Guest Post By Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero, Expert Copywriting Strategist
Recently I was talking to some business coaches who said they had no use for fan pages. I was curious, since so many experienced Internet marketers are using them. Could they all be wrong? So I was pleased to see this article by my own copywriting mentor, Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero. And I recommend her recent guidebook on writing good copy, fast:
http://budurl.com/quickstartcopy
When we start out on FaceBook we usually start a “personal profile.” We find friends from high school, college, past jobs, relatives, neighbors…the list is endless of who turns up there.
Those of us who also use FaceBook as a business presence run into a problem with we reach the magic number of 5,000 friends. There is no limit to friends on a “fan page.” Those of us with lists of 20,000+ subscribers get a little cheated.
At least that’s how I felt when I first had to create my fan page. It seemed silly to run two pages with many of the same people.
But the more I’ve learned about FaceBook and their goals, the more I see them supporting the marketing evolution of fan pages much more than the profile pages.
FaceBook’s expansion of fan pages has made them nearly as interactive as profile pages (except for the email aspect which frankly I’m not a supporter of anyway). The success of the fan page ultimately depends on how active the owner of the fan page chooses to be.
As a marketer I highly recommend you get your own fan page ASAP. Here are a few reasons why.
- Your status updates on fan pages end up in your networks news feeds. That means more exposure if you’re active on your fan page and a viral growth is inevitable. It wasn’t always that way for fan pages (only for personal pages). But as a support for fan pages, FaceBook made that aspect available as well.
- Fan pages can be picked up by search engines. Personal FaceBook pages are blocked behind the login whereas fan pages are not. That means they can be indexed in search engines like Google and increase your SEO ranking. As an added bonus, any links on your fan page can also be indexed.
- You can send updates to your community from a fan page. Much like when email used to be the king of online contact, FaceBook is rapidly taking its place in many markets. This is the social media method of building a tarketed list. Use this feature to share events, products, and points of interest.
- Getting your business name as part of your FaceBook fan page is a strong SEO tactic. Just like in the domain craze when people were squatting on high-profile names in order to sell them back to them, a similar phenomenon could happen in FaceBook. That’s why it’s critical to grab your own vanity URL whether or not you plan to use it now.
Here’s how to get your vanity URL.
Go to: http://www.facebook.com/username & you will be prompted to enter a vanity name. Do this carefully. FaceBook doesn’t allow you to change or transfer usernames or URLs, probably in an effort to avoid the extortion businesses experienced in the past for pre-purchased URLs. (Note: Fan pages need at least 100 fans to get a vanity URL.)
The bottom line is FaceBook has added many new aspects to fan pages, making them more robust. In the long run, as a business you want to begin and promote yours as soon as possible. Just be sure to be an active participant in your own fan page.
Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero of Red Hot Copy is a pioneer in the world of copywriting when it comes to selling to women. Her background as a journalist and an actress prepared her for the level of wordsmithing and psychology necessary to build her decade-long career. Her list of clients reads like a Hall of Fame list of marketers and corporations such as Office Depot, Ladies Who Launch and Cigna HealthCare. Author, speaker, and creator of the “She Factor Marketing System” Lorrie knows what it takes to build rapport for long-lasting relationships. And more importantly, she knows how to SELL with copy!
Check out her latest Report: http://budurl.com/quickstartcopy