Let me come out straight I don't have a fan page for myself per say on Facebook.
Why you may ask? Well for starters social media isn't something you need to spread yourself too thin too soon and secondly up until now I really didn't need it much.
I was doing fine without it as well.
But I highly recommend businesses, brands, people and institutions to have a fan page.
I have over the last 6 months in this business created, developed and promoted fan pages for other brands and businesses and trust me the effort was worth the market reach.
Now I too am contemplating my own pages as its become imperative for me to diversify my brand offerings and compartmentalize my life as a whole.
Here is what I recommend out of my knowledge and experience if you want to create your fan page, ask these questions.
#1.
Do you really need one? - Hm...
this one is like asking yourself "Do I really need an iPad or a 4G phone?" The answer is never a 'Yes! I need it', but it does help to understand why you need it.
You need a Facebook fan page if you have an established business or any non profit organisation or community with a lot of members with activities going on.
For beginners if you are new to Facebook as a concept in general and you have any one or more of the above mentioned setups, might as well compartmentalize your life from the start.
Facebook fan page is where you can target your audience for business or community without having to befriend them first.
It also gets you a privacy which profile may not offer unless you customize your privacy settings tactfully.
Now of course search engines will pick up profile updates that go public too but earlier only fan page updates where picked up in searches.
You need a page because its only about that sole purpose and not about your personal life.
#2.
What is the primary purpose? - You need to sit down and identify the purpose of your page.
Believe me I have seen pages going the profile way because there isn't an audit for what is the purpose of the page.
Do not confuse your audience for a split second you may lose your credibility.
When I run pages for other brands I make sure I don't mix information from their profiles to the pages.
What goes on the page is only meant to go from the page and you won't see it anywhere else.
Your purpose will make people adhere to it for longer duration and will also suggest it to others.
Your page should like all other social media strategies be of value to your audience.
If it has no defined value it will serve no purpose either.
For e.
g.
if your page is selling hotel accommodation do everything related to hotel accommodation and hotel experience do not venture into what are the latest recipes in Italy or the cutlery.
Please stick to travel & hospitality experience only.
#3.
How will it benefit your brand? - If Levis and Pepsi are some of the examples to go by; brands become huger on fan pages.
There is no dearth of opportunities for your brand.
In fact if you don't even have your own website, the fan page is pretty much what you need for your brand to go viral.
Fan pages can act as miniature websites or an extension to websites to stay interconnected.
Brands that were spending millions on T.
V commercials are diverting there R&D as well as marketing budgets in making the pages more interactive than their competition.
You as a basic user need not be overwhelmed by what Pepsi co and Levis are up to but yes you may also be learning from their tactics.
Pages offer you to integrate your blog, articles, product interaction by static fbml, customer survey in forms of polls, integrate your twitter updates, offer a sales page or call to action tab, review on product, forums, contact page, about page, product range old and new.
Your brand is completely exposed to the target audience and they can interact with you about it.
The brand promise is highly valued with your page than it would with traditional branding methods.
#4.
What are the frills of a fan page for your brand? - Facebook with its recent f8 developers conference have announced many changes one of them being the like button on pages instead of the old 'Become a Fan".
What is does is if someone likes your page they become your fan of course but it goes into organic impressions on Facebook streams to that person's network, similarly recommendations to your page also picks up the friends who are your fans of any individual viewing your page.
So lets say when I see your page for the first time it not only shows how many people like your page but also how many of my friends like it too.
This automatically gives a socially accepted recommendation about your page.
Fan pages are also promoted as ads on Facebook and Google to get more fans if your budget permits you of course.
Fan page can become a platform for your audience to connect with each other and make your page a hang out place by ways of comments, forums, polls etc.
There isn't a bigger reward on social media than to have others use your page as a platform to socialize.
#5.
How do I get one? - It is as simple as creating a profile of course to create a page on Facebook the link is different than the one of the profile.
Facebook offers a step by step guide to create your page so anyone can do it.
If you wish to add fancy stuff to your page well let me make a video while I develop my own and then I'll post it up here for you.
In the meanwhile sort of your priorities to develop a page by asking yourself the above questions and if you want to ask me more questions on the same topic please post it in the comments I would be happy to answer them all.