I have been working on developing several new Facebook fan pages. As part of the process, I’ve recently checked out hundreds of fan pages to get ideas for new and different ways to engage and communicate with a community on Facebook.
Here are three effective and fan-focused techniques that I came across in my research. One or two might even be worth considering for your own fan page.
Offer “Exclusive” Content to Fans
In order to develop a community with your fan page, you need people to “like” it so your updates get added to their news feeds, so they can keep up to date, and so they are encouraged to come back. One way to encourage people to click the like button is to offer them something they won’t have access to otherwise.
HyperArts does this by simply presenting a fan-only offer as a status update with the details in a comment. Since you can’t get the full-view of comments until you are a fan, you need to like the page to take advantage of the offer.
You can also do this with FBML by creating a tab that has hidden and public content and using special code to reveal the fan-only details once someone likes the page. HyperArts again, has an excellent step-by-step tutorial on how to reveal hidden content to fans with FBML.
Engage at First Click
The AT&T Small Business fan page also uses the hidden technique to get visitors to like their page. But they take this one step further by having a landing tab that is engaging and interactive.
AT&T Small Business’s welcome tab includes a short one-minute video embedded in the design. They also embedded the “invite your friends” widget right into the page to encourage sharing and new traffic.
AT&T Small Business also does a number of other things well on the fan page to make it very easy for fans to get involved, including providing special offers, sharing useful content, and giving fans a place to interact with each other.
Ask Fans for Opinions
We all have opinions and most of us like to share them. You can ask for opinions on your fan page to spark conversation with the use of polls.
Parents Connect by Nickelodeon does this very well. They have a tab dedicated to polls that let people answer a simple question and add comments. One of their polls has more than 54,500 votes and 92 comments — a clear example of how polls can be a powerful way to engage your community.
What interesting and effective techniques have you seen on Facebook fan pages recently?
Alyssa GregoryAlyssa Gregory is a digital and content marketer, small business consultant, and the founder of the Small Business Bonfire — a social, educational and collaborative community for entrepreneurs.
