So it’s been roughly a year since we last talked about Facebook fan pages and groups, and I thought it would be time well spent to take another look. So pull up a chair, grab a cup of coffee and let’s have an intimate but purely platonic chat about Facebook.
Facebook Groups
Just a quick recap on Facebook groups – it’s best to think of them as the hot guy or girl you might run into at a seedy night club. Sure, they are relatively easy to get on with and you might have quite a bit of fun with them initially, but ultimately you realise that they lack a bit of substance. That pretty much sums up Facebook groups for me. They are easy to set up, and you can quickly gain a large following, but you soon realise the limitations they have.
You can send out email notices to all of your friends, as well as people you know through email. Groups are ideal for short, quick campaigns, especially internal things that you don’t want to widely displayed outside of Facebook.(e.g. “If 1000 People Join This Group, Shaun Oakes Will Not Cut His Toenails For A Year”).
Facebook Fan Pages
So this is what I really wanted to discuss today – Facebook fan pages. Since we last spoke, the popularity of fan pages has further grown, and with it, some additional nifty features. Let’s have a look at what we are now able to do.
Personalised URLs – In the past, your fan page would have a dodgy looking URL such as http://www.facebook.com/pages/City/My-Fan-Page/144275837284 (don’t click on this link, it does not work). Then, vanity URLs become available which allow you to you create easy to remember URLs to promote, such as http://www.facebook.com/ShaunOakesFans. (Click on this one. Do it. Do it now). Initially, vanity URLs on fan pages were only available once you had 1000 fans, but this has now been greatly reduced to 25 people.
Better Widgets – Besides having a paid search campaign running on Facebook, you are also able to promote your fan pages externally through various widgets, badges and boxes. The fan box is a personal favourite of mine. This is an embeddable widget which you can use to advertise your fan page on your blog. It shows you a random selection of your fans, in addition to the latest updates you have posted (if you so choose). Here is a screenshot example:
Better Exposure – Whereas group members will only know if something has been updated, by actually going to your group page, fans will see new updates (usually exported from a blog) appearing in their feeds. It’s a great way of keeping them abreast of news/updates and general musings.
Insights – Think of it as analytics for Facebook, although at the moment, the metrics leave a lot to be desired. Currently you are able to view all interactions over a two month period, including comments, likes and wall posts.There are also metrics around fan increases and drop offs, the actual demographics of your fans, and how many of them were active over the course of a week. As mentioned, although the metrics are currently quite limited, this can still be fairly useful and is not something available on the group pages.
Greater Traction – This is quite a new development - and something which may only apply to online brands on Facebook - but if recent news reports are to be believed, Facebook plans on evolving the “Become A Fan” option to simply a “Like” option. The reason for this is that users are more likely to agree that they like a brand rather than becoming a fan. In essence, everything remains as is: By someone liking your brand page, they will enjoy all the benefits of a fan, but this little tweak by Facebook could well see an increase in fan acquisitions for brands on Facebook. (It’s unclear yet whether this will also apply to musicians, public figures, etc.)
As Facebook evolves, there will continue to be new tweaks and improvements made. The fan pages are still the preferred medium for promotion on Facebook, and for serious marketers, this would still be the preferred option over groups.
Also check out:
I've run a few campaigns using fan pages and find there definitely is better growth when there is more of a connection.
The I ♥ Cape Town page grew to over 50k fans in 2 months, compared to the brand Cape Town Tourism, which received tens of thousands less.
Posted by Mike Metelerkamp on 2010/03/31