Lets talk about Fanpage Marketing for small businesses, I’m going to more specific and talk about it with Real Estate Agents. Why them? Not only do I have the most experience in the real estate industry, but I’ve yet to see a market more competitive than RE agents. There might be a couple dry cleaners in your town, but there are hundreds if not thousands of real estate agents!
First of all when it comes to Facebook, you have to decide right off the bat if you’re in a “relationship” business or not. That will reflect your marketing efforts on FB, actually that will determine if you’re marketing on FB at all. If the answer is “NO”, then you should stay away from FB and stick to Adwords and Banner Ads.
Here’s the deal with fan pages though, most solo business owners (like real estate agents) have less “Like”s on their pages than “Friends” on their main account. That’s ok, but they are not getting the best use out of FB when they do that. They will spin their wheels trying to convince “Friends” to “Like” their page- but then never really see a return from it, why? because there isn’t anything you can do with a Fan Page that you can’t do with a personal page.
I used to tell people to start a fan page because then they can talk about business all they want. Now I recommend starting a blog, and posting links to it on your personal wall. It will CREATE fans, not just ADD them.
So what is the point of a fan page? Use it when you have more “fans” than you have “friends”. (This is my unofficial definition of “celebrity”) And thanks to the internet anyone can be the “Celebrity” of your town, industry, or expertise.
But Facebook Fan Pages do not CREATE celebrity and fans, it only REFLECTS it.
Think about Actors, Author’s, and Musicians, They can’t be friends with everyone who like their material, likewise, I’m sure there are artists who make great material, but I don’t want to be friends with. If a musician can get you to “Like” their page, doesn’t mean you truly like their music.
If you’ve been doing business for a long time or you put out great content people enjoy consuming, you might have more fans then friends. I think you can figure it out, its not a good or a bad thing, just a personality thing. Some real estate agents I know have a large social base and do business with a fraction of them, or they have a large presence in an area, but are only friends with a fraction of who they do business with.
But think about your business and your goals and if a “fan page” makes sense. You can alway have one, but know your customers and your audience before investing time, money, and energy on it.
