Hey, I just noticed that there are quite a few people just using the default URL that Facebook issues out when you create a business page. I know that there was talk about a vanity URL earlier in this thread, but I found out the other day that you only have to have 25 fans (not 100) to get your vanity URL (example: http://www.facebook.com/yourpizzaplace).
If you have a Facebook fan page and have at least 25 fans, go to http://www.facebook.com/username and get your vanity URL. You’ll need to be logged in in order to do this. Once you’re there, click on the Set a Username for your Pages link below the box. It’s pretty self-explanatory from there.
Hi everyone! I am the Social Media Specialist for http://www.foodservicewarehouse.com and I have done quite a bit of fan page work for several other companies. I can tell you that Fan pages are fantastic ways to build a community around your brand. I do want to give you a few tips to help you find success on Facebook:
update regularly
Follow the 80/20 rule - 80% of your post should be value added (not sales or self promotion) and 20% is self promotion
When you get to 100 fans create a vanity URL
Make sure to put a Facebook logo on your website to connect to your Fan Page (cross promotion is key)
customize your fan page using Static FBML to make it your own
Have fun! If you have any question on other ways to succeed on Facebook please feel free to email me at knoble@foodservicewarehouse.com
After 15 days we are up to 500 fans. Having a good time. Generating some talk around town. Hopefully we will hit 1000 fans by months end. We are running a superbowl special that is unique to facebook and pretty agressive. I will be curious to see what business it gets us.
We will doing our Facebook page this coming week. I am looking at doing a Facebook fan membership card where they get a free drink with every large or family size pizza order.
The plan is to get them to become a fan and then come to the shop to get their card. We intend to reinforce the card as Facebook meassages with periodic add ons to what the card will offer such as a monthly draw for various prizes. Other ideas we are currently brainstorming include inviting them to design a pizza with the best one being a pizza of the month under their name with a set amount of free pizza for that month.
yep you can delete individual comments. Just click on the comment and an X should appear on the right hand side.
We’ve had people put competitors numbers up and we’ve had a couple of customer concerns posted (we actively encourage people to use phone, email or facebook to communicate with us,). On fb I deal with any concerns and then remove them. You really need to monitor it daily.
One thing to note is that there are 2 different types of pages: fan pages and groups. The big disadvantage to the “fan page” is that you can not send a mass email to all the fans. So there is no way to individually notify your fans about an upcoming special, etc.
So you might consider setting up a “group” instead. This gives the the ability to email everyone.
the advantage of a fan page is that posts appear on the fans own home page so you don’t need to send messages to their inbox (which isn’t so visable). Its much more visible to have a post on their home page imo but there are +'ves and -'ves to each.
That used to be the case, the “new” facebook Newsfeed shows only a fraction of the items that are eligible to (and should) appear. Chances are your fanpage message won’t even show up on your fans’ homepage. No one seems to know the criteria they use to decide which items appear. There’s been a huge uproar, lots of people clamoring and starting pages to “bring back the old Newsfeed”. So far facebook has been deaf to it.
If your fans use “live feed”, in theory it will appear but there are so many other items that your fanpage posting will quickly drop off the first page, possibly before they’d even log on and see it.
An email from a “group”, however, shows up in their facebook inbox with a little red flag (impossible to miss) AND as an email in their regular email account. That’s far more effective.
Unfortunately we set up the wrong type (fan page) for our business, and despite 700 users it has been almost useless in getting word to our fans about special events. Plus if you create an “event” on your page you can’t even invite your fanbase, you can only send invites to your personal friends. At this point it’d be an enormous PITA for us and our fans to set up a new group, have everyone sign up again, and then close the original fanpage. So we’re stuck.
Facebook should allow all types of fan pages to email their members. That’s why they signed up, to get info about your business.
I haven’t experienced the problem with posts showing up from the fan page but I know with the recent changed to facebook posts have gone ‘missing’ whether these two problems are related I do not know.
I had a group page for 12 months and recently closed it and went to a fan page. I’m much happier with the fan page and get a lot more posts from customer, something I never got on the group page.
I’ve heard arguments for an against both but I had a few instances of groups which I’ve been a member of close down and open fan pages something which I’ve not seen in reverse.
I’m not saying there is a right or a wrong answer. Life would be boring if we all felt and did the same, best try both and see which works for you.
On my personal news feed, I can see all the recent shop posts and the customer comments attached to that post that follow. I’m not sure if a fan created post shows up though - maybe we can post on one another’s company pages to test it out?
On a group page nothing that is posted gets sent to the group member.
On a fan page the item posted by the Originator goes on the fan’s page. If a fan posts a comment under it then it would also appear. So you do need to keep an eye on it.
If a fan creates a new/original ‘thread/post’ I don’t believe that gets posted to the fans. Most people who had a problem would (in my opinion) would create a new item.
Fan Pages - you are unable to send a message to them & it hit their InBox or email - only shows on wall (sometimes) or you send out an update, which shows up in the update stream, under their InBox, but there is zero notification…
Fan Pages have their place, as I use it to have 'em order on-line…I encourage all my fans 2 b friends as well…
Patriot: Exactly, you can’t notify your fans directly, you can only hope it will show up on their homepage and hope that they will log on in time to see it before it gets pushed down by all the other newer stuff on their homepage. It’s been frustrating for me, I’ll post events on the business’ fan page and neither my wife or myself (we’re both registered fans) will ever see it on our homepage. Meanwhile, I’m on the group page for a local bluegrass band, I get an email everytime they post a new show. Very frustrating that I can’t do the same with my fanpage.
Wizzle: You’re right, people should pick what works best for them. I just wanted thinktankers to know that there’s a difference in how you set up your facebook page. Me, I’d rather be certain my fans know what I’m trying to tell them rather than hope it shows up on their page and hope they see it in time. This is my business, these are my customers, they WANT to know what’s going on. The way it’s set up I know everyone is not being notified. I learned the difference too late and now we’re stuck.
nah its never too late. Set the other one up and encourage people to move to the new one. I had about 150 people on my group page and I closed it in November. I’m just under 400 now on my fan page.
What about using facebook ads as a way to notify fans about what’s happening on your group page?
You can spend as little as $1.00/day on an ad. With 1,000 fans that would generate 5-6 impressions per fan (on average) per day.
I’ve been using ads to drive people to become fans, but as of yet I haven’t targeted any ads at people who are already fans. Is anyone targeting ads at fans?