All the experts proclaim that if you are in business, in a band, if you are an author, speaker, or lead an organization, that you need a Facebook Fan Page.
Well, I have one, http://www.facebook.com/TheDreamingCafe, but if I knew what I know now I would have never started one, at least not this early in the evolution of The Dreaming Café.
- There are only two reasons why you SHOULD have a Facebook Fan Page:
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1. You are near, or at the max, of the 5000 friend limit on your personal profile page.
2. Your business, band, book, or organization ‘fans’ and ‘friends’ are two completely different groups and there is no crossover.
Now, personally, I know very few people who fall into either of these two categories. And, according to TechCrunch.com nearly 77% of all Facebook fan pages have less then 1000 fans.
- Why did I jump on the band wagon and create a Facebook Fan Page for The Dreaming Café?
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1. One of my links was reported as ‘spam’. I was not only hurt that a friend would report me as spam, but I was also worried that other people felt the same way and that soon I would be unfriended by everyone. (Over reaction, I know.)
2. I participated in several ‘Social Media’ teleseminars and all the experts said I had to have a Fan Page. My mistake was listening to them without doing my own research like I normally would. Being reported as spam caused me to react versus to think and to research why I was reported as spam and how to avoid it going forward. (Lesson learned, I hope.)
- There are two big benefits of a Facebook Fan Page has over your personal profile page:
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1. Fan pages are public. People do not have to join Facebook to view your posts, events, notes, etc.
2. They are searchable. This means that the major search engines like Google and Yahoo will ‘crawl’ them and index them like regular web pages so they can be included in search results.
- One BIG disadvantage of Facebook Fan Pages: No posting updates.
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This is it’s biggest downfall and is very disappointing to me.
You receive a notification or update when someone ‘likes’, comments on your posts or writes on your Wall on your Facebook personal profile. This does NOT happen, at least yet, when someone ‘likes’, comments on your posts or writes on your Fan Page wall.
This means that unless you are babysitting your Facebook Fan Page all day, every day, your fans can be posting, making comments and asking questions and you won’t even know it and neither will any of your other Fans.
You want to interact with your Fans and you want them to interact with each other. Without the notification process basically the whole thing turns into a one way conversation. And, you do not want one way conversations with your friends, fans and supporters.
The point of social media is that it’s social, it’s about conversations and community. Right now Facebook Fan Pages do not provide this opportunity.
These are my opinions, based on my experience.
I do believe that Facebook Fan Pages play a role in your ‘get-noticed’ strategy, I just don’t believe that they are right for everybody, all the time.
What do you think?
Sandy – Just came across your site. Congratulations on Going at it on your own! The one thing about wordpress is that you can tie your wordpress feed into Twitter and the Facebook Fan page. In my business, Bennett Web Design, I encourage people to use Twitter and Facebook to drive traffic back to their site. You can set it up so that when you create a post on your site it automatically creates a post on Twitter and the Fan page on Facebook with a link back to your site. In my opinion, the Idea of having a “conversation” should be taking place here on your site rather than Facebook.
Thank you, Gilles. Devoting your time to your website and doing what best suits you and your business is the strategy we should all adopt. For some Facebook ill play a part for others, maybe not.
Thank you fro reading and sharing your viewpoint.
Sandy
Thank you all for sharing and thank you Sandy for starting this thread.
I agree with most views above. I have been told by “experts” that FB pages are the way to go to expose your business/interests. One interesting fact I found is that several of these experts didn’t use FB pages themselves. Interesting.
From my observation, many people use FB pages for marketing and have very little interesting content in them. FB pages are great if you really enjoy posting to them. I for one, am much more interested in spending my time, which I consider precious, honing my skills and talents, serving others and doing what I love most. My business has been built completely on word of mouth with very little traditional marketing. But, this recie is not for everyone, I can only say that it works for me.
I did create a FB page but am not spending time keeping it up to date. I live a simplified life and having too many internet areas to upkeep doesn’t fit in. So…. I opted to have a FB page to simply direct visitors to the website. This is where I devote some time.
Cheers,
Gilles Gagnon
When I first opened my Facebook account I confirmed everyone that wanted to be friends–feeling that it was a way for Dirty Footprints STudio to get some exposure. I had my blog posts update on my page and everything. But then, I had not one–but two very creepy and disturbing incidents happen with strange men that made me have to block and report them. I got rid of most of my FB friends, and opened up a fan page–for Dirty Footprints Studio to get its groove on. I still use MY FB page as a way to connect with my friends and family by sometimes posting photos and such…and I’d much rather keep that private or more selective about who I confirm–and I don’t care who joins my fan page.
Hi Sue, Good idea about contacting Facebook. I forget they are a still relatively new online presence and are still in development. I like the personal and business combo, too. Barbara does it seamlessly. Thanks for commenting.
Sandy
Hi LeeAnn, I, too am frustrated. I apologize, but I am not even sure I knew there was a Divine Cowgirl Fan Page. I’ll check it out. Let me know what you decide. I’m curious.
Sandy
I have found the Facebook fan page to be more work that it is worth at this point.. I have enough to do besides try to stay current with the fan page and every thing else. I actually just enjoy my own page… so I am debating about what i am going to do next .. I think I need to create an intention about what the Fan page is suppose to be for me…
Still noodling
Hi Sandy, I agree with your frustration with notifications on fan pages. Have you given facebook feedback on it? I set up a fan page for a business I do sales for. I tend to forget to check it. I would love to have notifications too.
I noticed Christine Kane uses a friends page for her business presence on facebook and so does Barbara Winter (as you know). That seems to work well. I like the how personal it is to be friends with both
I agree with your conclusion – as with everything else, it’s up to us as individual solo-preneurs to decide what will work best for us. I’m letting the million dollar guys have these channels….my goal is not quantities or numbers. I find that I’m using FB for my friends and colleagues and use Twitter to do some of my research and that works for me.
Thanks, Debra. I debated posting this because it does against the grain. Let me know what you decide to do.
Sandy
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Sandy Dempsey and Sandy Dempsey, DebraMarrs. DebraMarrs said: The good and the bad – Facebook Fan Pages, what do you think? @SandyDfromNJ makes a good pt http://ow.ly/H6HH [...]
I appreciate your insights from personal experience, Sandy. You make a great point of why NOT to create a Facebook fan page when so many are pushing business owners to DO so. Too often there is a herd-like mentality where business owners follow the advice of supposed thought-leaders with little or no thought of their own.
I like hearing your counterpoint. That way, I can make an informed decision on my own whether having a fan page is right for me and my biz too. Thank you for a well-positioned post!
I’m skittish of Facebook in general. I keep hearing I need to be on Facebook, and I did create an account recently, but deleted it within 10 minutes because everything inside me was screaming that it would not be the best thing for me to do at this time. I agree that the Fan Pages should allow you to interact with your fans, though. Seems to miss the whole point of calling it a Fan Page if you cannot.