The worldwide phenomenon of Facebook represents a very important market opportunity for all companies in the world. Currently Facebook handles more than 800 million users of which 50% connect to Facebook at least once a day. The average user has 130 friends related to their profile. If Facebook were a country it would be the third country in the world with the largest population. It handles up to 70 different languages. It presents an interannual growth of 45% at a rate of 9 people per second !!.
On Facebook there are three ways to participate, creating a personal account (profile), creating a group or creating a "Fan Page".
There are multiple reasons why companies should make use of Facebook Fan Pages.
The Fan Pages are the official way Facebook accepts the participation of companies and / or professional services, that is, the profiles are associated with people and it is the people who can create the Fan Pages for companies. Additionally, there are limitations for profiles that do not apply to Fan Pages ", such as the fact that a profile can have a maximum of up to five thousand friends while Fan Pages have no limit of people who mark" Like ".
Fan Pages allow interaction between the company and its followers (creating conversations with its target audience). 67% of B2C-type companies (direct Business - Consumer relationship) and 41% of B2B companies (Business-to-Business relationship) have acquired at least one customer through Facebook. In turn, 64% of Facebook users have become fans of at least one company, and 51% of users are more likely to buy from providers who have marked their Fan Page as Like. The number of marketers who say that Facebook is a critical or important medium of their business has increased by 83% in the last 2 years.
By making use of a Fan Page, the company is exposed to new prospects and it is possible to obtain new clients. Interaction with social communities improves credibility through two-way communication.
Fan Pages can have multiple administrators unlike profiles that are individual. This helps in the event that if a personal profile is canceled, it can be entered by another profile to manage the Fan Page.
Fan Pages are always visible to the public, while access to profiles is restricted according to what interests each user. This means that the Fan Pages can be indexed by search engines such as Google, thus helping to increase the visits of Internet users.
Through existing functions in the Fan Pages, it is possible to send notifications to Fans that reach their Facebook mailboxes (Inbox) and their personal emails, with which mailing lists can be made.
The Fan Pages have statistics that can help us make appropriate decisions based on the use and interest shown by our followers.
In a Fan Page it is possible to associate the functions of managing Videos and Photographs with which the contents can be enriched and users are attracted to view the photographs of the events held or to see demonstrative videos of your products or services.
Through certain special applications it is possible to configure additional web pages in the Fan Page that are fed from the official website or portal of the company, with which the contents of its products and / or services will be exposed to followers directly in the Facebook environment.
For all that has been said so far, it is clear that it is essential that every company or institution has a Fan Page on Facebook, however, creating a Fan Page that allows a viral diffusion of it (which is shocking for many Fans) is not a completely simple process but requires specific online marketing techniques along with Facebook's own tools.
To achieve the objectives that a company or institution wishes in social networks such as Facebook, it is necessary to have the support of specialists in the subject. Nowadays, it is possible to hire specialized companies for the administration of Facebook accounts under the criteria or policies of the company that owns the brand.
These types of services are framed within the functions of Administration of Virtual Communities or Administration of Social Networks and can range from the creation and management of your profile on Facebook, creation of one or multiple Fan Page pages oriented to specific products or services, to adapt the design of the contents to improve the Attention and the call to Action of the prospects, review of the messages and response to the Fans, filter unwanted spam messages, issue periodic messages, automate some functions, improve the positioning in search engines based on the messages posted on social networks, create topics in conversation forums with users, generate contests and surveys, coordinate events and invite users to participate in them,manage user groups segmented by topic preference, congratulate followers on their birthday, among others.
One of the most important aspects in the administration of social networks is to achieve the interaction of the company or institution with its Fans or followers, for this, questions should be asked to the Fans, motivated their participation in the forums or in the comments on the wall with controversial topics, suggesting them to like the Fan Page to achieve viral marketing effects on their respective friends, suggesting their friends to visit the Fan Page, sharing photos and videos with others on the Fan Page profile, etc..
Finally we can tell you that a Fan Page does not replace the site or web portal that your company or institution should have, but rather complements it as a mechanism to interact with your target audience or market. The ideal is to broadcast content from your site or official web portal to your Fan Page or your Fan Pages in the event that several are handled according to the marketing strategies that are executed, and always have a link from your site or web portal towards them to motivate the participation of users.
Success for all…
