verve: in bloom

Facebook fan pages. An amazing tool for connecting your audiences online and having conversations. Yay for conversations! However, growing your fan base organically when you’re a small nonprofit or a local business can be hard to do.

To begin, have a fan page, not a group page. Facebook created fan pages long after group pages were available. You might consider having both and moving people over to a fan page (kind of a slow process, but doable!). Fan pages get better real estate on Facebook. They show up on the live news feed of your fans & show up higher in searches. Fan page suggestions are also clearer.

If you want to support your favorite fan page, here are my five tips. Feel free to share them with your fans to help them help you!

1. “Like” or comment on status updates. When a fan responds to a status update, that update shows up on the live feed of their friends.
2. Fans can suggest that their friends join the fan page, too. There are two ways to do this. The first is to “suggest to friends.” You’ll find the link just below the logo/photo on each fan page. The other way is to find the “+ share” button in the bottom left corner.

   

3. Leave a comment on the “wall” of the fan page. When you do, that comment shows up in your friends’ live news feed.
4. Add a fan photo. You can add it to the “wall” or (in most cases) to the photo album area. People love to look at photos! and a fan photo is a great way to show your involvement with an organization or business.
5. Include reference to the page in a status update. When you use an @ sign just before the name, it creates a link in your update to that page.
   
6. BONUS #6 (UPDATE): You can “share” any update from your favorite fan page and it’ll post on your wall. Try it! Next to “like” and “comment” is a link for “share.” Add a comment and post away!

What other tips do you have? I’d love to hear from you.