5 Ways to Optimize Your Facebook Fan Page

Earlier today, I hosted a free teleseminar discussing 5 Ways to Optimize your Facebook Fan Page. Facebook is approaching 500 million users. A recent study tells us that 7% of American households have a Twitter account while 41% have a Facebook account. Facebook is the most accepted form of social media more so than LinkedIn.

If you missed the call, you can always call in and listen to the hour playback at (712) 432-1085 where I cover these points in more detail. Here are the highlights. . .

Know Your Audience. From Quantcast estimates, we can tell that Facebook skews towards female youths. Interestingly, 53% of users have kids and a majority make over $60k a year salary. Obviously, over 50% are college kids but the demographics are changing. The largest growing demographic on Facebook is females over the age of 45. Consider how to capture their attention and interest level. Also consider their experience level. The idea of Facebook for many is still very new. Plan conversations, comments, and posts based with planned topics and conversations.

Customize Your Page. Adding pictures, video, podcasts are all a great way to make your page different from the rest. Visit your competitors fan pages and create a differentiation strategy based on what those are not doing. Allow your page to be seen as a resource for customers or potential clients. Provide them with information on services and insights into their business or categories of interest.

Engagement. A fan page sometimes becomes a one way conversation. Ask questions, be real, and be fun. Aside from the Fan Page, creating a Group is another option allowing you to engage your audience, posing questions, send private email messages, while also allowing your group to post pictures and videos about their own experiences. As a recruiter, I would create a Information Technology Group similar to a LinkedIn Group but with more interactive and personal features. The group featured to the right is called "Petition to get a Whole Foods Market in Oklahoma City" and has over 9,200 group members. Interestingly enough, this is not an official Whole Foods page.

Increasing Your Fans. Promote your Fan page everywhere you go--your office window, car, business cards, your website with a FB Fan Badge, and social sites like Twitter and LinkedIn. Ask your friends to promote your page or develop strategy with other businesses to cross promote. Ask people to fan your page at the bottom of your blog post or in your newsletter. Suggest your personal FB friends to become Fans or consider a pay per click model for little budget to add fans. Popular technology items like an ipad are a great way to build excitement while promoting your brand for your 500th or 1,000th fan.

Fan ROI. According to a study released in April from Ad Week, a page with 1 million fans is estimated to be worth $3.6 million or $3.60 per fan. Numbers like these can be helpful when determining a monetary value and making the case for a Fan Page for your business or recruitment team. Weekly Reporting from Facebook. In March of this year, Facebook also began providing a weekly report administrators of Fan Pages receive via email that lists information for the week including the number of posts, new fans, comments, and the number of visitors to your page.

In the coming weeks, I will be launching a series of How To Videos and resources for Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms on the topics of branding, business, and the job search. Subscribe to my feed to learn more about the launch of this social media video series.

Photo Credit Golf Web Desig n.

Comment by Doug Lewis on May 28, 2010 at 2:27pm: Jessica,

What's the access code to listen in?

Doug

Comment by Adam Lewis on May 31, 2010 at 3:05am: Thanks Jessica. We've only very recently started rolling out our fanpage. We've found Facebook an ideal platform to centralize our social marketing (ie, pulling from different corners of the web to the one spot) and connect with our users.

However, there is a tremendous amount of clutterout there. And updates on a fanpage do not automatically get recorded on users' streams.

facebook.com/innovatecv

Comment by Julie Rehbein on May 31, 2010 at 8:19am: Enjoy reading about FB strategies as I love, love, love working with it as a recruiting tool!

Comment by Susan M Stanley on June 1, 2010 at 3:08pm: Thanks Jessica. This was simple and straight to the point. New to using FB as a recruiting tool but this was helpful.