Tasks to help you establish your brand on Facebook

Starting a fan page on Facebook is easy, but how do you get it to grow and become successful? It’s much harder than many people realize; this is why you often see dead and abandoned fan pages. Establishing your brand on Facebook and creating a successful fan page actually takes some time, dedication and hard work. If you’re not ready for the long haul, then you may need to put it on the back burner until you are ready. However, if you’re ready to do what it takes, here are some tasks that you’ll need to complete in order to get it done.

Do Your Research

There are some things that you will need to know beforehand like who your target audience will be, what your audience wants to read, who your competitors are, etc. You also should be keeping up with the latest buzz so that you can provide the type of information that your audience wants to read. Also, if you’re not targeting the right audience and demographics, then you definitely will not get the results you’re looking for. Your intended audience needs to be able to find you so that they can “like” you.

A tool like CheckFacebook can give you in-depth demographics, statistics and reports about Facebook. Knowing this kind of information will help you setup your page for success.

Get Organized

There is so much to include here. Before you even get started, you should have a some kind of plan and strategy mapped out. Set goals for your page as far as what you want to accomplish. Create task lists so that you can complete everything in a timely order. Get help from colleagues and even friends if needed. Trust me, your fans will be able to tell if your page is unorganized and if it’s not, they won’t be fans for long.

You will then need to figure out the specific products or content you’ll be targeted and know exactly how you’ll use your page. Some companies choose to use their Facebook fan page as a customer service center, while other are used as a resource of information and discussion board. Doing both can get messy and confusing so it’s a good idea to stick to just one.

A good marketing strategy is also important. How will you promote your page? What methods will you use to continuously bring in new fans? How will you integrate your page into your other social media profiles? Will you have frequently contests and giveaways? How will you measure the effectiveness of your efforts? These are all important questions that you need to answer so that you can be sure that all of your hard work won’t be in vain.

Spice It Up

A dull looking page is sure to be a dead page. All Facebook fan pages come in the same default design and layout. Many companies choose to leave theirs in default mode, but if you really want to stand out then you have to spice it up. Be creative and do something different with your page. Add more tabs and interactivity to make your fans want to get involved. Find some applications for contests and giveaways and see what other kinds of Facebook apps your fans might enjoy. A nice touch is to change the landing tab of your page; when visitors first arrive, show them a stylish welcome tab instead of just having them go directly to your page’s wall.

Get Social

Lastly, you have to make sure that you are constantly publishing quality wall posts, sharing relevant links and engaging with your fans. Don’t just have your company’s RSS feed automatically imported into you’re wall. While this is a good starting point, you need some personal interaction and fresh content mixed in there as well. People are less likely to join a page that is dead: without interaction or quality content.

Also be sure to integrate some Facebook social plugins into your website so that your customers can interact with your page right from your site. Also be sure to remind your friends and the fans of your page to “like” and share your content. A simple “please be sure to share this with your friends” can help spread the word quickly. Also, using Facebook’s tagging system is a great way to promote your page on your own personal profile.

While most of these tasks are ongoing, you still need to complete them a first time in order get your brand properly established on Facebook. While you may want to rush so that you can have your fan page up as quick as possible, you should really take your time to complete each task. In the end, you’ll see much better results and progress using a slow but steady process, rather than with a rush job.

This was a post by Lior Levin who works for iAdvize and also acts as a marketing consultant to a neon signs store that sells neon signs and led signs.


/Wolf Howl/