Make Money from Blogs » Facebook Fan Page

Differences between Facebook Fan Page and Groups ? Which is better (contd..)

ashish — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 19:36:52 +0000

The previous post (link) had started out with an analysis of the differences between a Facebook Fan Page and a Facebook Group, and based on that analysis, and comparing with your need, you would need to figure out which one is more suitable for your needs. Here is the concluding part of that article:
1. Groups can send messages to their members as long as members are less than 5,000, while Page Admins can send updates to any number of fans
2. You can directly update content from your blogs and other areas such as Twitter by using applications such as RSS, Networked Blogs, etc, while Groups need manual updates – this if you want your blog posts to automatically appear on Facebook, then a Fan Page is the way to go
3. You can promote your Fan Pages through the use of targeted ads, something not possible with Facebook Groups. Through ads, you can get a large number of fans
4. Groups allow a far higher degree of control over who all can join the group or not, including ensuring that members need to be approved before being allowed inside, while the level of control in a Page is far lower

In short, it seems more like that Groups was something that Facebook was supporting earlier, but the focus is now moving over to a Facebook Fan Page being the area that will have a higher focus.

Differences between Facebook Fan Page and Groups ? Which is better ?

ashish — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:16:03 +0000

Well, there is no easy way to determine the right answer for the last question above – “Which is better”. I know that most people detest an answer which starts with “It depends”, but it is true in this case. It depends on what you are trying to promote, what is the level of response and involvement you are looking at, and so on. So, let’s do some evaluation of the differences between a Facebook Fan Page and a Facebook Group.
1. The way that Fan Pages and Groups are setup (including their privacy settings) are different. Fan Pages, when they started out, were modeled after the concept of they being the representation of the fans of a artist, a musician, a rock band, and so on. A group allowed the administrator to set higher levels of privacy, including this being secret, and was more like a club.
2. Groups are meant for a more closer or intimate level of interaction, such as being able to see who the administrator of the Group is, being able to view the profiles of the group members, and so on. On the other hand, you can hide the name of the administrator of the Fan Page, and the profile information of members is also hidden. As a result, a Fan Page allows a viewer to maintain privacy while reading the information on the Fan Page.
3. Groups cannot have additional information added to the pages through applications, while Fan Pages allow you to extent the functionality through the use of external third party applications. As the number of such applications increases, this becomes more important.
4. Groups are not available to non-Facebook users, while Fan Pages are visible to non-Facebook users, letting a greater number of people get access to these posts and find these results through searches.
5. However, since the apparent involvement of users with Facebook Groups is greater, any update sent to the group is displayed more prominently on the user’s profile in the case of a Group rather than in a Fan Page
6. The level of statistics provided in a Fan Page is far greater than that in a Group, and if you are interested in doing a number of statistical analysis of your readers, then a Fan Page will be more useful.
(to be contd..)

How to promote your Blog on Facebook – Some tips (contd..)

ashish — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 07:07:47 +0000

In an earlier post (link), I had outlined some steps to promote your blog using the Social Networking Tool, Facebook, specifically, using the Fan Page tool. Here are some more tips on the same subject, with the hope that you do your best to ensure that you use this tool to its optimum. With Facebook having an increasing number of users, and who are more sticky than other tools, you need to ensure that you do your optimum on this tool. Here are more tips and techniques:
1. If you have friends who are interested in the same area, then send them a link to the Page and invite them to become a Fan(for example, it would make a lot of sense to send a link to a travel Fan Page for somebody who likes to travel, or who has expressed an interest in knowing about different tourist locations)
2. When you enter a post directly to your wall, then a brief excerpt and thumbnail from the post appear next to the post link. At that time, Facebook gives an option to select the thumbnail that appears by giving a small selector. Select the best photo that you can find from the thumbnails that appears.
3. In order to get an initial set of fans, you can ‘encourage’ friends and relatives to become fans. People tend to become fans when they see other people have become fans; and if you get your friends and relatives to become fans, then it becomes easier for you to get more fans. It is only celebrities and important people who automatically have become people becoming fans, others have to struggle.
4. Add some personal touch to your blogs, such as your photo, a note to your readers, and information about the topics. This helps your readers feel more connected to your Fan Page (and to you), and also helps promote your Page by adding to keyword intensity.
5. It would seem like Facebook does not allow you any sort of customization, but that is not true. Facebook Pages now allow you to add customization through the use of 3rd party apps, and for adding Text / HTML, you can use an application such as Static FBML
6. I earlier mentioned using your Fan Page as a part of your signature, in addition, use an invitation to join as part of your status messages on various IM’s (such as setting this as part of your GTalk signature).
7. Claim a short name for your Facebook Fan Page (right now, the page can be a bit long). However, you need to ensure that you have atleast 25 Fans for this to happen (learn more).
Let me know if there are other tips that have helped you in the past. Thanks for reading.

How to promote your Blog on Facebook – Some tips

ashish — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:38:51 +0000

Facebook is turning out to be a great tool for promoting your blog. Well, you might consider as to why Facebook ?
- Facebook has a growing number of users who spend a huge amount of time on the application
- If you create a Facebook Fan Page for your blog (click to learn how), your posts are also searchable
- Typically, the structure of a Facebook Fan Page is that your users can start to generate content on their own and post that on the Facebook Fan Page, increasing the amount of content you have (but this takes time, and needs a number of users)
- When combined with other blog promotion strategies such as using Twitter, allowing your users to easily subscribe, and many others, using Facebook increases the potential of your blog finding more users

Now that you are convinced (hopefully) about using a Facebook Fan Page, how can you increase the promotions you do via your Facebook Fan Page:
1. Mention your Facebook Fan Page in your posts at the end, and as your signature on emails
2. Use a Facebook Fan Box to send your blog viewers to your Facebook Fan Page (click to learn)
3. Ensure that your blog is automatically posted to your Fan Page (click to learn)
4. Don’t only depend on your own blog posts. Post other articles from other sites that are relevant (don’t steal – link to the actual article and put a small teaser on top). If the site owner sees you doing this, they will appreciate your not stealing, and in fact, promoting their content.
5. Post a link to your Fan Page in your Profile, so that your friends get a chance to find your Fan Page
6. Automatically link your Fan Page to your Twitter account so that any update on your Fan Page gets published to your Twitter account (click to learn)
7. Run an Ad campaign on Facebook, it is not very expensive and can get you a large number of Fans who would not have otherwise found your Blog
8. Add a logo. A logo, if interesting, gives a brand value to your Fan Page, and can differentiate your page from other pages
9. Add detailed information to the info tab. Many people go to the info tab, and if they find some interesting information, it can enhance their opinion of the Fan Page and give a higher chance of becoming loyal readers.
10. Write a blog post about your new Facebook Fan Page. This gives your readers the knowledge that they can also connect to you on Facebook.

(contd..)

Linking your Facebook Fan Page to your Twitter account

ashish — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:41:42 +0000

So, you have an account with Facebook (and you know that for effective promotion of your blog, you need a Facebook Fan Page, not just depending on your profile), and your posts even directly get imported to Facebook. Similarly, you have an account on Twitter and your updates are also posted to this Twitter as tweets for your followers to read. You could even use the same tool to post to both social networking tools, or you could use different tools (I use Twitterfeed to post to Twitter, and use Networked Blogs to post to my Facebook Fan Page; because I could not work out how to post to the Facebook Fan Page using Twitterfeed)
So, why do you need to directly connect Facebook and Twitter ? Well, consider that you have an active Facebook Fan Page with enough fans that they post tips, comments and useful content. This is actual content that your users would like and would read, and by just keeping it there on the Fan Page, you are restricting your Twitter followers from getting this content; and if you get this content on Twitter, it increases the chances of more people hitting your blog.
So, how do you associate your Facebook Fan Page and your Twitter account ? Well, first you need to login into your account, and then visit the following page (http://www.facebook.com/twitter/), and then click on the button that says “Link a page to Twitter”. The next page will show you all the Fan Pages that you own, and then you can map any of them to the desired Twitter account by clicking on the “Link to Twitter” button. You will need to agree to the next set of security warnings and login into your Twitter account. You can select what type of content you want to update and you are all set.