Facebook landing page/competition/increasing fan base

[NewBiz]

What are peoples thoughts in terms of driving traffic/fans to you Facebook page?

Would like to launch a successful campaign similar to Rimmel Ireland | Facebook who increased their fan base by 4000+ in a matter of weeks with their competition. Any idea as to how such success in increasing fan base is achieved?

Is it possible to have for example - a person who posts on you FB competition landing page (not your wall), automatically becomes a fan and their post shows automatically on their wall for friends to see. This seems to be a good way of increasing your fan base.. With the Win a gold wedding worth €30,000 competition - when you vote your vote/link to the competition shows on your FB wall.

Have you tried a Facebook competition? Was it a success?

Suggestions appreciated thanks

 

[mneylon]

Forcing someone to become a fan or tricking them into becoming one is against the Facebook TOS

 

[NewBiz]

So how do so many companies manage to do this? Maybe it states you must become a fan before entering comp.

 

[link8r]

Great point Blacknight!

My 2c on the issue: Its also a waste of time. What do you think the return on 4000 FB fans is? I can understand why marketeers would love 5 million fans / likes but when you request someone to like you - chances are they already know who you are!

We've been told for ages that Facebook fans and the Like button equate to engagement. But I just can't agree - certainly not so far. We've looked at nearly a million visits on Irish owned websites since the start of the year and less than 1% of all traffic (looking at all organic and ppc SE traffic, other referrers) comes from Facebook.

Lovely article in Mashable: Social Media Has Almost No Effect on Online Retail Purchases [REPORT]

 

[link8r]

P.S. I'm coining the phrase #LikeSpam I doubt I'm the first person to use it but I quite like it. Move over #LinkSpam!

Twitter

 

[mneylon]

Great point Blacknight!

My 2c on the issue: Its also a waste of time. What do you think the return on 4000 FB fans is? I can understand why marketeers would love 5 million fans / likes but when you request someone to like you - chances are they already know who you are!

We've been told for ages that Facebook fans and the Like button equate to engagement. But I just can't agree - certainly not so far. We've looked at nearly a million visits on Irish owned websites since the start of the year and less than 1% of all traffic (looking at all organic and ppc SE traffic, other referrers) comes from Facebook.

Lovely article in Mashable: Social Media Has Almost No Effect on Online Retail Purchases [REPORT]

I'd disagree
To start with, without knowing which verticals you're dealing with OR what the companies are doing, it's impossible to make such a broad statement
Also the percentage of traffic would vary depending on the level of engagement which would also be linked to the type of site, its vertical and how the brand was using Facebook

 

[Byron]

To me it's been a company to company thing, and depends on not only the market but the company you are dealing with. I have a client who actually pulled Facebook for being too successful at engaging people (and the hassle of censoring and communicating with them!).

It can bring results, but I find when a client treats it as secondary to their website it has the best results, unless you are a huge brand like Heineken, etc.

It's worth having Facebook, and picking up the odd few but below are how my clients have driven users to their Facebook:

1. Adding a link to their site - usually with a comment like "Find Us On Facebook to get the latest updates, comps, etc"

2. Emailing friends and colleagues to like their page... debatable the effectiveness of this for lead generation.

3. Emailing clients / texting them to "Like Us On Facebook".


Sadly, it's trial and error, but maybe check out .net mag this month, has a feature, but had no money on me to buy it!

 

[NewBiz]

Thanks Byron!

Has anybody examples of competition landing/welcome pages? Are these easy to create? What apps are there for such welcome pages?

found some good reading here http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/t...k-fan-page-ideas-to-learn-from-matt-silverman

 

[Byron]

No Worries NewBiz,

Try FHTML pages, they are the easiest option, do a Google about them, simple enough, basically HTML and XHTML with a few exemptions and exceptions.

Cheers, B

 

[bober]

Thanks Byron!

Has anybody examples of competition landing/welcome pages? Are these easy to create? What apps are there for such welcome pages?

Hi NewBiz & welcome to the forum, Defo look up NortSocial I'm currently making Myself a Facebook Page with this software apps. Once you sign up you can avail of ALL the apps, it's $19.99 per month for pages upto 1000 fans. I'd highly recommend that you create a competition on facebook, pages that give stuff away are more likely to gain likes as apposed to pages that don't. (fair enough these people may not be actually interested in your service but it's branding at the end of the day & it will create a 'buzz' & build up your presence on facebook).

Take a look at the sweepstakes app, this is what your after the software also comes with a backend CMS -> if you aquire signup's via your facebook page you can run e-mail campaigns with measured results, who shared, opened your mail, bounce rate, location etc etc....

It took me about 2days to get familiar with the software but once you get up to speed it's mickey mouse No html code or anything needed (we'll none you need to write yourself) you will need some designs skills to create landing images.

Other applications are involver & wildfire (I think your after northsocial though).

Hope that helps, need more info just shout

 

[bober]

No Worries NewBiz,

Try FHTML pages, they are the easiest option, do a Google about them, simple enough, basically HTML and XHTML with a few exemptions and exceptions.

Cheers, B

Hi Byron, do you mean FBML? If so this markup language is being phased out since 10th of March & will be replaced with iFrames. Here's a thread I found

 

[Byron]

Hi Byron, do you mean FBML? If so this markup language is being phased out since 10th of March & will be replaced with iFrames. Here's a thread I found

That's the one! and thank god, Iframes are a much better option, will stop making those tabs them now!

 

[TwoHeadsWebDesign]

My question specifically relates to increasing # of Likes for a page (specifically B2C for retailers). Yup I concur with others the value is at best debatable but sometimes the customer is always right *grin* and no matter how much education you bestow the time comes to meet somewhere in the middle and strive to grow that often fickle # of fans/likes.
To step back, theres the whole fan page - versus local business page - versus company page decision, something Im still not totally clear on as despite the fact Ive read many articles on this, not to mention created the different page types, it seems each time I do FB has changed the parameters from the last time so the pros/cons of each constantly change.
But bottom line is, all a customer really wants to see is their # of Likes go up - often using competitors as the yard stick.

So, am I correct in understanding that a request to Like a FB Business or Company page can only be sent directly to those in the page Admins Friends list? In other words is this the only way to send a targeted request to like the page? Im certain it is but just want to be sure.

Also, in general, what do folks here use i.e fan/local biz/company page etc to promote a Business?

I guess FB doesnt make it particularly convenient to promote a biz this way, in the hope you'll pay for one of their advertising campaigns.
Im interested to hear of folks genuine experience here.

 

[bober]

So, am I correct in understanding that a request to Like a FB Business or Company page can only be sent directly to those in the page Admins Friends list? In other words is this the only way to send a targeted request to like the page? Im certain it is but just want to be sure.

Also, in general, what do folks here use i.e fan/local biz/company page etc to promote a Business?

I guess FB doesnt make it particularly convenient to promote a biz this way, in the hope you'll pay for one of their advertising campaigns.
Im interested to hear of folks genuine experience here.

Yep your right - The only way to send a direct BLUCK/ALL 'suggest' message on facebook now is as the admin on the page. Up the top right of the page there is an option to 'suggest to friends'. When Facebook introduced it's New Facebook Page Upgrade they disable/removed 'suggest to friends' so that users could not use this feature. IMO this is why - Suggest to Friend used to be one of the most FREE powerful/popular/kindaspammy/annoying ways to promote a page. For example I user 'Glen Quinn' 'Like Page "GQ Marketing' and 'suggest' this page to ALL my friends & they couldn't really do anything about. & I'm sure we all had loads of stupid pages to like that our friends suggested.

Users sharing rights are limited in terms of mailing one friend, sending to a group of friends, on a friends wall or just posting to everyone in the newsfeed.

The Game has changed both from the User & Business Point of view (users can't spam/annoy friends & business have to be a bit more creative to build up there presence/likes) users are restricted to 'Sharing' - when they like a page they can share & the share ONLY goes into their friends NEWSFEED, (or as mentioned above). IMO - this is why it's gone, 1) the spammy aspect 2) Facebook want to create more revenue via advertising.

When building facebook pages 'offpage marketing' is a very important, This is a good marketing strategy for getting likes -> get the page owner to tell all their existing friends on facebook, Suggest to Friends, install the facebook social plugin box on the website, e-mail campaign focused on facebook page, run a share competition (northsocial.com) & CPC ad's while the comp is in progress. (It's very cost affect & effect).

Seems as your web designer I'm sure you could do some nice work using iFrames search 'static iframe' in the search bar on facebook for the app. (free).

Personally I've only created Business Pages so I don't have much experience with the other types BUT I wouldn't worry too much about it becasue lets say you create 'Brands & Products' Page. Your not totally restricted to it anymore (you were in the past) you can change your page type in your admin settings For example if you created a 'Brands & Products' Page you can change to 'local business' what happens is the information settings change - Diff pages have Diff info settings (& features I think) ie: for local business you'll be given the option field to add in hours of work/opening hours.

Great source of info for all things related to facebook -> thefacebookforum.net (not associated with facebook).

Here's links to 2 images

1) http://glenquinn.me/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/suggesst-to-friend.jpg

2) http://glenquinn.me/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/catergory-change.jpg

Hope that's what your after

 

[TwoHeadsWebDesign]

Thx a mill for this Bober and for taking the time out to illustrate your points with screen shots! Cheers man.
Heres a handy link also that I found while trying to learn a little more about the different accounts.
Do you know what type of Facebook Account you have? | lovewebdesign

 

[TwoHeadsWebDesign]

Is there any way to tell by a page whether its a fan page, local biz page, personal page, company page etc?
Ive been looking at some "business" pages as referenced by a client as great examples of having a huge following, yet when I look at them the option is to add them as a friend - which to me looks like they bent the FB rules and setup a personal page as a business page. In fact, if im not mistaken the number of such personal/business pages is massive. Perhaps many were done in error as FB was/is renowned for lack of clarity on how to setup the different pages. But does anyone else have a similar experience?
And if Im right, is it not easier to bastardise a personal page for a business as its much easier more attractive/flexible to "Add as a Friends" than it is to "Like" a page.
Yes its braking the rules but these pages havent been removed and are around a very long time.
Sometimes I hate the mercurial nature of FB pages.....

 

[mneylon]

Is there any way to tell by a page whether its a fan page, local biz page, personal page, company page etc?

It should be pretty clear from the top of the page

Ive been looking at some "business" pages as referenced by a client as great examples of having a huge following, yet when I look at them the option is to add them as a friend - which to me looks like they bent the FB rules and setup a personal page as a business page.

That's not a page and is a breach of the FB rules. it's a personal a/c

In fact, if im not mistaken the number of such personal/business pages is massive. Perhaps many were done in error as FB was/is renowned for lack of clarity on how to setup the different pages. But does anyone else have a similar experience?
And if Im right, is it not easier to bastardise a personal page for a business as its much easier more attractive/flexible to "Add as a Friends" than it is to "Like" a page.
Yes its braking the rules but these pages havent been removed and are around a very long time.
Sometimes I hate the mercurial nature of FB pages.....

It's not rocket science and anyone using FB as a business needs to play by the rules. I'd happily report anyone I came across