Social campaigns

Banish The Boring: 12 Tips For Fan Pages

If your Facebook page isn’t getting the action you think it should be, it’s time to banish the boring and jazz things up!

It can be hard to be objective when reviewing your own page but it’s important that you review your page with a critical eye and determine how you can improve the page (which will improve your response).

Here are some tips to help you banish the boring…

1. Create an action plan for fresh content.  The best thing you can do to keep the page fresh and interesting is load great content regularly.  Without a plan, it likely won’t happen.  So sit down and brainstorm all the things you can post on the page (have fun and get creative).  Once the brainstorming is done, try writing about  2 weeks worth of posts and preschedule them to go live over the coming weeks.   Look at your page Insights and figure out which posts were most popular and then create more along the same lines.  Cover a variety of topics when you post. It will help keep the page more interesting.

2. Use images. Your post will get a lot more exposure if you are using interesting images.  Don’t overload the page with images.  Mix things up and as always strive for balance.  Photos will get you the most exposure but they are also most likely to cause people to feel the page is spammy, so be careful what images you use.  403 x 403 pixels is the perfect image size for Facebook Timeline!  Also, ensure its high quality and clear.

3. Create a killer cover photo.  First impressions are crucial.  Your cover photo should be interesting, it should clearly represent who you are and what you offer and if it can catch someone off guard (make them laugh, make them say “Wow, that is awesome” or make them want to share the image with friends and family) it’s even better!

4. Have a custom tab that allows you to further engage your visitors.  Allow them to join your mailing list, learn about a special offer, promotion or contest.  A custom tab allows you to ramp up your marketing and create a stronger sales message.

5. Make the most out of your “About” box.  You don’t have a lot of characters (only 165) so make sure you use them well!  Always include a link to your website and include your most compelling information (think about the benefit to the page visitor and make sure your text captures that).

comments

6. Respond to all comments.  It’s amazing how many page owners don’t respond to questions and comments.  Users won’t be compelled to participate if they see that you aren’t bothering to reply.

7. Ask questions!  Everyone loves to share their opinion.  Engage fans by asking questions – just remember to respond when people take the time answer your questions.

8. Invite your fans to post their tips/advice related to your products/services.  It’s great for other users to see that you have customers that are willing to step up and share info.

9. Check out your competition! See what they are doing that is working. You never want to copy anyone directly, there are of course the legal and ethical issues involved but you also don’t want to be seen as someone who just follows the pack.  You want to be seen as an innovator. So use competing pages for inspiration only – and then put your own unique spin on what you post.

10. Share opinions and insights.  Anyone can report news.  Take it a step further and include insight into what the info actually means and what the key “take-away” is for your fans.  This creates more value and makes them more likely to revisit your page and engage.

11. Keep your posts brief!  We find that about 100-150 characters works best.  While you can create longer posts, people don’t seem to respond as well.  Of course, you’ll need to test for yourself and find the sweet spot for your audience but in general trend towards brevity (especially when linking to a Blog post or content elsewhere).

12. Tell your fans what you want them to do!  When asked to Share, Like or Comment the responses were at least three times greater when the simple direction was given: Please Share, Please Like, Please Comment! The more people respond, the livelier your page is.  🙂

Go check out your page and see what you can do to jazz things up!

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10 Responses

  1. This article was really helpful to me. What you could mention too is that you can add html/iframes and also conect autoresponders subscriptions as tabs. I think with fb fanpages it’s posible to build a huge site with articles as “notes” linking to the subscriber page also on fb!

  2. Great article Jennifer. Didn’t realise the importance of keeping the updates brief!! Was regularly going up to 1000 characters – will keep the 150 limit in mind.

  3. nice tips thank you,if we ‘re talkin about seo or commerce we shuld do these.Sometimes i search for best facebook photos on forums

  4. Absolutely great suggestions and therefore a great post. Everything from your suggestion of making sure every comment is replied to, to asking the readers and fans what is expected of them, makes absolute sense.

  5. So it’s pretty much vital for anyone trying to promote a product, service, event, or cause to create a Facebook page. While other social networks (Google among them) are making gains, Facebook is still the largest and most popular out there, and that’s unlikely to change in the immediate future (and besides, Google doesn’t even allow brand pages yet).

    1. It’s definitely true that any brand that wants to be taken seriously and wants to focus on growing their business and connecting with their target audience needs to be on Facebook. To me the question is not should they be on there, it’s what is the best strategy for them to get the best results. Thanks for taking the time to comment. 🙂

  6. Nice post, creating fresh, useful and great content regularly is really a task and needs lot of research, this is a very helpful article with some nice tips.
    Using nice images with content does help to a great extent and a current trend after Pinterest came into fame

    1. Thanks for taking the time to post your comments. Yes, images really do make a big difference. You just have to be careful and not overdo it. While images get the best responses and can boost your EdgeRank, they also tend to get the most complaints. So create a strategy and proceed wisely.

  7. Hi Jennifer – Thanks for the tips. I have some work to do – While I am especially proud of my fanpage image – I think it’s awesome – I need more interaction. I only have 13 likes. I don’t solicit them, but I could do more to get them. I do put up regular content, from my blog, so I might be ok on that end. I love the image that you have at the top of this post. Funny….I love funny! Thanks

    Donald

    1. Donald, thanks for sharing your comments. Try promoting your page more and using Hash tags to increase the views on your posts. It’s worth the effort, so keep it up. Let us know if you have any questions.

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WHAT’S NEXT?

SUPPORT OUR AUTHOR AND SHARE
Interested in Guest Posting?
Read our guest posting guidelines.

10 Responses

  1. This article was really helpful to me. What you could mention too is that you can add html/iframes and also conect autoresponders subscriptions as tabs. I think with fb fanpages it’s posible to build a huge site with articles as “notes” linking to the subscriber page also on fb!

  2. Great article Jennifer. Didn’t realise the importance of keeping the updates brief!! Was regularly going up to 1000 characters – will keep the 150 limit in mind.

  3. nice tips thank you,if we ‘re talkin about seo or commerce we shuld do these.Sometimes i search for best facebook photos on forums

  4. Absolutely great suggestions and therefore a great post. Everything from your suggestion of making sure every comment is replied to, to asking the readers and fans what is expected of them, makes absolute sense.

  5. So it’s pretty much vital for anyone trying to promote a product, service, event, or cause to create a Facebook page. While other social networks (Google among them) are making gains, Facebook is still the largest and most popular out there, and that’s unlikely to change in the immediate future (and besides, Google doesn’t even allow brand pages yet).

    1. It’s definitely true that any brand that wants to be taken seriously and wants to focus on growing their business and connecting with their target audience needs to be on Facebook. To me the question is not should they be on there, it’s what is the best strategy for them to get the best results. Thanks for taking the time to comment. 🙂

  6. Nice post, creating fresh, useful and great content regularly is really a task and needs lot of research, this is a very helpful article with some nice tips.
    Using nice images with content does help to a great extent and a current trend after Pinterest came into fame

    1. Thanks for taking the time to post your comments. Yes, images really do make a big difference. You just have to be careful and not overdo it. While images get the best responses and can boost your EdgeRank, they also tend to get the most complaints. So create a strategy and proceed wisely.

  7. Hi Jennifer – Thanks for the tips. I have some work to do – While I am especially proud of my fanpage image – I think it’s awesome – I need more interaction. I only have 13 likes. I don’t solicit them, but I could do more to get them. I do put up regular content, from my blog, so I might be ok on that end. I love the image that you have at the top of this post. Funny….I love funny! Thanks

    Donald

    1. Donald, thanks for sharing your comments. Try promoting your page more and using Hash tags to increase the views on your posts. It’s worth the effort, so keep it up. Let us know if you have any questions.

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