A few weeks ago I talked about the Quickest and Easiest Way to Promote Your Blog on Facebook. This was based on my own experience and it is still valid. In fact, it may still be the best solution for many bloggers. If you wish to build a brand around your blog, it is another question. The latest changes to the Facebook Fan Pages eliminated my top objection to use them.
With the fan pages behaving almost as user profiles, you can use the same easy techniques I talked about earlier. Moreover, the Fan pages provides statistics on your fan demographics and visits. You can send updates to all your fans (or a target group defined with demographic filters) but you won’t be able to send individual message. Another fact to know is that the owner of a Facebook page stays anonymous.
Having a Facebook page looks more and more appealing. I see the added challenge to build an active community but I also see new opportunities. For example, I answer many viewer’s email behind closed doors. Now I could answer them publicly for the benefit of the group. I am planning to host events to connect with my readers this year. I could report more details on the AHWKV page than on my blog. I feel that over time, it may be better for my brand to promote it via a Fan page – one page per blog.
What do you think? Do you use a Facebook page? If so, do you have any tips to share?
Fan Page for On the Web with Kim Vallee
Help me build a strong community by becoming a fan of On The Web with Kim Vallee. Use the wall to communicate with me and other fans. The Stream shows what the page owner did. The wall is about what the fans did. Send me your questions that could become the topic of future posts.
March 13th, 2009 at 13:11
I do not have a facebook fan page for my site yet. I am contemplating it. I will likely make the jump after I switch to my new domain name and start my rebranding process!
Thanks for the advice!
March 13th, 2009 at 14:39
Yes, we do have a Facebook page for our company http://www.cm-interiordesign.com. It has not been up long so I do not have any data to report. I am a firm beleiver in casting a wide net to make it easy for people to find you.
Peace.
Richard
April 3rd, 2009 at 12:35
Ah – but I can’t manage to get Facebook to pull our Wordpress blog posts into our FB fan page in an timely manner. And I can’t post a link like you can on a regular FB page. What to do!? Perhaps I’m a techno-idiot right now?
April 3rd, 2009 at 18:13
Lea: You should be able to add a link the way I do it. I tried with one of your posts and it works perfectly. I attach the URL using the Add Link under the What’s in your mind (user profile) or under Write something (fan page). It is a three-step process: you first Attach the URL, then you can select which picture to show. And finally, you click on the Share button to publish it on the wall.
April 9th, 2009 at 09:06
Hi Kim,
I’ve created a Facebook fan page for a non-profit I am working with. I am trying to post things to my feed like links. My page doesnt give me the same options as yours does in your screenshot. How do I get the STREAM tab that you have selected? So confused. Please help.
Thank you,
Luigi
May 1st, 2009 at 00:27
Is it possible to post Wordpress contents to a Facebook fan page automatically, using any kind of plugin/widget?
May 3rd, 2009 at 21:01
I would like to know the same answer that Salman has asked. Is there an automatic feed available to link Wordpress with the facebook page?
May 3rd, 2009 at 21:56
Salman and Nellie: I prefer to manually post my feed since I can add a comment and select the thumbnail picture that best represents my post. Therefore, I never looked for a great automatic feed solution. I tried RSS Connect, an FB application that will show as a tab on your Facebook page. But I was not really impressed so I removed it from my fan pages.
Good luck! If you find something that can be shown directly on the page wall, keep me inform.
July 24th, 2009 at 01:57
Hi
Can anyone guid me onhow I can post text to a fan page on facebook. I have found out how you can post to your own profile.
is this even posible ?
just want to write a text on a page which i am fan of through and external app.
regards
July 24th, 2009 at 09:18
Medhi, I do not think you could do through an external application but I never tried. If you are connected to Facebook, it depends on the fan permissions that the fan page owner has defined.
July 29th, 2009 at 07:21
Okay… I’m desperate! I’ve been running a facebook fan page for awhile now, and just realized that my fans are not able to attach a link like I can (i.e. pull image, etc) I have set the settings to allow my fans to post links, so I’m wondering why it isn’t showing the option on the wall.
Thanks in advance!
September 7th, 2009 at 08:52
Hello
I’ve found the fan page to be a useful tool and would highly recommend it to everyone. You are just missing out on free promotion otherwise.
However, I just discovered that my new posts/links are not going to my fans’ walls. Anyone have any idea how to change this?
Thanks
L
October 4th, 2009 at 19:24
This post is very interesting to me, since I just created a fanpage for my blog (you can find it here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/its-all-yoga-baby/143085719366?ref=ts). I’m trying out the Networked Blog application, but so far I’m not too impressed. Has anyone had any kind of experience with this? Do you recommend it, or is it just preferable to manually link posts from my blog?