Monday, January 10, 2011

How I Got 100,000 Facebook Fans In 10 Days

With 500 million users worldwide, Facebook has proven itself to be a very innovative online tool that allows companies to interact with and even market to their existing and prospective customers.

Even non-profit organizations, publications (newspapers, magazines, blogs, etc), speakers, authors, musicians and more can use it to build and manage a following.

This is very easy to do because Facebook enables such entities to create "fan" pages (or what I call "brand" pages) - a customized profile page that allows them to share content, dialogue, photos, and resources. They can even launch custom apps, contests, and sign up forms - all from their very own fan page.

But that's the easy part! The real challenge is getting the fans. As you can imagine, there are many who have fan pages with hardly any fans.

Ten days ago, I sought out to get 100,000 fans for my online publication BlackNews.com's fan page (www.Facebook.com/BlackNews). On the 10th day, I had reached my goal - a goal that typically takes a couple of years to reach.

Here are five ways how you can accomplish the same:

1) Claim Your Username

Surprisingly, many are still unaware that they can visit www.Facebook.com/username to have their own customized Facebook URL. For instance, if the name of your company is XYZ Consulting, your fan page URL can be Facebook.com/xyzconsulting

Not only will this make it easier for people to get to your fan page, but the page will also be indexed in major search engines and people can easily find it when they "google" your brand.

2) Make A Default FBML Landing Page

You've heard of HTML, but have you heard of FBML? FBML, which stands for Facebook Marketing Language, is a web development language (based on HTML) that can be used to create a customized default landing page when people visit your fan page.

Doing so allows you to control the message that people see when they first visit your fan page, and you can also create other custom features. You can add images, your logo, text, video and whatever else you think will encourage people to click on the "like" button.

For more info on how to do this, google "FBML landing page" or "how to add FBML".

3) Promote To Your Friends

After creating your fan page, you can easily promote it to your existing friends on Facebook. This can be done by posting on their walls, posting it on your wall (as a status update), or by sending them a private message.

A more effective way is to send your friends, colleagues, and existing customers a traditional email asking them to join. You can also send out a press release to the media announcing your new fan page, and mention it in the tagline of all of your future press releases and/or columns.

Remember to give people an incentive. What will they get from "liking" your fan page. Will they get news, updates, tips, coupons, freebies, etc? What about a contest or sweepstakes? If you don't have a reason for them to join, then neither will they.

4) Link From Your Web Site/ Email

This is a very obvious thing to do, but many simply don't do it. On your company web site and/or blog, there should be a visible Facebook logo image that links to your fan page. You can even add the link to your email signature.

In addition, Facebook has several free promotional tools that allow you to place widgets on your web site that will display information about your fan page. Depending on which one you choose, you can display your fans' photos, your most recent wall posts, or even the most popular posts. To access these, click on "edit page" when on your fan page, then click on "marketing", then click on "add a like box to your web site".

5) Advertise on Facebook

Separate from the free promotional tools, you can also visit www.Facebook.com/ads and pay to advertise on Facebook to promote your fan page. This can be either very expensive or very affordable; it all depends on your willingness to invest the time and energy to get maximum results with a minimal budget.

You can choose to pay with either a CPC (cost per click) or CPM (cost per impression) model. My suggestion is to create a campaign that converts at $.02 per click or less. The way to do this is to always set your bid at $.20 CPM (yes, CPM). This trick always allows for a minimum CPC rate, if you're running the right ad.

To find the right ad, the important thing is to experiment, experiment, experiment. Marketing is a science, and the only way to find out what works well is through trial and error. I would literally suggest that you create about 50 different ads to see which one converts best.

When creating an ad, you should experiment with different headers, images, and text. Don't just settle for your company's name and logo, and a message that says "join us". Be creative and innovative to get people's attention. Incorporate news happenings that are relevant to what your brand is about. Be funny, controversial, and unique. If done right, trust me - this can work wonders. At one point, I figured out how to get thousands of new fans within one hour.

You should also experiment heavily with the hyper-targeting options. These are the options that allow you to target a demographic based on age, sex, location, education, and interests. For instance, if you wanted your ad to only be viewed by 30-year old women who live in Chicago, have college degrees, and like Alicia Keys - you can do this. Be determined to find a way to target the people who will be most likely to respond to your brand, and remember that certain interests can help you determine a person's ethnicity and maturity level.


Want more tips, strategies and resources? Purchase Dante Lee's new book "Black Business Secrets" at www.BlackBusinessSecrets.com

7 comments:

  1. Simple yet very effective! It's amazing that a few simple actions can not only increase one's brand but also improve one's bottom line. Great article.

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  2. Hi Dante'. Great article. One of my goals this year is to use Facebook more. I've always used Black PR which as always garnered me news, but I am looking to incorporate other social media tools in conjunction with PR. I look forward to interviewing you on The Ms. Boss Show. Just waiting for the book so we can book a date.

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  3. Thanks for breaking this down. I put my ad together tonight, I'm excited to see the results. If I don't get mad fans, I guess I'll keep changing up the ad. Thanks again!

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  4. Uh..heads up. Face Book Mark Up Language is now deprecated... http://forum.developers.facebook.net/viewtopic.php?id=70942&p=1

    It's being phased out for other apps. Thanks for the other information though!

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  5. where is the page with 100000 fan?

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  6. You learn something new every day, I know I did today, thank you Dante

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  7. These fan pages can be converted into interactive hubs with almost every kind of information being disseminated through this medium. Once they have the people hooked, it becomes a matter of time until the Fan becomes a

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