Before we jump into how to turn yourself into a Facebook Powerhouse, I think it's important that you realise what you're up against...96% of Facebook fans never return to pages they like! Your Facebook Page posts actually only reach 2-47% of your fans. Now I know these statistics sound pretty depressing, especially when you consider that your page is also in competition with over 50 million other pages on the social media site.
Here's a statistic to make you feel a bit more hopeful though: more than 1.47 million books have been shared on Facebook (as of May 2013).
You'll also be happy to know that for every Facebook fan you engage, there are 34 more reachable friends.
Not sure whether to use your profile or a public page? Your fan page content is indexed by Google and you can use ads, metrics, and a whole bunch of other tools making it the better option from a business point of view. Why not have both though? You can select which of the posts to you profile get seen by the public and which stay private. As people can subscribe to your public posts this gives you another channel through which you can connect with your audience. By using both a page and a profile you get the best of both worlds.
So how do become a Facebook Powerhouse?
Here's a list of a few tips and tricks to help you optimise your Facebook efforts:
1) Have a strategy - Get clear on what you want to accomplish on Facebook.
2) Create a compelling brand look - Use professional graphics to enhance your Facebook page. Always include a description and a call-to-action every time you update your cover image... make sure they contain a narrative, a call to action and a link.
3) Have a content plan - What are you going to post and when? Add something of value, include call(s) to action and build social equity with your target audience.
4) When you post and ask for likes or shares, it actually gets more engagement! Ask your audience to to interact and they will!
5) Get to know your fans. Embrace them. Build a Community.
6) Photos or graphics gets most views on Facebook. Tag your personal profile in your fanpage images to gain more newsfeed visibility.
USEFUL INFO: Highlight post (STAR) size is 843 pixels x 403 pixels / Normal post 403 pixels x 403 pixels.
7) Grow your fan page - You have to tell people you have a page. Build your fan page by driving traffic from other channels. Put a link to your Facebook page in your email signature. Facebook follow buttons on your blog/website should be above the fold (don't make people hunt for it).
8) Include clear calls to action - 2 types: social (like, share, comment) & sales (click, sign up, buy).
9) Best time to post? Look at your insights and see where you have the most engagement.
10) Fangate: Putting content behind a page that requires people to like your page to access content
11) Every post on Facebook has it's own unique URL. It's the timestamp on the post. Just click on the date of the post and it'll take you to the post url. You can then share that post on your other social media sites and invite your other followers to join in your Facebook conversations.
12) Create a private Interest List of great Pages & observe what they do that works. A great way for getting some new ideas.
13) With your posts make sure you keep it 80% content, 20% promotion. 80% focus on *them*, 20% focus on you.
14) Contests are a great way to get new fans and engage your followers. You need to run a Facebook contest using a 3rd party app though, not on your wall.
15) Track and tweak your Facebook KPIs (key performance indicators) so you can see what's working and what's not.
There are 1.1 billion people on Facebook. How are you engaging with them?
