7 Massive Mistakes Most Facebook Page Owners Make
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Transcript of 7 Massive Mistakes Most Facebook Page Owners Make
AdvancedFanPageSolutions.com
7 Massive Mistakes Most
Facebook Page Owners
Make Are You Making Them? Find Out Now.
By Leigh Kostiainen
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About The Author
Leigh Kostiainen has been a work from home entrepreneur for the 8 years
on and off, full time for the past 3 years, specialising in teaching and
supporting small business owners to build online communities and lasting
relationships with clients and customers using online marketing and social
media tools.
Leigh has owned a number of businesses in the past ten years both offline
and online, often many at the same time!
Choosing the work from home lifestyle enables Leigh to extend her sales, marketing and IT
background into helping other business owners discover the tools and resources they need to make
it possible to develop growth commensurate to the time and effort contributed to the business by
the owner.
Follow Leigh on Twitter http://twitter.com/LeighKostiainen
Join Hire My Mum on Facebook www.facebook.com/PromoteMyFanPage
Feedback: [email protected]
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Contents
Are You Making Any of Them? Find Out Now ................................................................................... 4
Massive Mistake #1 .......................................................................................................................... 6
Posting Like You Are Writing A Bad Ad ......................................................................................... 6
Massive Mistake #2 .......................................................................................................................... 8
Autoposting .................................................................................................................................. 8
Massive Mistake #3 .......................................................................................................................... 9
No Original Content ...................................................................................................................... 9
Massive Mistake #4 ........................................................................................................................ 10
Begging For Fans ......................................................................................................................... 10
Massive Mistake #5 ........................................................................................................................ 11
Any Fans Will Do ......................................................................................................................... 11
Massive Mistake #6 ........................................................................................................................ 12
Primary Real Estate Not Utilized ................................................................................................. 12
Massive Mistake #7 ........................................................................................................................ 13
Don’t Understand the Value of Facebook Pages ......................................................................... 13
Bonus Massive Mistake #8 .............................................................................................................. 14
Not Having a Strategic Plan ......................................................................................................... 14
Special 7 Mistakes Reader Only Offer ............................................................................................. 15
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7 Massive Mistakes Most Facebook Page Owners Make
Are You Making Any of Them? Find Out Now
Facebook has fast become the biggest juggernaut in social media, and that means great
opportunities for you as a SME business.
It is widely reported that Facebook has over 400 million registered fans, with 50% of them
logging in daily, and 70% of all members living outside the United States. So for SME
businesses this means an enormous opportunity to generate free ‘highly targeted traffic’ for
your website and ultimately your ‘products and services’ sales.
The largest growth sector for new registrations on Facebook fals into the 24 to 35 yr old
markets closely followed by the 35 to 45 yr old group, and collectively they make up the
majority of the Facebook market place.
That is a long way from where Facebook began! Where did it begin? Like all great ideas, a
couple of college geeks created a little application in their dorm room to help connect
people who attended their campus. Due to it’s popularity they saw a great future ... and set
out to fulfil their big plans and added another university ... I can only wonder if Mark
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Zuckerberg ever really thought way back then that his little project would be the biggest
online communication network in the world.
So what can Facebook do for your business? There are 3 major benefits; free traffic to your
website, free list building and most importantly ... the ability to build real and personal
relationships directly with your customers.
Why is Facebook better than other social media services? We know that on the internet
‘Content is King’ whether it is on a network, blog and micro blogging service. The thing
about Facebook that is different is that Facebook is about people ... and the content delivery
needs to be conversational.
But why are so many people unable to leverage the power of Facebook? They are
consistently struggling to; build fans, encouraging fan engagement and driving fans back to
their website.
Well the answer to that is simple ... they are making at least one of these massive Facebook
page mistakes ... are you?
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Massive Mistake #1
Posting Like You Are Writing A Bad Ad
I am often surprised when the gurus say “this stuff is
so easy and everyone can do it” ... well, technically
it is true, but the truth is that some people get
“it” more than others. And for some of us (yes
us! me too) it is a skill that needs to be learned
or rather “unlearned”.
What do I mean by unlearning something we don’t already
know? ... Well, I am not crazy but here is the point! For many
marketers and small business people we learn to ‘promote’ ourselves in
traditional advertising formats such as brochures and newspaper ads with features and
benefits. It is for this reason that we naturally tend to write about our businesses as is if we
are promoting ourselves in a traditional ad no matter what format or medium we are using.
So the #1 most common mistake is writing your wall updates like you are writing a bad ad.
The key to Facebook, Twitter and of ‘social’ media is the SOCIAL part! Followers/fans/likers
etc aren’t after features and benefits; they want you to want to get to know them.
In ‘Social’ media, a status update or post minus the features and benefits equals a
conversation.
Posts – Features & Benefits = Conversation
Think about it, if you were reading your own wall posts would you be having a conversation.
Here is an example of a bad ad wall post;
We provide taxation services and do month end and year end
reports. The budget announcement is coming out on Tuesday.
And this is an example of a good wall post;
Calling all Entrepreneurs!! Did you know these entrepreneur’s
deductions were available, exclusively to you? Would you like a full
list?
Write your updates and posts with the vision of talking to someone in the street. You
wouldn’t be talking at them; you would be talking to them.
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Promoting your main service over and over and over and … you get the picture! It is a
common myth with social media tools to think that your message might be missed due to
time zones or whatever other reason you add in there … the truth is that your message will
get read by people who like you, but they will quickly stop liking you if all you do is post the
same bad ad 3, 4, 5 times a day/week.
In the world of online marketing content is truly KING. So knowing that, why do so many
people fail to post ‘content’ and still aim to post ‘features & benefits’? Good question,
because until now no one has told them that features and benefits are for sales copy and
content and conversation are for social media.
You can use your content in so many ways these days, and linking your blog, YouTube,
Twitter, LinkedIn, podcasts etc to your Facebook page gives you a double whammy bonus.
First, you get to share your content on more than one platform and second, there are great
SEO benefits to be gained from sharing on Facebook.
Producing your own content gives you the opportunity to promote ‘features & benefits’ in
another format and gives you the resources to write updates & posts in a conversational
way.
A blog post or new video means you can invite your fans to your blog to have a better look
at your business. And at the same time you can ask for feedback or dialogue back at your
Facebook page to be shared with others. Getting those all important comments on your
posts are so important. That is what other people use when deciding to view your content.
If you only have bad ad after bad on your page there is nothing to comment about and no
initiation to see more.
The invitation is the key to engagement - first you invite people to your other content and
once they have consumed your content you have an invitation back to your Facebook page
asking them to comment. Always aim to have open ended invitations, a question is a good
way to do that such as; what did you think, does this
affect you, would you like more etc.
Closed statements are killers, again you are talking at
someone and not engaging them in a conversation.
People want to connect with people, Facebook is about
people …
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Massive Mistake #2
Autoposting
One of the biggest benefits of the internet and social
media is the ability to autopost from your blog to your
Twitter, Facebook and Friend Feed or from your Twitter
to your blog, Facebook and other sources etc. It is also
massive mistake #2.
Auto posting is obviously not personal and obviously
auto posted, if you are lucky someone passing by might
click through but the chances of them becoming a fan
are low.
Whilst it is great that you are producing content and
sharing it, if you have completely removed you from your updates and posts you are
effectively just writing a bad ad!
Original content on Facebook takes two forms; blog posts, podcasts and videos etc, and it is
also the original conversations you generate on your page. You are the host and it is your
job to keep the conversation alive.
Remember what I told you on the last page … People want to connect with people,
Facebook is about people!
I will say that autoposting is not all bad, after all, it is the way we share the blog content we
have created. A Facebook page that only has auto posted blogs and tweets is guaranteed to
have zero comments or people engagement. Sadly your hard work actually ends up looking
like an unattended space purely used for SEO. Whilst there are some benefits for SEO, it is
the engagement in your comments that really drives your SEO both in Google and Facebook
rankings … What? You didn’t know you can improve your Facebook ranking! That’s another
book in itself!
The last thing you want is to end up losing opportunities because your page is boring,
standard, static, unattended, and unengaging.
Find 15 minute a day to start fresh new conversations on your own page and comment on
your visitor’s comments, and before long you will see a dramatic difference in the activity
score of your pages statistics.
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Massive Mistake #3
No Original Content
We have talked a lot about original content already, but just let me reiterate that in the
online marketing and social media world content is KING!
If you think about why people use the internet it is for entertainment and information.
Conversation & Content = Entertaining & Information
So you are posting everyday about events you
have read on Mashable, the Facebook
Developers Forum and from Google, helping
to bring your fans the latest industry news.
This is massive mistake #3, because … so are
hundreds of thousands of other reporters.
If everyone is reporting on the same news then
who is really benefiting? The person who
created the news!
You might not have a following like Pete
Cashmore of Mashable but you can still create
original content about Mashables content.
Writing your own blog post will give you a reason
to start a conversation and a reason to invite your fans back to your site, where you can
report on the news and add your own opinions, views and tips. You can also add additional
resources … your own of course!
Without your own original content you are demonstrating to your fans that you have no
opinion on the issues at hand and are really just a reporter rather than an industry leader.
Your opinion really does count and if you want to stand out from the crowd you will need to
share it.
Quite unfortunately, you gain little SEO benefit by only reporting on other peoples
news/content. You are very nice by sending Google bots to other peoples sites but that is
not where you want them to go … after all Facebook page owners tell me all the time their
biggest frustrations are getting more fans and getting their fans to come to their website.
Maybe this massive mistake has something to do with that problem.
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Massive Mistake #4
Begging For Fans
I will tell you straight away; this is one of my biggest pet hates and that there really is no
silver lining to this point. I use Tweetdeck as my Twitter client and have two searches set up
for the terms facebook and fan page, and
the clear majority of the posts in those two
feeds is “please join my fan page”.
I just want to reply to them and ask, why?
Please give me a reason.
So massive mistake #4 is begging for fans, please don’t do this, it is lame and you look
desperate and unprofessional.
Desperation is not a good look for a business.
Every post, update or tweet that you make should have a purpose … and it should only have
one purpose. Each update needs to be thought about and have an expected result in mind.
That could be as simple as just getting a few reply “good mornings” or as strategic as
generating affiliate sales.
Even though you are inviting them to your page, the simple act of just asking them to come
is not the type of invitation that will get you the result you want. Just expecting people to
come to you without a reason isn’t going to happen.
Your begging also becomes a bad ad! One that will turn people away!
Begging for fans only brings you untargeted traffic. You have no control over
who comes back to your page, because you fired off a bunch of
arrows without a target and hoped for the best.
The internet is a big place and presents you
with the opportunity of generating a lot of
interest in you and your products or
services. You can use Twitter, forums and
communities to drive traffic to your site, but
without a strategy they are untargeted and
potentially wasted. Untargeted fans do not
engage and do not buy.
Your content is your best invitation, and your
conversation is your best resource.
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Massive Mistake #5
Any Fans Will Do
Not too far from begging for your fans, is
thinking that any fans will do.
While most Facebook Page owners will tell you
the more fans the better, I am here to tell you
that is not true. It is such a big myth to believe
that the more fans you have the more people
will see your feed … massive mistake #5 any fans
will do … it doesn’t work that way.
The people who are fans of your page will see
your feed of course, but the friends of those
people won’t see it until your fan, their friend,
comments on your update.
There is no viral benefit generated without
engagement. As I said in point 4, untargeted fans do not engage and they do not buy, so
why would you want them. There is a sense of security in numbers; the higher the number
goes the more secure you feel in your ability and your marketing skills.
But the truth is out there …
I asked my fans, how many fans they needed and Anna Lozo really summed up the truth of
it,
With 100 quality fans spending $100 per month you have a comfortable $10,000 monthly
income. How much to you make when you have 1,000,000 fans spending nothing each
month? Nothing!
Not only do untargeted fans have a lower engagement rate they also have a higher unlike
rate … so you have to work harder to get more fans again. It becomes a vicious circle that is
time consuming and very unsatisfying. In fact it is a big contributor towards the biggest
frustrations that Facebook Page owners report.
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Massive Mistake #6
Primary Real Estate Not Utilized
Many website owners spend hundreds and even thousands of dollars on banner and
directory ads each year, for exposure and for SEO.
Forums frequently discuss the topic of where to
find free or cheap ad space and listing
directories. On the surface that is a great idea,
but a barely frequented forum or directory
with a page rank of 1 is not going to deliver
any real benefit, especially when there is so
much competing information and links for
them to click on.
Many people don’t even know they can get
,great SEO benefits from their Facebook
page and best of all they can say as much and
whatever they like for free all day everyday! Most Facebook Page
owners never change their tabs, making this massive mistake #6. The tabs in Facebook are
your primary real estate and are there to be used, so utilize them and give your fans more
reasons to engage.
Otherwise your page is going to continue to be a static loss of opportunities. Even if you do
already have extra tabs like a welcome tab, but never move them around, you are still not
taking full advantage of this prime virtual real estate. Did you know your welcome tab is
redundant real estate as soon as someone likes your page? You can actually have a
vanishing welcome tab that is only seen until they become a fan and then existing fans
never see it again!
Depending on which day of the week it is, I have different tabs visible on my wall. You can
have 5 at a time, so if it is Wednesday I have my ‘shows’ tab visible because that is the day I
do my live webinars, and on Fridays I conduct a live chat lounge for our fan page networking
group, so my ‘chat’ tab is visible and the ‘shows’ tab is removed.
Being the owner of a static and bare bones Facebook page delivers a message that you are
behind the times and not setting the standard for your industry. It may seem ridiculous but
it is a fact that the way people see you on your fan page is the way they will judge your
business. The only exception is for a highly charismatic and content oriented page owner,
who delivers a lot through who they are. But I don’t know many of those.
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Massive Mistake #7
Don’t Understand the Value of Facebook Pages
People have widely varying experiences and ideas about how Facebook can work for them.
But the single underlying truth is that it is a massive resource in your business and one that
needs to be managed just like any other aspect
of your business.
Even small businesses can ‘fake it’, by either
learning to doing it themselves or using services
that manage their sites for them, both in the
design & functionality of your page and in the
management of it.
A lot of businesses still think of Facebook as a
way to talk to friends and family, but with over
400 milllion users and half logging in daily you
won’t find a better free market place. The key is
learning to harness that market to your
businesses advantage.
Rarely as business owners do we get the
opportunity to start using a service at such an early stage, but this is the exception as
Facebook pages only began in 2007, meaning that businesses who establish their business
presence on Facebook and learn now how to harness the juggernaut, will be firmly set to
reap the benefits in the coming years.
For many traditional businesses the opportunity to build loyalty around localization is
enormous, with many online gurus already offering training courses in online business
localization marketing. But taking no action now will see you missing opportunities and
definitely missing free traffic and SEO opportunities.
As mentioned earlier, many Facebook page owners believe that the more fans the better
because more people will see their page … This is not true, but what is true is the prospect
of viral marketing and the dramatic benefits of a successful viral campaign on your Facebook
page.
Like them or hate them Facebook is undeniably a critical tool in your marketing mix. Your Facebook Page gives you the resources to be an industry leader!
Whether you capitalise on the value of Facebook is up to you, but I want to you know after
reading this, I want you to know, that now is the time to start because you will have an
enormous head start over your competition.
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Bonus Massive Mistake #8
Not Having a Strategic Plan
You probably have a strategic plan or business
plan for your business. You should also have one
for your Facebook page and other social media
tools.
Without one your updates make you look like
you have no purpose or strategy.
Why does it need to be so complicated? Isn’t it
just another report I will never read after it is
written?
It doesn’t need to be anything complicated or
long either. A simple one page Social Media Plan
is enough to get you started.
Without a plan or purpose you will struggle to know what to write about and you will easily
lose focus. Worse still you will never be able to know if your time input into your social
media sites is even worth it.
I use a very simple ‘Social Media Strategic Plan’ template that makes planning very easy,
depending on how much time I have and what stage of the business cycle I am at
determines whether I have a one month plan, 3 months or even for one week only …
Your professionalism rests on your plan, without it you are going to write posts like a bad
ad, have no original content, beg for fans and miss opportunities galore.
On Promote My Fan Page (my fan page) page owners can freely promote their businesses …
and I see these mistakes on a daily basis. It is important to know that you will succeed better
with a plan and that it is OK to NOT promote your services and products every time you
have an opportunity to. Tell people something new and unique about you and your
business. Have an inviting offer to encourage them to your page, and then ask them to like
you.
It just occurred to me that you might not know what a strategic plan actually is, so just in case here is a simple explanation; the formal analysis of a business’s direction. Consider these questions:
1. "What does my business do?" 2. "Who are my desired customers?" 3. "What do I do better than my competition?"
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