How do I attract more Fans to my Facebook page?

Dear Sarah,
Social Media. What’s not to love, right? My Facebook Fan page will be up soon. What is the best way to market She’s Got Papers through that medium? What tricks have you found most helpful to drive sales and keep customers coming back? Do you find Twitter to be as effective as Facebook?

Thanks – Tanea        http://www.shesgotpapers.com

Dear Tanea,
I Can’t wait to see your page – let  me know when it’s up so I can fan you!  So, the easiest way to do it for free is to interact with your fan base……you can always take out targeted FB ads later on.

To get fans: Email all your friends and ask them to fan you and ask them to ask their friends. Ask members of any on-line forums or women’s groups you are part of to fan you.  Write something cute about your site so they can easily forward to their friends – make it easy for them.

Marketing: Write on your wall at least 3x a day.   We do an excel spread sheet of  each month (I know I am an animal!) listing what we say or post each day – just makes it easier so you don’t have to think about it. We do go last minute to find the fashion or organizing tip but at least we know we are supposed to do that……just less to forget or mix up.

We do an a.m., mid-day and p.m post. Usually we do a question at lunch time, and then a fashion item or one of our own products, or even a tip from an online source we like that we think our fans will enjoy too.  The whole point is to interact with them and get them to interact back.  Trust and interest will keep them coming back.

Make your question something your fans can relate to:  How many boxes of stationery do you own?  How often do you MAIL notes?  Do you send thank you cards?   Things like that to get to know them and their habits…..what mags do they read?  Newspapers?  Are they talkers or emailers??  You get the picture.  Check out my Simply Sarah fan page and you’ll see how we do it. http://www.facebook.com/simplysarahshaw

For product – I think it’s best if you post one of your items with a suggestion of how to use it – and for a random thing – perhaps find a cool pen, some accessory you think they’d enjoy seeing, a fashion item like gloves, rings, things to do with hands, perhaps lotion?
You know them better than I do……

Try this for a few months –  see how many fans you are getting using this organic method – then after you have exhausted the FREE version consider a paid ad.  They can be cheap…..you can set the price per day and I think you can go as low as $1 a day!

You can make FB post to twitter each time you post……automatically. Ask who ever is helping you build your page to add that for you.  Makes posting so automated.  Love that!   Personally, I find FB better for me – but I do find a lot of cool people to approach for business through twitter as you can read about them instantly.
You need to be on BOTH for sure.

Good luck!

Written by Sarah Shaw