Look at your fan page as a destination for your fans to connect with your brand and amongst themselves. If you accept the fact that the content of your fan page does not have to be just about your brand, it reduces the amount of original content you will need to produce. Here are two ways to make it easy:

1. allow your fans to post their content
2. put content produced by others that is relevant to your readers.

By letting your fans posting their content, you will learn more about them. It gives you a chance to discover:

• what they care about,
• what they do,
• what they like about your blog or your products/services,
• what they want to know.

Their content can inspire new blog stories. If you are a business, letting your fans speak freely enables you to discover how people really use your products in their daily life and what are their expectations. It is also a good tool to discover influencers.

Fans are not necessary Your Blog Readers

One thing I noticed as a blogger active in my local community is that not all my fans read my blog. My case may be special. While these non reader fans are a minority, I welcome them.

I noticed that the gender split of At Home with Kim Vallee’s fans is different from my readership. The reason is that many business bloggers that I am friend with and often met at conferences decided to show their support by becoming fans of At Home with Kim Vallee.

These social media and tech bloggers do not read At Home with Kim Vallee. Reading my tweets, seeing my post links on Facebook and knowing me personally enabled them to determine that my blog was worthy of their support. Although they are a minority, having their support gives my blog (and my brand) exposure outside my targeted circle. Having their trust adds to my credibility. This is one thing a fan page can do to support the growth of your blog.

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Since I published my new brand identity I tried to produce, with my graphic designer, business cards for my blogs. I did 2 attempts so far. The difficulty does not rest in the design of the cards. My problem is what content do I put on my cards.

At first, I imagined a double sided card with At Home on the recto and On the Web on the verso. I found that we were repeating too many things on each side. Then, I thought I could just design a card  for my main blog; it is the one I want to promote the most after all. I put that idea on hold because I feel that one important factor of my brand would be missing.

Too Many Hats

Another challenge lies with the title. I am the editor in chief on two blogs. This is my work. But journalists in traditional media interviewed me because I am a lifestyle and entertaining expert. That fact is also relevant for readers. All that and other factors questioned my identity.

Then, I watched a live coverage of an unconference in New York a couple weeks ago where the speaker encourages us to rethink the purpose of the business cards. And yes, we still need a paper version. He (sorry, I do not remember whom) was saying that your business card could say more about yourself. The message should tell to people why they should contact you.

Which information is still relevant on a business card? I stopped publishing our fax number at the office many years ago. An address is not relevant for a blog. By not putting an address I gain precious real estate on the card. Do I put my twitter account? My Facebook profile?

Since I do not have all the answers yet I decided to stick to Moo MiniCards until I make up my mind. Plus, people like getting my Moo cards. I will experiment with the content on each 100 cards batch.

Advantage of the Moo MiniCards

I published pictures I take about my trips, trade shows I go to, and food photos. I used the picture to connect with people.  I tell the recipient the story behind the picture. I even have friends who asked me for a new one when they learned I got a new set of photos.

Many people think that the full-size business cards are more practical. Plus my business card should apply to most situations. What do you think? Any suggestion?

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I wish to share my experience with my Fagebook pages for my blogs. Yesterday, Jessica of How About Orange asked her readers to enlighten her on why it’s good to have a Facebook page for your blog? She received 42 comments so far. A good number of her readers did not see the point or simply see it as added work. I wish to show you how to add value to your blog with a Facebook page.

Which Content to Put on Your Facebook Page

You will struggle with this question at first. It is intimidating. One mistaken view is to simply duplicate the content of the blog. You should not do that. Continue to publish your latest posts on your page but make sure to add other relevant content that is not on your blog. An easy trick is to write a message telling your fans what they will be getting from your post when you share a post link on your Facebook page.

Enhance the Communications

I wish to publicly thank Michelle Blanc for inspiring me, without knowing it. Michelle talked at 3rd Tuesday last week about how the newspapers and traditional media should use the different channels to complement their stories. It opened my mind.

Now I use my Facebook page as a way to enhance the content of my blog. I published additional pictures on stories I covered on my blog. Used it to say about things about yourself that may interested your fans. For example, I create photo albums when I attended events (see my 3rd Tuesday album). Thinking about my page as a persona makes it easier to write status messages on the page wall. What additional content do your put on your Facebook page?

Get More Feedbacks, More Rapidly

It is fair to assume that most of your Facebook friends do not subscribe to your RSS feeds. The fact that I published each new post URL on my user profile and my Facebook page increases the number of comments I get on Facebook and the like this votes. When you are lucky, a new reader will publish a comment on your blog. Remember that Facebook is a more casual platform than a blog; Facebook encourages communication through word of mouth.

Power of Word of Mouth

More than 175 millions people are on Facebook. The split in the United Stated is about 55% of Facebook users are 25 years old or less, 45% are over 25 years old. The claim that Facebook is only for kids does not added up anymore. Even without that fact, your friends and the friends of your friends are a part of that 45%. It is also possible to use social-demographic targeted advertisement to promote your page within Facebook.

When a fan does an action on your Facebook page, their friends can see it and you get a chance to convert strangers which brings exposure to the friends of your friends of your friends. The multiplying effect on Facebook delivers more exposure than if you limit yourself to your blog and writing blog comments on the blogosphere. It only costs a little bit of your time.

+ become a fan of On The Web with Kim Vallee
+ become a fan of At Home with Kim Vallee

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1. the rapidity at which a blog is referenced is second to none
2. people can more easily figure out about who you are and build credibility through your blog writing than a corporate Web site.

A Case Study

I published a review about Cabane a sucre du Pied de Cochon (April 4: put the new URL) on At Home with Kim Vallee last night. I now appear 3 times when you do a search on “Cabane a sucre du Pied de Cochon” on Google.ca. All the times, I am in front of the official site of the sugar shack.

I do not use any fancy SEO tricks. I simply make sure that my keywords are on the post Title, I repeat the keywords several times on my post and I insert my keywords in the ALT text of the image. All that takes less than 30 seconds to do.

They are other concerns and elements to consider before making a decision of whether to build a blog or a Web site but one thing is for sure Google loves blogs.

Montreal Girl Geek Dinner is Thursday

If you wish to learn more about SEO and how to write good Web content come to diner with the Girl Geeks of Montreal. This month, two SEO specialists will share her insights. Click here to reserve and know the details March Montreal Girl Geek Dinner with Kathryn Presner & A. Charlotte Riley. There is a Facebook event.

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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.

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You want a method that uses the full potential of the social graph. This is why I feel the internal features of Facebook is more powerful than using a Facebook blog application to generate comments, likes and traffic to your blog.

My solution takes a 2 seconds to do. Simply copy the URL of your post on Post Link of your profile page and hit Preview. If your post featured several pictures, you will be able to select which one you wish to appear.

Time saver: The FeedFlare Share on Facebook link is faster since it automatically copy the post link and you are ready to post into your profile. Moreover, you encourage your fans to tag and promote your content. You will need first to activate the feature on Feedburner and insert some code into your blog template. It works on your RSS feeds and your blog. There are also many plugins that do the same job.

Main Advantages

Your Facebook friends can comment on your post. The fact that they comment on your note (link) will be shown on their wall. If you are lucky, that action may also appear on the News feed of some of your friends.

The same rules applied to the Like and Share button. Share will publish your note to your friend’s profile. If you are lucky your friends will like or share, plus comment your post.

My goal was to show you how quick and easy is it to use the internal functions to Facebook to promote your blog. Naturally you could create a group or a page for your blog but it requires more work to set up, maintain and market. We will talk about their added values and the differences between Facebook pages and groups at a later time.

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