Metz, The Social Concept

So, you have Facebook fans: Now What?

February 19, 2009

My company [METZ partner company], Socialbees is frequently approached by small businesses with stagnant Facebook growth. They tend to reach a plateau fairly early on and then are at a loss for the next steps. How do they optimize their Fan Page and drive more growth and actual revenue?

While Facebook optimization is a critical step toward growing your fan base, optimizing a business page is unique to every business and there’s truly no one size fits all model. On the other hand, one area that is easy to speak in more general terms about is how to interact with your fans to encourage brand loyalty and viral growth once they have joined your page.

Here are six tips any business on Facebook should implement right away:

1. Be Gracious & Acknowledge Your Fans

If someone walked into your store or office, would you ignore them or would you greet them? Wouldn’t you ask them questions, like how did they find you and what are they looking for?

Your Facebook page – just like your website – is an online storefront. The catch is that it’s even more critical to reach out to your potential customers here. Unlike in real life, they will not simply walk through the door and instantly be swept away by your charming energy – no matter how irresistible you may be!

2. Follow Up & Learn More about Your Fans

When fans write back after you send a thank you note, follow up with them and reveal a little more about yourself and your company. This personal interaction helps to build the necessary trust that will help to convert a fan into a client. The other important factor in the follow up is profiling your fans and using this information to fine-tune your marketing efforts. Once a fan has responded to you, their basic profile information will be revealed allowing you to learn a little more about them. As you interact with more and more fans, this demographic information can become extremely useful.

3. Friend or Fan? Understand the Difference

Remember, fans are different then friends, so don’t try to add your fans to your personal friends list. First of all, they may be offended because most Facebook users still use the site the way it was originally intended – to interact with real life friends and contacts. Secondly, as you grow your friend list into a stranger list, your news feed becomes less and less valuable and extremely time consuming to manage. So, all in all, adding your fans or any other strangers to your personal Facebook profile is a lose lose situation and should not be a part of your marketing efforts.

4. Know How Often to Update

It’s critical to keep your fans engaged by adding fresh content to your page and sending updates that reference your content. It gives them a compelling reason to return to your fan page and interact with it. While you want to be sure your business is top of mind, you also do not want to lose fans by updating too frequently. We have determined that bi-weekly updates are the best rule of thumb, however, you can also ask your fans how often they want to hear from you—you might be surprised!

5. Poll Your Fans

Fans want to know that you are listening to—and acting on—their feedback, so you should plan regular fan polls and adjust how you interact with them based on the specific needs of your fan base. When your fans feel that their voices are being heard and they are a part of the experience, they feel closer to your brand and more passionate about it.

6. Follow Up to Close Sales

What’s the big difference between selling to your Facebook fans and selling to your in person customers? Facebook fans require more relationship development and follow-up. Building trust with fans takes patience and time, but it is still generally much more efficient then going out to in-person networking events, making cold calls, or other traditional methods of finding customers and making sales.

The bottom line? Facebook allows us to interface with potential customers in a new and exciting way, but it’s up to us to make sure that their experience is entertaining, informative and habit-forming.

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Socialbees was founded in November, 2008 by Hazel Grace Dircksen, a sought-after Social Internet Consultant and entrepreneur based in Silicon Valley, Hazel Grace has helped numerous companies leverage social networking tools to expand visibility and reach new audiences. They have been partners with METZ since late 2008.

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