Facebook Fan Page Management Webinar with Erica Bogdan

Facebook Fan Page Management Webinar with Erica Bogdan from Schipul – The Web Marketing Co. on Vimeo.

Businesses are relying more and more on Facebook Fan Pages as a way to connect with their target audience and reach the right client demographics. But having a large, engaged fan base is something that doesn’t just happen overnight. To make the most of your Fan Page you must think strategically and use the right tools to help drive traffic to your site.

Erica Bogdan  is  Web designer and developer at Schipul and Facebook page admin for  AIGA Houston. She will show you how over the past few months she’s increased her page’s number of fans and gotten them to interact on her page. This Webinar will cover the following:

  •  How to use Facebook admin tools effectively
  •  How to increase your fan numbers organically
  •  What strategies to use to ensure your content is being seen by the most amount of people.

Slides of this Webinar and previous ones can be  found here also.

Four Easy Ways to Start Using Facebook’s Timeline View for Pages

As of today, Facebook began rolling out Timeline view for Facebook Fan Pages. This update will be mandatory on March 30, but you can update your page now and start taking advantage of the new features.

The Facebook team implements changes all the time as they come up with new and innovative ways to connect their users, and these changes are always a little overwhelming as you figure out the new interface and the new tools you have available. The new update will mean changes to the way your Brand appears on Facebook and the web. But don’t fret!

Here are four EASY things you can do RIGHT NOW to get started with Timeline:

1. Read up on the New Features

Some of the new features include Cover Photo, Larger Stories, and an enhanced Admin panel to give you more data and control over your page.

Check out this article from ZDNet is a great overview of all of the new features

2. Switch your Fan Page to Timeline view

The update will be required across all pages eventually, so go ahead and dive in now while everyone is still figuring out the best way to take advantage of the new look.

To Switch Your Facebook Fan Page to the New Timeline Look:

When you log in & go to your Fan Page, you’ll see a flag at the top that prompts you to preview this page in the new look. Click “Preview” to see what your page will look like using Timeline.

How to Switch your Facebook Fan Page to Timeline View

From here click “Publish Now” to permanently make the switch.

How to switch your Facebook page to new Timeline View part 2

3. Add a Cover Photo

Like on a personal page, your cover photo is a larger photo (specifically  850×315)  aside from your profile picture that shows off who you are and sets the tone for your page. You can use this space to make a custom image similar to what Coca-Cola has done. Or in the short term, use this space to show a shot of your main product, your team, or your facilities – choose an interesting image that shows off who you are.

Coca Cola Facebook Fan Page Cover Photo

Schipul Cover Photo

4. Add your Founded Date & Story

Facebook Timeline yearsYou’ll want to go back in and fill in highlights from your company’s history, but you can start right now by adding the story of how you were founded.

On the right of your page, click  “Founded” at the bottom of your timeline & you’ll see an Edit icon where you can edit the details and add a photo.

Check out Schipul’s Founded Timeline Milestone and fantastic photo of Ed and Rachel from 1997!

Schipul Facebook Timeline - Founded 1997

Our Favorite Facebook Pages

Some of us at Schipul spend a lot of time on Facebook. A LOT. But don’t judge, it’s totally part of our job. Whether we’re sprucing up a profile picture for a client, building out an iframe, checking out the latest Facebook updates (and there’s ALWAYS an update) or trolling to see who’s doing what with their audience, this social networking site commands a good deal of our attention. As such, we’ve seen it all when if comes to the best and worst of Facebook fan pages. Check out the faves from some of the Schipul staff:

Katrina’s Favorites

No surprise here. Our fashionista/Creative Services Team Account Executive, Katrina Esco, LOVES how Nordstrom uses their Facebook page to highlight their services, and they keep fans coming back with beauty how-to videos hosted by their beauty director using a Beauty Central app.


Katrina also gives Sephora’s Facebook page props for always keeping their content fresh with new promotions as demonstrated on their Exclusive Deals tab. But Katrina gives Sephora the most points for recognizing the importance of photos and fan engagement on their page by feeding in customer pics taken in photobooths installed in select retail locations. You can even browse by location and date.

 

Scooter’s Favorites

As for me (Katrina *Scooter* Kokoska), I get a kick out of the Skittles Facebook fan page. And to be perfectly honest, I don’t like the candy even a little, just their marketing. The Skittles page encourages fan engagement by soliciting fan photos and featuring a different “Rainbro of the Week” each week as their profile picture. Also, their posts are random, silly and make me smile (and their not self-promotional). My favorite random post from them this week: “Sometimes I sneak up on my alarm clock when it’s sleeping and yell ‘How does it feel!‘”  

I also have mad love for the (client) Tony Chachere’s page. Now this page doesn’t flaunt a lot of bells and whistles. Why? Because it doesn’t have to. Tony’s skips the games and apps and gets right down to what Facebook is all about: Community. They post content about real people doing real things in real life, and their fans love it.

Erica’s Favorites

Creative Services Team Graphic Designer, Erica Bogdan, totally digs Red Bull’s Facebook page for their fun videos and games, and loves the aesthetics of the Anthropologie page because: “It’s sooooo beautiful and makes my closet sad.” But Erica’s favorite page? Franklin the Dog of course.

 

Garrett’s Favorites

Creative Services Team Assistant Account Executive Garrett Thomas has some interesting favorites of his own. While he doesn’t ‘Facebook like’ the Barbie page, he thinks they do a great job of bringing together Barbie’s multiple personas in a palatable format for their target market.

And he loves the Stride Gum page because, well, who doesn’t love a Yeti with a sense of humor?

What are some of your favorite Facebook fanpages?

Google is Crawling Facebook Comments Social Plug-In

Word on the Schipul SEM gossip street is that Facebook comments are being indexed by Google, which means BAM! More SEO love for your site — if you’re using the XFBML implementation.

A recent post on SearchEngineLand.com  explains how at one point add-on commenting systems made it difficult for search engines to index content on sites. But now that Facebook comments are being crawled by Google, things are changing.

Apparently, the XFBML type comments are specifically the ones being crawled.  That means it’s in your favor to add the Facebook Comment s social plug-in to your site. (Yes, I feel like we’re feeding the Facebook monster here…but…eh…whatchagonnado? (._.)/) Here’s how to add the plug-in:

1. Go to  https://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/comments/  and select Get Code:

2. Select the XFBML version of the code and copy it.

3. Go to your site and add the code just below the first <body> tag.  (This is in the index template of your site. If you have a Tendenci site, contact support if you need help with this.)

4.  Select the line of code on the last line and place the line of code for the plug-in on the page where you’d like it to appear:

 

This should add the FB Comments social plug-in to your site. Of course it will vary across browsers, so be sure you follow the proper steps for the browser most of your site visitors use to access your content.