perfect opportunity for me to appear in front of over 10,000 Nutella fans with a Nutella related cocktail recipe. If you're a new band that is opening up for a larger band, you can take the opportunity to get in front of new fans by announcing, and tagging, the other band in an "upcoming events" post.
TIP
Once you receive at least 25 Facebook Fans or "Likes," you can create a personalized Facebook URL (such as mine: www.Facebook.com/girlydrinks). To claim your custom Facebook URL, visit Facebook Username. You can then set a username for your pages. Choose something short and easy to remember, especially if you plan to use it as a promotional tool on other sites.
"Follow Me" on Facebook
This one is simple: at the end of your blog posts, add a clickable link (whether through straight html or one of the social bookmarking plugins) that suggests that if the reader liked the content, they become a fan of yours on Facebook.
You can also include your Facebook Page link on social bookmarking sites you frequently use, within email signatures, in your newsletter, and anywhere else that a potential customer may see it.
If you want to track which sites are sending over the most traffic to your Facebook page, you can use tracking URL shortener services such as SU.PR, Bit.ly, and ow.ly. Using that data to determine which sites are referring the most and best traffic to your Facebook Page can help you decide where your marketing efforts and time are best spent.
Free Social Media Resources
Looking for more tips on how to promote your pages, get more fans, and stay up to date on the latest trends? Here's a few blogs that I read:
Social Media
A few ways to use social media to increase your Facebook Page fans are:
- Promote recent Facebook Page posts via a link on Twitter
- Ask people to Stumble, Digg, and bookmark your Facebook Page
- Grab photos from Flickr and post them as a link on your Facebook Page; link from the Flickr photo to the Facebook page stating that there is more information about the picture there
Free PPC Learning Resources
I work in PPC accounts every day -- my day job is working with the Detroit News and Detroit Media Partnership managing advertisers online advertising accounts. Some of the PPC resources I read daily, or that have helped me to along the way, include:
PPC and SEM
If you do decide to create a Pay Per Click Ad Group or Campaign to your Facebook page with the intention of getting more fans, make sure that the cost is worth it. Certain keywords can have a high cost per click and can run your budget into the ground.
Examples of campaigns that may be beneficial are timely ad groups, such as a "holiday gift ideas" or "mother's day gifts" linking to a restaurant fan page with a coupon only for Facebook fans or a jeweler's fan page listing proposal ideas for a man looking to get engaged soon (hint hint Mike).
Encourage Comments
Post questions and polls and post timely information to encourage current fans to comment, share, and "like" your posts. Every time a fan comments or likes a post, your post will show up in their friends' Facebook stream, making your page visible to an untapped group of potential fans.
Friends of Facebook Pages
Start with your friends when creating a Facebook Page following.
Ask Your Friends
If you're just starting out with a Facebook Page and have zero followers, asking your friends for a mercy "Like" might be a good starting point. All of your other marketing efforts will be in vain if a potential fan sees that no one else likes your page.
To ask your friends to "Like" your Facebook page, visit your page and click on the "Suggest to friends" link under the profile picture on your page. A pop up box will then appear that asks you to select which friends should get your invitation, and you'll also have an opportunity to write a message.
Be careful not to over do the page promotions to friends, though. One time is generally enough -- if your friends don't want to become a fan the first time, it's unlikely that they'll decide to become a fan the 15th time you invite them.
If directly asking your friends to become a fan of your page isn't your style, you can also click on "Share" underneath any of your Facebook page posts. When you do so, the post will appear as a status update, with the option to write a message, on both your Facebook profile and within the homepage stream of any of your friends. Anyone interested will click thru the post and visit your Facebook page.
Link to Popular Sites
This is a method I'm still testing, but every once in awhile, I'll post a link to a popular article on a site that isn't mine, such as Fine Living. When those sites see that they are getting a number of hits from your Facebook page, they may include a link back to your page in a link post or refer to your page at a later date.
I once linked to DListed from my Facebook Page and received a link from Dlistedback to my main site. The traffic was amazing (over 8,000 visitors in one day) and some of those visitors converted into Facebook fans and loyal readers. Dlisted is amazing.
Facebook Optimization
Linkbuilding to your Facebook page is one way to optimize it.
Linkbuilding
The more high quality links there are to a site, the more likely that site is to appear within the search engines.
Through a combination of links from my websites and links from other sites, I've, pretty much organically, received 176 links to my Facebook Page. If I were to focus my attention on achieving a higher number of inbound links to my Facebook Page, optimized for specific keywords, I could have my page ranking for a variety of keywords that potential fans might search for, including "cocktail recipes" and even "margaritas."
Become A Fan To See Private Content
Become a fan to get the coupon
Fan Only/Protected Content
Sites like Einstein Brothers Bagels and Reebok Hockey have taken advantage of the private content option on Facebook Fan Pages.
To receive a coupon on the Einstein Bros Bagels Facebook Page to get a free bagel, you first need to become a fan, or "Like" the page. Click on their page and then the "Free Bagel" tab, and if you're not a fan, you'll see an orange image that requests you become a fan to get a free bagel. Click on "Like" and then the "Free Bagel" tab and the image then turns green, letting you know the directions for claiming your free bagel.
Similar to Einstein Bros, Reebok Hockey recently ran Sidney Crosby Videos on their Facebook Page but only allowed Fans to view them in their entirety. Non-fans were able to see teasers of the videos, but to see the rest, you had to click on the video tab, which was only accessible to fans.
Both of these methods are incentive for people to become fans in order to view or get something.
TIP
Keep an editorial calendar for your Facebook Page. Even if you're posting relevant links to articles on other sites, keep your fans updated. You can also add social media updates (applications like twitter for facebook, where you're technically posting the same thing to both twitter and facebook), photos, and polls when you don't have the time to post something longer. I do weekly roundup posts on my sites where I both link out to other, relevant sites, and give my audience a roundup of the top news in my niche. I use sites like google (type in keyword, such as "cocktail" in my situation, select "more search tools," then under "any time," select "past week" and you'll see the latest news and blog posts about your topic in the past week. You can also use Twitter Search and other search tools to find relevant posts.
Post Regularly
Last but not least, you have to maintain your Facebook Page so that you don't lose your current fans, but also so that potential fans have incentive to join (to get up to date information) and to encourage current fans to help promote your page. If you're only checking in on your page once a month and posting irregularly, you're likely to lose fans -- especially if they joined then forgot about you and all of a sudden see your post in their stream. If you keep your fans up to date and post regularly, they'll become familiar with seeing your page in their stream and are less likely to click "unlike." Just make sure to continue posting relative, timely, and informative content.
Some landing pages that I'm a fan of include:
- Evan Bailyn, an SEO guy that became (even more) popular due to his work with Help a Reporter Out / HARO and Peter Shankman
- The Visit Las Vegas FB Fan Page Landing Page
Are you a Facebook landing page designer? Leave a comment below with a link to your services page and a blurb about your services and cost.
Added: Extra Tips
Since creating this hub, I've had a lot of great comments and also figured out a few additional tips. I'll update this section regularly:
- Create an optimized landing page for your Facebook Fan Page
When directing potential fans to your Facebook fan page, make use of FBML (facebook markup language) to create an additional, customizable tab for fans to land on, instead of them just landing on the Facebook Fan Page wall, where all they would see is comments and status updates.
Your customized landing page should tell potential fans why they should like your page and what they can expect from your fan page once they become a fan, plus any information about your product/service/person that stands out.
Facebook Advertising Resources
| Facebook Advertising For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)) Amazon Price: $14.53 List Price: $24.99 |
 | Facebook Advertising 101 - How To Create Facebook Ads That Work Amazon Price: $7.77 |
 | Facebook for Business: How To Market Your Business on Facebook and Get More Sales, New Customers and Brand Awareness Amazon Price: $9.99 |
More Updated: Facebook Advertising
A commenter below asked:
Thanks for post. Maybe you can answer a question for me: I'm running a campaign in which numbers/fans count. Our stats show we've had 813 clicks in the past 3 days, but we only have 203 fans. Shouldn't clicking the ad make them an automatic fan? What am I doing wrong??
My response:
Their ads are based on CPM or CPC, so you pay every time someone clicks on your ad (CPC) or every time 1,000 impressions are shown (CPM). Someone clicking on your ad may only view your page, they actually have to click on the "like" button on the top of your page to convert into a fan.
There's a few things you can do to try to get the people that click on your ad to convert into fans: create a landing tab (under edit page, change the wall settings/default landing tab to the tab of your choice), making the tab an intro to your page and explaining why the person should click like.
If you go to the ad manager, click on your campaign, then click on the ad, you can see a detailed report of the last 5 days, and you'll also see an "Actions" column. The general Ads Manager tab only shows you clicks, but once you get to the actual ad, the Actions column shows that although you received xx clicks today, only x of those clicks converted into a fan.
You can also try narrowing your demographics/interests for your ads to better test which interests convert or try to qualify the person before they click (ie: "Only for serious poker players" for poker players). If your ad copy is too general, people may be clicking on your ad to see what you're about, with no real intention of ever becoming a fan. Asking a question in the title of the ad ("Are You A Fan Yet?" or "Are You A Poker Player?") can also qualify someone, with the ad copy and image further qualifying the person and explaining why they should become a fan.
My Page Currently Has:
See results without voting15 Ways To Get More Facebook Fans in the News
- Macy Gray asks if she should boycott IsraelKABC-TV Los Angeles3 days agoMacy Gray recently asked her Facebook fans if she should cancel concerts in Israel because of actions toward the Palestinians.
- Facebook Fans Get Published for Free and Donate to a Worthy Cause with the Help of Outskirts PressPRWeb6 days agoLeading self-publishing firm Outskirts Press is currently accepting poems, short stories, excerpts, and recipes from its Facebook members for inclusion in an upcoming Facebook Fan Anthology. (PRWeb January 18, 2011) Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/01/prweb4975084.htm
- GlassesUSA.com Launches Free Glasses Facebook ContestPRWeb5 days agoOnline glasses retailer offers Facebook fans a chance to win new frames. (PRWeb January 19, 2011) Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/glassesusa/eyeglasses/prweb4981714.htm
Facebook Brand Interaction Study by Beyond
How To Get More Facebook Fans: Checklist
Click on the image of the checklist to view the full size. Click "save image as" to save the checklist to your desktop.
About the Author
Rachel manages online reputation management, pay per click, andFacebook advertising accounts for a variety of companies. Located in Michigan, Rachel has worked in the Internet Marketing departments of companies such as Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, The Detroit News, and multiple agencies and startups. She also works on her main sites, Girly Drinks, iSerenity, and Wine Racks.
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