[tweetmeme]Article first published as Got Facebook Fans? Not for Long if You’re Making These Mistakes on Technorati.
Many small business owners know that social media is important for their businesses, and have created pages on Facebook to promote their products or services. A recent survey of 3,300 marketers by SocialMediaExaminer.com found that 92% of marketers currently use Facebook, and 75% plan on increasing their activities.
If you go to the trouble of creating a Facebook page for your business, make sure you don’t drive away your fans by making these mistakes:
1. Page Admin does all the posts. Remember that Facebook is a social networking tool. Encourage your fans to comment, post pictures, etc. If they can’t engage with you and other fans, what’s the point?
2. Infrequent posts. If you want to develop relationships with your fans, you’ve got to be consistent about posting. Add something to your page – an article, a photo, a video – a minimum of 3-5 times per week so your posts show up in your fans’ news feeds, giving them an opportunity to engage with you, and to share your content with their friends.
3. Comments are ignored. When someone comments on your page, don’t ignore them. Make the effort to acknowledge the comment as quickly as possible. You can set up email notifications from Facebook or other third party services such as HyperAlerts.
4. Repetitive posts. While a little repetition can be a good thing, posting the same special offer five times a day, five days in a row will turn off even your most devoted fans. Aim for a mix of content – blog articles, photos, events and special discounts.
Be aware that even when your fans participate on your page by responding to your comments, articles, contests, or discounts, some people will still choose to “unlike” your page. Some do it because they were only interested in a one-time offer, while others “unlike” a page because a company didn’t offer enough deals or it offered too many.
The lesson to be learned is that consumer expectations are divided. So it’s best to strike a balance that will satisfy most people, while not coming on too strong either way.
I would like to say that social media is the best way to published your article.This is the way where you can spread your business easily, facebook is the first way to growing your business because there are many traffic which will help you to improving your website on Google search result.
The items on your list are so true. I have probably liked close to a hundred pages on Facebook but only comment on the ones that encourage participation. Here are five brands that are making waves on Facebook: http://www.copywritingconsulting.com/marketing-copywriting/companies-that-gained-reputation-through-facebook/
– and they all seem to have listened to you. 🙂
Judith,
Thanks for the feedback. I visited your article and wondered why you didn’t include screenshots of these Facebook pages, or links to their pages. Your blog would be much more powerful if you would include images to show your readers. Just my two cents! Have a good day.
Thanks for the feedback, Gloria. I’ll definitely see what I can do about adding those links and/or screenshots. 😀