By Ernest O'Dell

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

I can only imagine how you feel about fan pages on Facebook. On one side of the equation, I agree with your sentiments. The ego of it all!

And, yes, there's a lot of "wannabe" gurus who think they can teach you something. What most of them don't realize is how you really feel about them: they're wet behind the ears, and they couldn't teach you anything.

Think about it: what can a "20 something" —living at home with his mama and daddy—teach you? About anything?

I know! That's where the ego comes in.

But, if YOU have something of value that can help people with a business solution to a problem they're having...

...guess what? You could be telling a whole lot more people than just your friends on your profile page.

How?

Let me explain:

Why you need to put up a fan page on Facebook and work the hell out of it!

Everybody usually starts out on FaceBook with a "personal profile." We find friends from high school, college, past jobs, relatives, neighbors... and the list goes on.

Those of us (like you and me) who use FaceBook as a business presence run into a problem when we "max out" at the magic number of 5,000 friends.

So, what do you do then?

Now, the key to understanding how Facebook works starts here, so pay attention. (I might be from Texas, but I'm not one to "shoot first and ask questions later. I've tested these strategies and found out that they work!)

There's no limit to the number of "friends" (or fans) you can have on a "fan page."

There... I said it. I let the cat out of the bag.

You still with me?

What? Did you think this was some big ol' "dirty secret?"

Are you paying attention?

Okay!

There are some members on Facebook who have lists of 20,000+ subscribers! (I'm personally shooting for one million... but that's another story for another time.)

Are you feeling just a little cheated?

Why would FB limit you to 5K friends?

Well, part of it is technical, and the other part of it is... well, not so technical.

Right now, I'm not going to bother with either. What I am going to reveal to you is one of the secrets nobody else is telling you about.

I know you hate "fan pages" and you won't join a lot of them, because you think their owners have inflated egos.

And, you know what? You're right!

But that's okay. And you might not want to even start your own fan page. And, that's okay, too. That's up to you. But if you decide not to start your own fan page, you're only cheating yourself out of a big technological growth area.

Let me explain:

(I know this is starting to sound redundant, but stay with me...)

I've had my own fan page for several months. As a matter of fact, I have 4 or 5 different "fan pages." Some of them are business related (with some fans) and one of them is a personal fan page.

Now, why would anyone want to have a personal fan page? Is it because they have a big ego? Yes and no.

Could it possibly be because their ego is overinflated? Again, yes and no.

Let me explain...

People on Facebook start fan pages for a variety of reasons:

1.They max out their regular account with 5,000 friends,

2.They have overinflated egos bigger than yours or mine, or

3.They need the technological "boost" offered by having a fan page.

And, it's number 3 that I'm going to tell you about.

I thought about all the above when I created my first fan page. It seemed a bit silly to run two (or more) pages with many of the same people on both.

But...

...the more I learned about FaceBook and their goals, the more I see them supporting the marketing evolution of fan pages much more than the profile pages. FaceBook’s expansion of fan pages has made them nearly as interactive as profile pages (except for the email aspect which frankly I’m not a real big supporter of anyway).

You and I both know that Facebook generates more Internet traffic than Google. That's a fact. And if you have your FB pages (personal and fan pages) "plugged in" with your blogs and Twitter accounts, that, too, is going to give you a considerable "spike" in traffic.

The success of the fan page ultimately depends on how active the owner of the fan page chooses to be.

What do I mean by that? Well, if you're not actively "managing" your fan page with good content, AND on a consistent basis, it can be just as detrimental as not having one at all.

As a marketer I highly recommend you get your own fan page ASAP, if you don't have one.

Where?

I'm getting to that...

Here are a few more reasons why:

1.Your status updates on fan pages end up in your network’s news feeds. That means more exposure if you’re active on your fan page and viral growth is inevitable. It wasn’t always that way for fan pages back in the old days of Facebook (only for personal pages). But as support and demand for fan pages increased, the programmers and CEO geeks at FaceBook made that aspect available as well.

2.Fan pages can be picked up by search engines. (Aha! Do you see where I'm going with this?) Personal FaceBook pages are blocked behind the login whereas fan pages are not. That means they can be indexed in search engines like Google and increase your SEO ranking (and real dang fast, too!). The indexing happens almost as fast as you post something.

As an added bonus, any links on your fan page can also be indexed.

Alright? Do I have you thinking now?

Am I being clear here?

Let's continue...

3. You can send updates to your "community" from a fan page. Much like when email (and autoresponders) used to be the king of online contact, FaceBook is rapidly taking its place in many markets. This is the social media method of building a ‘tarketed’ list. Use this feature to share events, products, and points of interest.

4. Getting your business name as part of your FaceBook fan page is a strong SEO tactic. Just like in the domain craze when people were squatting on high-profile names in order to sell them back to them, a similar phenomenon could happen in FaceBook.

That’s why it’s critical to grab your own vanity URL whether or not you plan to use it now.

Here’s how to get your vanity URL:

Go to: http://www.facebook.com/username and you will be prompted to enter a vanity name. Do this carefully. FaceBook won’t allow you to change it later or transfer usernames or URLs. They do this to prevent extortion businesses experienced in the past for pre-purchased URLs.

(Note: Fan pages need at least 100 fans to get a vanity URL.)

The bottom line is this: FaceBook has added many new aspects to their fan pages, making them more robust. In the long run, as a business you want to begin and promote yours as soon as possible. Just be sure to be an active participant in your own fan page.

You can visit my fan page at

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ernest-ODell/182260364898

to see what one looks like.

And, if you want to "connect" with me through my fan page, be my guest. I'll keep you posted in "near real time" on any new developments.

Now, you don't have to join my fan page. I just want you to take a look at it. (If you join, that's okay, too. I just want this to be a learning experience for you.)

Don't be so quick to "shoot first and ask questions later.

Whether you invited people to join your fan page or not, know this much: Facebook fan pages is a killer distribution channels for getting traffic and one way back links to your sites.

So... my question is this: are you going to let your emotions against the egotistical maniacs on Facebook keep you from getting traffic to your site?

Or, are you going to go get your personal Facebook fan page and start "branding" yourself?

Next week, I'll tell you how to track your fan page postings without coding anything into your sites.

My posts are appearing in Russia, Australia, all across the U.K. and Europe, South America, Mexico, and THOUSANDS of visitors in the U.S. —EACH AND EVERY DAY! So, I know this works!

The choice is yours: You can—eventually—max out at 5,000 friends on the regular login side of Facebook and be stopped "dead cold" in your growth.

Or, you can swallow your pride (and ego) and get a fan page and grow to 20K, 30K, or however many you wish.

I'm hoping you have over a million followers.

Eventually—one of these days—I'll have most of my subscribers moved over to my fan page. Until then, I've got to send out some invitations.

I'm "rootin'" for ya!

Ernest O'Dell

Guerrilla Internet Marketing

P.S. If you want to call me at the house and need me to run this by you, give me a buzz. I'm telling ya, this "fan page" concept is a kick ass technological miracle!