5 Reasons Why You Need To Delete Your Facebook Fan Page.

This past Friday I helped out at Terri Holley’s Social Media Soiree. The people who attended the event came around to different stations on varying social media and asked their questions about said social media. I manned a battle station on business blogging. The event was great, and I found that everyone was asking me great questions.

Even though I was primarily talking about business blogging, Facebook Fan Pages invariably came up. And, while I’m happy to explain Facebook Fan pages and answer questions, strategically, I recommended that people should delete their Fan pages.

“Huh?”

Yep. I recommended that people *delete* their Facebook Fan pages. Or at a minimum, make them invisible for the time being. Here’s why I would make this strategic suggestion:

1.     Over 50% of your Fans are your friends and family. While I think it’s great to build a community of supportive members, your personal friends and family are not the ideal target market for a Fan page. You’re trying to build a community of engaged members, not just supportive members.

2.    Over 50% of your Fans haven’t even been to your actual Fan page. I tell about 90% of people that I meet that it’s not about the numbers. Social media is a qualitative (not quantitative) tool. However, one good way of seeing if you’re adding valuable content is by seeing if your fans are even coming to your page. If they aren’t, reassess what content you’re putting on your Fan Page.

3.    Your Fan Page is being used as a ‘push marketing’ tool. Your entire Fan page is dedicated to telling your ‘fans’ about the recent announcements of your company. The fact that you’ve moved buildings, hired a new employee, etc. Your updates aren’t engaging your audience they are speaking at your audience. This differentiation of speaking AT your audience vs. speaking WITH your audience demonstrates the improper vs. proper way to use social media tools.

4.    Your Fan Page isn’t integrated. Your Facebook Fan Page isn’t integrated into your other communication efforts. For example, your blog isn’t integrated into your Fan page. Or you don’t have a widget on your Web site to lead people back to your Fan Page. Basically, your strategic reason for having a Fan Page doesn’t exist.

5.    Your Fan Page hasn’t been updated in over a month. Your Fan Page has turned into a static, un-updated, tool. Enough said.

But don’t worry. There’s help for all of us. I recommend checking out Geoff Livingston’s post on Facebook Fan Page best practices to get your Fan Page in better shape.

Comments

[buy propecia]

If you allow people to become your fan, and you get a fan, does that fan have the ability to contact you from email?

[Megan McQ]

Sean,

I agree with you that Facebook could charge businesses for the use of their platform--but I still believe that businesses need to 'up their game' on Facebook in general--using it as a 'community building tool' and not a 'push marketing' tool.

Thanks for the comment!

[Sean Nelson]

Megan,

Great post. Fan pages exist for one reason...so Facebook can try to hoodwink businesses into paying for advertising. A better solution would be to charge companies $50 a month to use their business name as their profile name.

Just my thoughts.

Sean