I was meeting with Stephanie from Photography Props this week about website design. Her philosophy of managing her site, www.PhotographyProps.com, is to make sure the person visiting the site does not have to think. Keep things simple and obvious. Great advice.
Don’t Make Me Think
Well, that got me thinking about Facebook Fan pages. I get asked to join a lot of fan pages. Each time I visit these requests, I ask myself, “Why do I care?” Why do I care to join this page? Many times it is not obvious why I should join.
I get thrown into your wall and need to decipher what kind of conversations are taking place and if I will get anything out of joining the conversation. Yes it is all about me. It is all about your Fans. If you ask someone to join your fan page, it better offer them a benefit – otherwise it is just you, promoting yourself.
Stop The Insanity with Two Simple Techniques
Many of the Facebook pages we are helping our clients with include a Facebook landing page. This is the first page a new Fan sees – even before your Wall. Typically it is graphic reach to generate interests and includes an effective message to engage your prospective fan.
An effective landing page should accomplish two goals:
- Tell your prospective Fan what is in it for them. Why should they “Like” your page? Why should they take the time to “Like” it now? And why should they tell all of their friends to “Like” your page. This first step helps create a reason for them to engage. After all, it is not just about getting more and more fans. Is should be about engaging those fans in your community.
- Direct your Fan on what their next steps should be. What do you want me to do next? Don’t make me think!Let’s say that you own a water conditioning businesses. In your e-newsletter, you offer a free bag of salt to all of your clients who join your Facebook page. Here is an example of what you could do on your landing page:
- First, I would like you to click on the “Like” button
- Next, let us know you are here. Leave a comment to let us know you are here.
- Give John a call at xxx.xxx.xxxx and he will personally deliver your bag of salt
- Finally, we would like to invite you to get your water tested – for FREE
See how easy that is? Now we have a fan that is engaged.
Great Examples of Facebook Fan Page Doing This
Beth did a great post earlier this week that outlined five remarkable Facebook landing pages. Each of these pages tells you why you should join and what your next steps should be – each one is different, and each one is unique to the needs of their target market.
Your Next Action
- Write a paragraph about the value/benefits people will get by joining your Facebook page.
- What are the 3 or 4 action items you want people to take when they get to your landing page.
- Design your page
Your Turn
What Facebook pages engaged you from the day you joined? Leave a comment below on Facebook pages you love. If you would like a FREE critique of your Facebook page, please send an email to info@vimm.com.
How do I do this? Is this something you have to do, or do I do it myself? love, love, love..
Hi Terry,
There is definitely a learning curve to customizing Facebook and knowledge of HTML/FBML is required to make the design work on Facebook, and we’ve got that piece down! The majority of time needs to be spent planning the purpose of your page, the call to action, the “moving” parts (clickable to where and if measurement is desired) and then designing. We could help you with any part along the way. You could certainly mock-up the design and let us take it from there. You could provide us with a more complete design and we could help get it on FB for you. Here’s another great article with more design ideas I saw go by this week: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/compelling-facebook-fan-pages/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+chrisbrogandotcom+%28%5Bchrisbrogan.com%5D%29 ( for even more inspiration!)
Great article Steve. I guess I need to get my stuff together and get a new landing page designed/created for my two fan pages. With a new CD planned for June, it might be the right thing to do for the music fan page.
For TCH, it would help focus the attention of my guest and clearly identify the call to action I want them to respond.
I will be in touch soon!!