Social media marketers 'can build relationships with Facebook fan pages'

15:00 5th January 2010

Social media marketers should ensure that they make the most of fan pages on social networking site Facebook in order to maximise communication between potential customers and their business.

This is the advice of marketing expert Ann Smarty, writing for Search Engine Journal, who said that they can be useful tools as long as they are used properly and effectively.

Firstly, she urged marketers to continue creating fresh, unique content in order to encourage people to join. This could be done by linking a company blog to the fan site, or by posting industry news for followers to read.

A personal touch is always a good idea, Ms Smarty said, as videos and photo will allow followers to see they are communicating with real people. For this same reason, a discussion board is also a good addition. However, those adding to it should always provide new posts in a professional manner.

Finally, promotion of the fan page is important, so add a link to it to Twitter postings or email signatures and invite your contacts to join for maximum exposure, Ms Smarty concluded.

Last month, Search Engine Journal contributor Jennifer Horowitz pointed out that Twitter could help to establish those posting as respected commentators in their field of business, as well as raise search engine rankings.