Facebook Fan Pages are created by celebrities, brands, companies, organizations, etc. They’re an interactive place to share information, start conversations, and engage with a brand. They’re different from Facebook Groups in a number of ways. Perhaps most importantly, Facebook Fan Pages are public (you don’t have to be a Facebook member or be logged into Facebook to view them), and they are indexed by search engines (meaning they can come up in keyword searches). Facebook Fan Pages also offer more interactivity than Facebook Groups such as adding extra applications and related events. The general consensus is that your brand should have both a Facebook Fan Page (for long-term relationship building) and a Facebook Group (for shorter conversations).
Last week, Facebook unveiled its new Facebook Fans Page embeddable Fan Box that lets users place Facebook Fan Page information and updates on websites or blogs outside of Facebook. If your company doesn’t already have a Facebook Fan Page, particularly for your brands, then you need to create one. Then use the Facebook Fan Box to publish your Fan Page information and updates on your website and blog. That way, you’re creating a 360-degree loop of information and conversation. People can find your Facebook Fan Page from your website or blog, and people can find your website or blog from your Facebook Fan Page. Then they can self-select the experiences that they want to engage with in order to further experience your brand. That’s the beauty of the social web! Let it work for you and your brand.
There are over 200 million people using Facebook and according to the Facebook blog, 8 million of them join Facebook Fan Pages everyday. That’s a huge potential audience that your brand could be connecting with! The Facebook blog also provides information and links to directions to help you add the Facebook Fan Box to your blog or website as well as some great examples of companies already using the Facebook Fan Box (I like the example from Threadless or for a simpler example, check out the Blackberry website).
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Susan Gunelius is the author of 10 marketing, social media, branding, copywriting, and technology books, and she is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She also owns Women on Business, an award-wining blog for business women. She is a featured columnist for Entrepreneur.com and Forbes.com, and her marketing-related articles have appeared on websites such as MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, TodayShow.com, and more.
She has over 20 years of experience in the marketing field having spent the first decade of her career directing marketing programs for some of the largest companies in the world, including divisions of AT&T and HSBC. Today, her clients include large and small companies around the world and household brands like Citigroup, Cox Communications, Intuit, and more. Susan is frequently interviewed about marketing and branding by television, radio, print, and online media organizations, and she speaks about these topics at events around the world. You can connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+.
