At the end of February 2009, Facebook launched Facebook Pages as a way to allow businesses and brands to strengthen their online image on Facebook and increase their potential interaction with Facebook users.
A Facebook Page looks very much like a regular Facebook Profile and there are several organizations and business that have one such as AT&T.
According to official figures from Facebook, there are:
- More than 3 million active Pages on Facebook
- More than 1.5 million local businesses have active Pages on Facebook
- More than 20 million people become fans of Pages each day
- Pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans
- Average user becomes a fan of 4 Pages each month
No matter how impressive these figures are.
Apparently they are not enough for Facebook. Here’s why.
Facebook Profile vs Facebook Page
First, let’s understand the difference between a Facebook Profile and a Facebook Page, and why would a marketer prefer to create a Facebook Page rather than a Facebook Profile.
The difference between a regular Facebook profile and a Facebook Page is that instead of becoming a friend of a brand/organization/company, you become a fan. A well-thought feature is that brand/organization/company CANNOT add friends. This is a great practice of permission marketing because it forces users to really think whether they want to become a “fan” or not of a brand/organization/company. Therefore, the “fan” gives permission to the brand/organization/company to contact him or her, making communications personal, relevant and anticipated (the 3 pillars of permission marketing).
Marketers really like Facebook Pages because they provide marketers key insights into the gender, age range, geographic location, and languages spoken of the fans of a Facebook Page. There are other nice features like number of pageviews, comments, video views and more, but the key insight is gender and age. Below is a screen shot of sample Facebook Page’s Insight:
Having the age range and gender of fans from a Facebook Page allows the page owners to create more effective Facebook Ad campaigns.
So, what’s the problem?
Enter: Your Weekly Facebook Page Update
The problem is that admins from Facebook Pages appear not to be engaging in their Pages as much as Facebook would like.
A couple months ago, Facebook started asking permission to Facebook Page admins for their e-mails so that Facebook could start contacting directly, rather than through the Facebook back end.
On Wednesday March 17, 2010 Facebook sent out the first “Your Weekly Facebook Page Update” to the millions of admins around the world.
The e-mail said:
Hi -insert your name-,
Here is this week’s summary for the Facebook Page: -insert your Facebook Page name-
+ or – xxx Fans this week (xxx total Fans)
xxx Wall Posts, Comments, and Likes this week (xxx last week)
xxx Visits to your page this week (xxx Visits last week)Update your Fans:
LinkVisit your Insights Page:
LinkGet more Fans with Facebook Ads:
LinkThanks,
The Facebook Team
The e-mail is well developed because it is straight to the point. Facebook wants its Facebook Page admins:
- Create more content!
- Track their Facebook Pages more actively.
- Spend money on Facebook Ads to get more fans.
Conclusion
No matter how impressive the growth of Facebook Pages are, Facebook needs to monetize on them. Facebook is trying to get its Facebook Page admins more active by communicating with them directly on their email inboxes with a list of objectives: more content, more fans, and more ads.
good idea from facebook. possible changes are beneficial for both parties (advertisers, users and facebook). and need to be added again:
“@list of objectives: more content, more fans, and more ads.”
and MORE GAME.
Facebook is incredible! I have a page there, Here 2 Help Services, and having that page has really helped the numbers for my website. I wrote a few articles on my site about the benefits of FB for businesses, proper etiquette, and of course directions for set up. Click on my name to check them out!
I don’t like the idea of them asking for email addresses and encouraging interaction from admins. There are already enough “pushy” forces on the Internet. They don’t need to join in:)
Interesting and a good start, but feels like this post was cut short?? Seems like there’s more to be said about the FB page versus profile.
Thanks! This is follow-up piece to How to target your audience using Facebook Pages. Other good reads about using Facebook for marketing are:
How Facebook does Email Newsletters
How Facebook does Email Newsletters II
How HR Professionals Analyze your Facebook Profile (this one was a hit! Over 300 RTs in its lifetime!)
LinkedIn vs Facebook
What Facebook Users Want
How to Target your Audience Using Facebook Advertising
I’m aware that I still owe you a follow-up piece on the last topic, Facebook Advertising, specifically on how to price the ads. Currently I am running some Facebook Ads as I type this and had to do the pricing myself. I can tell you that it was very nice to see the new targeting feature which allows you to target only people that don’t belong to a Facebook Page (about time!) and that you can target people who are friends of people that are fans of a Facebook Page, yet not fans themselves. This last feature is a great feature.
Finally, conversion tracking is here! Some accounts, eheem like mine, have been granted access to this really nice feature. It allows you to track conversions with a little piece of code that you add on your website. So it allows you to put that piece of code say if people click on the checkout button or download a certain PDF file. Excelsior!!! (Sorry, big Stan Lee fan.)