Modern Insider – Online Marketing Blog

Following on my post earlier this week about showing fan posts on the main part of your facebook site I’ve been talking with other Fan Page admins about how they are building community on facebook rather than simply creating a messaging platform. Here’s a few tips from the successful facebook communities out there:

1. Don’t only rely on your posts for updates, respond. Many brands have resorted to simply posting occassional updates to their fan page and do nothing to nurture or even pay attention to the comments that come in. As a result all the dialogue is one way and doesn’t drive any reason for a user to engage.

Disney's fan page has millions of members but none can share photos

An unofficial Disney page allows photos and has hundreds from fans

2. Don’t be afraid to help users. Following on point 2, your users won’t always post good stories or photos, customer support issues come up too. Bring your support team in, or just take the action and respond yourself — this is a great way to show people that you’re involved & responsive which helps draw out advocates to get involved in any issue that may be coming up.

3. Make users know they can contribute. Facebook offers so many tools for users to participate but to “control” content many brands shut these down. As a result users may not know what they can do. Encourage fan photos, repost your favorite items, share videos that aren’t from the brand and always remind people that they can contribute. They will.

4. Give the users something to participate in. In a recent survey I found that on multiple fan pages the bulk of users were there looking for promotions and contests and if that’s what you want that’s exactly what you should deliver. Daily giveaways aren’t needed but if people know they have a shot at getting something they will be much more likely to keep following.

The Ahwahnee hotel in Yosemite is giving away a stay by having fans submit their memory / story

5. Reward your advocates. As with any community there will always be members who post more, who help others and who do lots of the lifting for you. Be sure you acknowledge these helpful members and don’t be afraid to send out a product sample here and there to say thanks, $10 in cost goes a long, long way.

The idea of your facebook fan page should always be to drive interaction as that’s what gets people excited, gets them to share content and starts building the network effect so as you build your page think about what users are doing now and how you can bring them into the fold at every step.