5 tips on how to maximise your Facebook fan pageFacebook has many tools to help you maximise your brands presence. In my last post we looked at 5 key reasons why you should be using facebook for your business. In this post I am going to give you 5 tips on how to maximise your facebook fan page!
I will also showcase some of the best fan pages I have come across on the social networking site.
1. Maximise your avatar visibility
Facebook gives you the opportunity to take advantage of some serious real estate on your page using your profile image. Your profile picture can have a maximum size of 200 x 600 pixels. This will make sure; regardless of what part of your Page they are on your brand is front and center.
2. Set up a Welcome page for non-fans using facebook's FMBL code.
Facebook gives you the opportunity to create custom made Tabs using their FMBL (Facebook Markup Language) code. FMBL allows you to customize your facebook fan page.
This is a great feature that can really bring your brand to life on facebook. You can implement video, links, flash and more into your welcome page. One good example is Cranium board game.
3. Make use of facebook's Vanity URL
If you have over 25 fans on your facebook page you are eligible to get a vanity facebook URL for your fan page, for example www.facebook.com/marginmedia. This is a great edition to facebook and allows businesses their own identity on facebook.
The urls are short, easy to remember and look great on your business cards and other promotional material. They also rank well in Google & Bing and other search engines turning your facebook page into a micro site for your business.
4. Enhance your pages presence using facebook apps
Facebook has many applications you can add to help create the perfect page for your business.
Adding apps to your facebook page is a great way to further engage your visitors and give them a reason to come back to your page time and time again.
The following is a list of 10 apps I recommend to enhance your facebook fan page:
- Social RSS – This one can be in either a box on your profile or even better, its own tab on your profile.
- IEndorse – Testimonials are a great way to build the value of your company. This app allows facebook denizens to endorse your company or find it via the IEndorse business database.
- My BusinessBlinkWeb – Create a widget that promotes your business and that others can place on their profiles. This basically turns your friends, clients, or customers into your advertisers.
- Smart Phone – Phone to phone calls and even some conference call features that are all handled from your FB profile.
- My LinkedIn Profile – Creates a badge from your LinkedIn profile that gets displayed on your Facebook profile.
- PodCast Player – Share audio interviews on your profile, or your company’s podcasts.
- Page Maps – Display a mini map (with links to larger maps) of where your business or favorite place to have business meetings are.
- Static FBML – Add some advanced functionality to your facebook Page by being able to render HTML or FBML (Facebook Markup Language) on the page. Change the look and feel, and even add apps, forms, and widgets from other places.
- Introductions – If you’re not good at meeting new people this app will help introduce you.
- Posted Items (Default App) – Share anything you find on the Internet () by posting it to your profile. Videos, blogs, or even articles about you or your company or anything else you find interesting.
5. Offer some incentive to entice users to join your facebook page
A great way to build up your facebook page is to offer users an incentive to become fans. Some examples are:
- A weekly special for facebook fans
- A free coupon/gift voucher
- Free shipping for your facebook fans
Carlton Dry used facebook to release a new beer onto the market, Carlton Dry Fusion Lemon. What Carlton needed was a message to speak to the young, unisex market they were targeting. The message they used to entice fans was “Free Beer”.
Carlton dry enticed people to join their facebook fan page and also spread the word about their new product by allowing facebook users to shout each other a Free Beer, a real Carlton Fusion Lemon, by printing off a voucher and redeeming it at BWS stores for a free beer. This worked wonders for Carlton Draft and was a huge success.
Try and think of creative ways to entice fans to your facebook page.
Once you have created a facebook page for your business, plan to dedicate time everyday to updating content and engaging in conversation with your fans.
facebook is a great tool allowing you to connect with and find future customers. Below is a showcase of well-designed facebook fan pages we have come across. Contact us today and find out how we can bring your brand to life on Facebook.
McDonalds
McDonalds welcome page promotes their new real fruit smoothies. It also gives the user the opportunity to create their own spin art, and vote on what type of fruit smoothie they like best.
McDonalds has many interactive elements to its facebook page including its menu, happy meal and dollar menu sections. McDonalds also offers a Get Local app, which entices users to enter their postcode and subscribe to updates, specials all personalized for your region.
K2 Skis
K2 Skis Welcome page gives the user the opportunity to browse their latest collection of Adventure, All Mountain, Twin Tips and Youth Skis.
The KS Skis Boxes Tab displays latest videos and photos. It has a fan box allowing users to upload their photos. It also has a K2 SK-Email subscription form allowing users to sign up and keep updating with all K2 Skis latest news and videos.
Fosters
The fosters Welcome page is very well designed and targeted to males in their late 20’s early 30’s. It has great interactivity and also incorporates video to show fosters recent advertisements.
Starbucks
Starbucks is currently the number one page on facebook with almost 8 million fans. Starbucks offers a couple of interactive apps with tangible benefits like discount coupons an interactive map linking to company’s regional FB pages and much more.
Starbucks make great use of their status updates incorporating video, blog posts from employees and also how to grow coffee beans. Starbucks do not use a great deal of interactive apps but are still able to engage with their fans on good old quality content.
Red Bull
A lot has been written about the Red Bull fan page as being one of the best on facebook. It is a personal favorite of mine as it offers so much interactivity with the brand and their interest.
Some of the features the Red Bull page has are
- A careers tab, displaying positions available with Red Bull
- They have incorporated twitter that pulls in tweets from Red Bull sponsored athletes.
- They have incorporated all sorts of boxes on their page with games like Super Mega Nitro Jump and Red Bull Flight Lab. They also have Drunkish Dial, which allows you to listen to messages of drunken peeps who have called Red Bull’s toll free number (Very Funny)
- My favorite is Red Bull TV with episodes of all sorts of extreme sports.
"Go and see if your favourite brand is on Facebook and let us know what it is."