facebook – addicting, confusing, distracting… powerful. yes, i find facebook exceptionally powerful. at just shy of 1,000 fans, i think scoutie girl’s page does a good job of straddling the line between self-promotion and community value. how? glad you asked. i have some pretty strong opinions on the “right way” to use your fan page.

think of your fan page as an opportunity to connect with fans in a different way than your other social media outlets. blogs are for (generally) long form ruminations on life & work, twitter is for witty repartee in 140 characters or less, social bookmarking is for broadcasting posts all over the world. facebook is for encouraging conversation around your brand.

creating a web experience

but even more so, facebook is a web experience used & enjoyed by millions of people from all walks of life. on facebook, you must find a way to incorporate your brand into daily life by providing value and meaning beyond advertising.

consider the mission of your business, your job on facebook is to share information, pictures, questions, video, and links that are relevant to that mission and that encourage conversation & fan involvement.

i do this on the scoutie girl facebook page by:

• encouraging others to leave their own links sharing their passion on a static landing page
• sharing links to other businesses that i don’t have the opportunity to post on the main blog
• asking questions using status updates
• replying to others comments whenever possible

in other words, i give people a reason to follow the fan page other than just keeping up with my blog. my fan page is a separate entity that engages readers in a different way.

my mission on scoutie girl is to share my penchant for the passionately handmade. my facebook page participates in this mission!

and in return, they allow me to broadcast my message to them on a daily basis through a web experience they love – a pretty great tradeoff for a little extra work!

how can you add value to your page?

consider how you can create additional social media value through your facebook fan page… exclusive sales? in-progress pictures not posted elsewhere? links to friends or customers? conversation on pressing issues in your field? check out lillyella’s page for another great example of creating additional value in a facebook page.

the anthropologie fan page is another – they are all the time sharing exclusive content that is helpful to customers! the information not only engages fans, but helps fans use their brand & products more effectively: outfit suggestions, insights from designers, behind-the-scenes photos. what information can you share to actually help your fans use your products more effectively?

building the value of your facebook fan page through exclusive information gives you the opportunity to really build community around your brand. i think, when done enthusiastically & purposefully, you’ll see greater reader engagement than on your blog or on twitter – with longer lasting effects!

for more info & best practices on using your fan page, check out mashable’s guide to facebook.

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before you ask, here’s a tutorial on setting up one of those static landing pages. if you’d like one for your page but don’t have the time or know-how, contact me!

please note: your fan page is a page – not a profile. your business does not have “friends” it has “fans.” read the terms of service – please don’t try to friend me if you’re a business – that’s spam and i won’t accept the request. as a page, you cannot reach out to people the way personal profiles can reach out to friends. as far as i see it, that’s your only limitation.

here’s a behind-the-scenes glimpse at running a blog like scoutie girl.

as you can imagine, i get a lot of submissions via email. sometimes they’re confident and sassy (i kind of like those!), sometimes they’re self-deprecating (wish you all had more confidence!), and sometimes i get ones that are slightly bizarre. jena, from modish, wrote the definitive guide to approaching blogs for marketing in the creative community. it’s a great post and a great resource. however since everyone reads it… the emails start to look the same.

and there’s not a whole lot of advice i can give you on that.

but one thing that never fails is writing an awesome comment. not a “that’s great!” or “those are beautiful!” kind of comment but a comment that adds to my post. if all i do is write or curate beautiful posts, my blog is less than it could be. when you add to the conversation, when you bring something to the table that wasn’t there before, you make my blog better. a lot better.

beyond the thrill of receiving those comments, there is the thrill of discovering more about who wrote it.

for instance, this evening, i found this beautiful blog through a comment.

i twittered about her immediately and there’s a great chance she’ll get a feature on scoutie girl sometime soon. that’s results.

i keep this in mind when i comment on blogs too. and i think it works. even if i don’t get a link, i’m much more likely to get a new friend. someone who will be interested in me as a person and someone who will be there when i need a favor. that’s community building in the blogosphere.

do you comment on blogs? do your comments get lost in a crowd or treasured & clicked by the blogger?

for ideas on what to write when you just don’t know what to say, read my follow up post.

image by joanne thies