The growth of Facebook is still phenomenal. With the huge number of people interacting on Facebook every single day, any business would be doing itself great good by properly grabbing a piece of the cake rather than spending Facebook hours unproductively. Many people are far underutilizing the power of Facebook to drive business growth. Whether you spend one hour or 5 hours on Facebook daily, what matters is how productive those hours are.
7 Tips to Grow Your Facebook Fans
Below are 7 tips to help you increase the number of your Facebook fans and improve their loyalty.
1. Get off the Facade and Talk to Your Fans as a Friend
In the past, businesses were comfortable communicating with the world behind the facade of a brand. Today, the tables have turned.
Good communication has to be interactive. Your personality has to be expressed in every post you make.
You can even show your fans another side of your life by posting funny, interesting, entertaining contents. Be free to share some of the details of your personal life (that are not demeaning) with your fans. This could be in form of pictures of your last vacation or an interesting picture from your daily life.
Here's a formula that can help you: Post business related/fun related posts at the ratio 4:1. That means for every 4 business related information you post, post one corresponding fun related stuff.
2. Give Your Fans the Contents They Want
What do people want? They want information, inspiration and entertainment. Your posts have to satisfy these 3 basic yearn of everybody. From experience, it helps to regularly churn out fresh contents and sometimes include media presentations.
For example, if you have a blog where you post both articles and media, share them on your Facebook page. That way, you can connect with the different kinds of fans you have. You can develop a daily schedule for different kinds of contents to post on different days of the week.
3. Cultivate the Habit of Conversing With Your Fans
If you have only been posting and not contributing to discussions on your Facebook page, you have been talking to your fans and not conversing with them. To increase the number of your Facebook fans, your audience have to see you as a friend and not a TV or radio where only your voice is heard.
Always avoid the temptation of shifting your attention after every post. Stick around and see what your fans are saying. Get into the conversation for a while before taking off. Learn to also ask for feedback and suggestions from fans.
4. Help Your Fans Become “Super Fans”
A super fan is a person who promotes your brand among his or her friends. This is the ultimate aim of many brands on Facebook.
The way to achieve this is to regularly nudge your fans to do one thing or the other. Usually, you should begin by asking them to watch a video or play a game that will benefit them in your posts. This is an easy way to prove to them that you are a leader in your niche. Later, you can ask your fans to join your mailing list, buy your product etc.
5. Make Your Business Page A Lively Scene
Turn your business page to a place where your fans can communicate with each other conveniently. You can make this easy by recognizing and rewarding your most loyal fans weekly or monthly. Talk about them on your Facebook business page and probably link to their blog or website.
6. Customize Your Facebook Business Page
In other to build loyal fans on Facebook, make your page different from the regular Facebook page. Include your logos, pictures etc. Make your fans feel exclusive. There are free tools to create tabs that you want, opt-in forms etc. As soon as fans or potential fans get to your page, let your brand immediately take them into your world. Try to simulate what you have on your website.
7. Develop a Plan for Your Facebook Business Page and Follow It Through
Just like when you created your website, you need to be certain of what you intend to achieve on your Facebook business page. Are you on Facebook to send your updates into their new stream, get them to join your mailing list or make them promote your product among their friends?
When you have a strategy in place, you'd know how to plan and prioritize your activities on Facebook.
Conclusion
The importance of building loyal fans on social networks like Facebook cannot be downplayed. Pay attention to these tips, and it will surprise you how much success you can achieve by going social with your business.
Further Reading
- How to Grow an Effective Twitter Audience
- Self-Branding: How to Separate Yourself from the Crowd & Build Credibility On The Internet
- Maximizing Your Social Media Strategies: Advice from Thought Leaders in Internet Marketing
- Social Media in 2012: 7 Major Things To Expect
Impressive. I always knew Facebook can be really powerful, but I didn’t know this. Thanks Ayo for the info 🙂