Do you need a Facebook Page for your company, business or blog? I found this great article by Cindy of The Social Craft. Cindy is a communi
ty manager full time and blogs about social media for bloggers, but many of the same advice can apply to small and large businesses alike. I found her post very on topic and she has agreed to let me share a version of it with my readers.
Take a look at 3 reasons for and against making a page, and decide what’s best for you:
3 reasons
you should create a Facebook Page:
1. Your Facebook Page could drive significant traffic to your site. Hey, guess what? Your site readers are on Facebook. Do you write a blog for moms? They’re on Facebook. Dads? 20-somethings? They’re on Facebook. Seniors? Coupon-clippers? Glee fans? Kayak enthusiasts? They’re all on Facebook. 500 million and over of us are. Depending on your readership, it’s possible you could drive more traffic to your blog from Facebook than from organic search or pay-per-click ads. Many less tech-savvy blog readers don’t use Twitter or a RSS reader, but they do check Facebook at least once a day. Serve up your news on their News Feed walls, and you may be surprised at the response.
2. You can interact with your readers in a different way. Want more interaction with your readers outside of the comments box? Facebook is a fun place to “talk” to your readers—ask questions, take polls. Some bloggers I know are eager to work with brands, but product reviews just don’t “fit” on their blog. A blog’s Facebook Page can be a platform for content. Other bloggers are quite the opposite—their blogs are review/giveaway sites and they use their blog’s Facebook page to get more personal.
3. You can run new and different contests and giveaways. You can run contests on Facebook that would be difficult or even impossible on your blog, such as photo contests and product face-offs. And the viral nature of Facebook will help you increase the number of entries. You can even make people “Like” your page in order to enter the contest. Remember, Facebook has very strict rules about running contests on their platform, and some brands have had their pages taken down for not following them. But don’t let that scare you. Facebook changed the rules about contests last December, and it’s good news for small brands and bloggers. You no longer need to get formal permission from Facebook to run a contest on your page. (In the past, “getting permission” required a $10,000 ad account on Facebook. I’m not kidding.) But there are still rules. In order to stay above board, use an application like Offerpop or Wildfire to manage your contest. I use Offerpop to run contests on the Isis Parenting Facebook page, and I’ve had a great experience with them. Your first contest is free, and until you hit 2,500 likes, each subsequent contest costs just $30.
3 reasons you should NOT create a Facebook Page:
1. Your readers don’t use Facebook to discover and consume blog content. Sure, everyone is on Facebook. But not all of us use Facebook for the same reasons. For example, most of the readers of social media blogs like The Social Craft and Easywriting discover and consume content via Twitter. If your blog is heavily business or technology related, it may not benefit very much from a Facebook page. People visit Facebook casually, to socialize and connect with friends, not to consume business content. I (Aimee) usually recommend Facebook as a good platform for businesses in the B2C sector, especially those serving consumer products.
2. Your blog or site deals with a sensitive topic. Okay, don’t get me wrong here– I have absolutely no problem with any blog creating a Facebook page, no matter what the topic. However, because of the open nature of Facebook, some blogs with more sensitive topics may not benefit from a Facebook page. Unless all of your readers have their profiles locked down (and believe me, they don’t), whenever they “like” or write a comment on your page, it will show up on their wall for their friends to see. If your blog offers a community of support for, say, sexual abuse survivors or infertile couples—your readers won’t be as likely to interact with your page on a public platform like Facebook. And without active, public engagement, setting up and maintaining a Facebook Page isn’t worth your time and effort. (A Facebook group may actually be your best bet.)
3. You don’t have time to maintain the page. A flat, static Facebook page is not going to benefit your blog. It could actually make your content appear stale. If you’re not ready to commit to posting to your blog’s Facebook page at least once a week, you probably shouldn’t have one. And if you think you can just connect your RSS feed to your blog’s Facebook page and call it a day, you definitely shouldn’t have one.
Please read the original post here: http://www.thesocialcraft.com/blogging/do-you-need-a-facebook-page-for-your-blog-yes-and-no/
Read more advice on Facebook pages and social media at The Social Craft, and I highly recommend following Cindy on Twitter to keep up to date with all her latest blog posts, find her @CindyMeltz
Hi Aimee,
As a newbie I so appreciate your article. It is difficult to find the pros or cons on so many topics, so it is wonderful to find the pros ‘and’ cons of using FB for promotion, sales and contests. I too believe that under the right circumstances it is a fantastic sales tool. But there are drawbacks. Thank you so much for sharing. I found several other interesting things on your site, I intend to visit often.
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