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Facebook Fan Page Etiquette-Stop “Blowing” Me Away
Facebook Fan Page Etiquette-Stop “Blowing” Me Away
Not too long ago we talked about Twitter etiquette and now we have come to some thoughts on the practice of suggesting to friends to become a fan of a certain page. Some balance really needs to be applied to how you go about building your fan base. Lately I have been receiving repetitive requests to fan a page from the same individuals. There seems to be almost no time span in between these requests. I choose to ignore pages that I do not feel are something that would interest me and I wake up the next morning and the same request is there again from the same individuals and multifamily companies. I know I am not the only one this has happened to since I see similar comments on the Facebook news feed regularly.
In my opinion it's just bad business overall. I personally see nothing wrong with suggesting to your friends when you have opened a new page. I have done it myself with the four that I operate for The Training Factor. After that though it is my responsibility to let people know about these channels by other means. These other methods will help you grow your following in a respectable and organic way. Here are some bullet points that I have used and would love to see some others posted in the comment section below.
1. Advertising that I have a Facebook page on our company newsletter.
2. Creating a Facebook badge for our website and our blog.
3. Tagging individuals or other Fan pages in our status updates.
4. Posting regular content so that our pages show up in search engines.
5. Including a link to our Facebook page in our email signatures.
6. Occasionally posting that we have a Facebook page on Twitter.
7. Asking clients who feel the page has value, to suggest the page to others.
8. Creating a temporary Facebook ad campaign that targets a specific audience.
There may be others you wish to include below. The point of these pages is to create "fans" not to aggravate someone to the point they fan the page just to stop the suggestions from coming in. It's the same thing that parents go through with their children sometimes, if they are having a bad day.
Child: Can I have a cookie.
Parent: No dinner is almost ready.
Child: Can I have a cookie, I am hungry now.
Parent: No. You can wait until dinner.
Child: I can't wait ..... I want a cookie now!
Parent: I have told you for the last time, you are not getting a cookie before dinner!!
Child: But I am sooooo hungry!!
Parent: Argghhh Ok fine... here is your cookie.
Is that the kind of business relationship you are trying to start with me? I certainly hope not. Sending out daily page suggestions to all of your "friends" on Facebook is not a good business practice. If I am wrong, please share your point of view below. If I am correct, then go for it! Please comment.
Ellen Thompson has some great thoughts as well on her post from a few days ago!
Written by Jonathan Saar--The Training Factor
Comments 9
Jon-
Great read! I love the child with the cookie analogy. In the end the kid get the cookie, or the company gets my mouse click, but I'm not going to be happy about giving it to them.
Well Done!
I'd call it "spamming", not "fanning"!
Jonathan - great post! ALthough it's a wonderful compliment to you for the repetitive requests... it does make me wonder how they are with clients and the source of their businesses. Social media needs to include the social manners too!
We also would add adding a social media flyer in your move in package and putting signage in your leading office to the list.
I agree we can all use a social media etiquette lesson. I'm also tired of posts that are 100% promotional. This is beginning to be an issue on LinkedIn.
Thanks everyone for the comments so far. There was something else I thought about after I posted this. The actual word "fan". There has been some discussion over the use of this word and that it seems subservient to a point. I look at it as if we were actually using the ancient oriental paper "fan". When used properly its refreshing and helpful. If we do anything else it becomes a wind machine..in fact just blowing us away and aggravating us.
@Ellen --excellent suggestion and a great way to get the message out.
@Lori--holy cow! and Amen
@Tara-- you are quite correct. Manners do not stop just because there is a computer screen in front of you.
@Heather--I have kids! They have tried that on me before, and I will admit it has worked once or twice especially with my little girl who accurately fulfilled the phrase "wrapped around Daddy's little finger"
Thanks folks!
The Fanpage requests I get do sound more like begging than asking at times. Letting new residents know than you have a fanpage is the first step, placing a good deal of efforts in placing good contents is a close second. From there a fanpage will grow but you have to give it time... I also would use that space to get residents engaged and invite them in sharing ideas... (use at your own risks...)
Last but not least, it is key to manage it and "own it", a Fanpage is attached to a facebook user and if that user is not you (as in manager) then you you are taking a big risk...
Thanks Frederic for your thoughts and stopping by the post. Good sound best practices that you list in your comment. I hope all is well with you and thank you again for commenting. ~~JS
To a certain extent, I can understand the problem with asking multiple times to become a fan. The problem is that as a Fan Page owner, there is no way to determine whether you have asked them to become a fan or if they have declined before. I have taken the tedious route of keeping a record of new friends, and every so often I refer to that list and only invite those people to the fan page. It is quite the pain, but I understand how annoying it is to get repeated requests to become a fan. That said, it is a headache, and even though you might be putting some people off, I can understand why some fan page owners skip this step...
Howdy Brent. Thanks for the comment. That is good that you would go that far in order to keep track. You have set a good example on developing your Facebook pages with a well rounded approach. Its effort and consistency that will bring the desired results. Hope you are having a great Monday!