Leveraging Facebook: The Fan Page

Facebook is big… no, it’s enormous. Not just in number of users, but in popularity when it comes to ‘buzz’ going around about business. Everyone is talking about how critical it is to have a fanpage on facebook… What I’m wondering is just how critical is it? If you are like me, you have probably wondered why a manufacturer of steel parts would ever need a fan page or why a fireworks wholesaler would ever be on facebook. Honestly, I’ve wondered whether or not facebook was even for ANY b2b (business to business) company. Let’s start by figuring out just what a fanpage is.

The Fan Page

Direct from the facebook page about pages:

A Facebook Page is a public profile that enables you to share your business and products with Facebook users… When your fans interact with your Facebook Page, stories linking to your Page can go to their friends via News Feed. As these friends interact with your Page, News Feed keeps driving word-of-mouth to a wider circle of friends.

Now, I’m not going to walk you through how to set a page up or anything (as that is what the link above does), but there are some things to note about facebook and pages. Essentially, social media (including facebook, twitter, youtube, flickr, etc.) is the next generation of an RSS feed… or rather a less specific RSS feed. When considering how to use a facebook page, you have to really consider how and why people who you want to interact with use facebook.

The Feed

There are all kinds of reasons to use Facebook as a user. Let’s first ask the question what is the first thing a user sees when they login to facebook? That’s right, the news feed. This is where social media is like an RSS feed, except for the content of the feed contains the activity and interaction of your entire network. Due to pages, this also includes the interaction and activity of any business, non-profit, or organization. As an entrepreneur, as a student, as a friend, as a colleague, as a brother, as a cousin, as an uncle… insert role here… I have all kinds of content coming to my feed. Every day I am hit with updates from high school friends, college friends, family, businesses, and organizations.

Here is an example of a wonderful fanpage (QT of course):

Let’s go back to what I find as one of the most absurd examples: the manufacturer. Why would a manufacturer EVER need a fan page? Who is a fan of a manufacturing company? I think that the reason that this sounds so absurd is due to facebook’s choice of wording. Twitter uses a different word for the same function as fan: follower. When we are looking at it from this perspective, it makes a bit more sense. There might be people who want to follow (meaning to get updates from) a manufacturer.

Consider that the vast majority of people use facebook. From executives to teenagers. Might it be possible that there is a contingent of people that would care to get updates from a manufacturer? Might it be possible that there is a group of people interested to see pictures of the new equipment being installed or the latest product off the line? You bet there is.

So What?

As a business owner deciding how to use facebook, you’ve to figure out who your ideal fan / follower is. Once you know the type of person who would want updates from you, you can decide if giving these people updates would benefit your business. You can then make the decision whether or not to begin updating your fan page with content that will attract that type of user. The takeaway here is to remember that ‘fans’ are actually followers. You don’t have to be a rock star to make use out of the feed capability of facebook.

Another use of the fan page is to use it as a tool to stay up to date on whatever industry you operate within. Whether that means following a few other successful people, organizations, etc. in your industry to stay up to date on the competition and to get ideas on how and how not to use social media or if it simply means becoming fans of companies and people up and down stream in your sector to keep an eye on things. Facebook has all kinds of ways to leverage it’s feed system to provide a stream of useful content to it’s users. Sadly, most users have no idea how to use this leverage and instead spend their time playing farmtown (please stop sending me requests!).

Lastly, Facebook makes it ridiculously easy to advertise on their site to your core audience, specifically if you have a fan page. They allow you to limit who your ads are shown to based on location, age, gender, keywords on their profile, etc. Amazing how powerful this can be.

I’m curious, do you use facebook? If so how? Has it been successful? Until next time, keep asking so what!

Zach