Facebook Fans
Adweek recently gauged brands currently using fans on Facebook to increase recognition. Many companies use Facebook as an integral part of their social media campaign. Creating a successful Facebook page takes more than just creating a home page though. In order to increase traffic companies need to give everyone a reason to visit their page.
Successful companies include: Old Spice, Coca-Cola, Skittles and Starbucks. Although Facebook is a free site, many companies struggle to increase traffic or create fans. The successful companies use paid advertising in order to draw attention to their Facebook page.
Facebook fan pages act as word-of mouth advertising, which is highly successful for many top brands. People trust their family and friends and the fan feature allows everyone to express their top interests in music, food, sports, clothes, and more.
Samir Balwani expressed the 5 Elements of a Successful Facebook Fan Page in his blog. His recommendations are to network with other platforms, create a resource, create contests that include participation, empowering pre-existing pages, and target the proper demographic.
Networking with other platforms increases the likelihood that people will notice your facebook page. Most people won’t just go looking for a company’s page they will stumble upon it through some other source.
Using your page as a resource can be helpful for companies that deal with technology. Consumers will visit your page if they know they can find useful information to help them with their problems.
Contests are a great interactive way to increase traffic on Facebook pages. They are also a way to draw customers into your store or on your Web site.
An example of using pre-existing pages is when Coca-Cola brought the creators of their own Coca-Cola fan page to tour the Coca-Cola facilities. This showed that Coca-Cola appreciated their support and it increased brand enthusiasm.
Targeting the proper demographic is one of the most important steps to recognize. Not every brand or company should use Facebook. Some companies are targeting a demographic that will not use Facebook. No matter how hard these companies try, they will never increase their fan base through this source.
Facebook fan pages work as an addition to a social media campaign, but they don’t stand well on their own. With the help of other outlets, Facebook pages can help increase interest in companies and create brand awareness.
October 15, 2009 at 5:34 pm
This post is very informative and gives us a fresh look at how companies and consumers are using Facebook. Nice work! I appreciate the research you put into this post.