Facebook will be
making a change soon as to how its Fan Pages work. (Fan pages, for those of you not familiar with them, are essentially a Facebook profile for businesses or organizations created to help your fans share their experiences with you, each other and their own networks.) In the past, when an update was made to a Fan Page, it appeared in all of the fans’ news feeds. But starting soon, Facebook will be changing the posting policies of Fan pages to better promote community involvement. Now, thanks to some fancy algorithms, a Fan Page post will be more likely seen if there is greater interaction within the page from its users. In other words, if you don’t give your community a page that engages them and makes them want to contribute, then they won’t see your updates. Think of it in terms of the “tree falling in the woods” idiom. If you update your status and your community is not around to see it, does updating your status really matter?
I’ve seen several Facebook Fan pages rely solely on name recognition to bring in new Fans. These companies and organizations do nothing to provide any useful content or engage their fans. Huge opportunities are missed to create a network of people who promote their love for a brand.
So how can you keep your fans engaged – and keep your updates in their live feeds? First, your company has to know what purpose their online interaction will serve. Here are a few questions we like to ask our clients when discussing engagement:
Why do you want to create a community around your service, industry, brand, etc? Communities are groups of people who are connected. Providing a common ground for others to learn about you and each other makes you an asset. Organizing a discussion and providing guidance or structure shows that you are a leader. Demonstrating your knowledge and experience makes you an authority. But in order to become these things, you first need a community in place.
What can you offer to keep people interested in being active in your community? Some people offer links to useful information. Others offer an insight into their corporate culture with pictures, videos and stories about their company and customers. Make sure you’re offering your fans something worthwhile so they stay engaged.
Do you plan on encouraging your community to share their stories publicly? When you allow others to post comments to your Fan page, you invite them to share their experiences with your community. If you keep them from contributing to the community, they may find no reason to remain a member of it.
You may already be doing most of these activities through lectures, hosting networking events for clients, writing articles, sending educational information through emails, etc. We believe it’s worth evaluating if you are ready to do this online as well. Don’t you?