So I know you’ve heard of Facebook. Facebook is a great place for a couple of reasons:
- Build A Social Presence
- Increase Traffic + Sales To Your Website
- Depend A Little Less On Search Engines
All 3 are good things. In this lesson I’ll show you an easy way to build your fanpage on Facebook w/o having any skills at all.
Most of the fanpages I build are done in less than 5 minutes because I simply spend a few minutes planning it out.
- First, you need a Facebook account if you do not already have one.
- Next, you need to go to the page creation area found here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create
- If you need very detailed advice I highly recommend Facebook’s walk-throughs found here.
From here you can start building your fanpage.
I typically select one of the following options for my fanpage.
- A. Brand of Product
- B. Artist, Band or Public Figure
- C. Entertainment
Usually the one I pick most is (A) but honestly it doesn’t really matter.
Now, select one and follow the prompts that Facebook has you go through until it’s done. For now you can leave anywhere they ask you for a picture blank. I’ll show you where to get images for these areas in a moment.
I selected not to show visuals for this because Facebook changes the look often (very often!). It’s best to just understand the process and how to do it than see images of me do it that they’ll change soon a few weeks from.
Next, let’s talk about looking good!
How To Set Up A Profile Pic and Header Graphic
This is actually easy and this walk-through is the best I’ve seen.
Again, rather than showing you here, the above tutorial is always up-to-date. I just get tired of changing the images constantly (Darn You Facebook!)
The image sizes are shared there and the guy even shows you how to make your page look amazing.
Where Can You Get These Made Cheap?
If you’re graphically challenged, like me, you need a good place to get Facebook Page images created for you. The nice thing is if you have $5 Fiverr is an awesome place for this. In fact, I had my profile pic and header made at fiverr for this page.
Wait! What Should My Header Image Be?
Keep it niche related. I prefer neat and clean. But, if you’re stuck in what you’d like your graphics to look like simply visit other fanpages in your very same niche to gather ideas.
I guarantee you’ll have a bunch of ideas if you simply visit 4-5 Facebook Fanpages!
After your images are set you should be looking great! You can now move on to the next portion.
What Should I Post On Facebook?
First, it’s important to understand the way Facebook works. Facebook is a way for people to get in touch with people they are friends and acquaintances with.
That means most people who are typically browsing Facebook to hang out with their friends, read up on their friends and people they follow and are not in “Buying Mode.”
Because of this, I often stay away from direct promotion and instead focus more on small helpful bits, images and entertaining things.
Here are a couple of Fan Pages that I think are doing some awesome things.
- German Shepherd Dog Fans (Created by Niche 60 Student Rachel Keele!)
- Wine Library (More Commercial But Amazing)
Notice that neither of these pages are just tossing out 24/7 promotions? In fact, the dog fan page above rarely sends out promo material and most of the content here is designed to simply engage the fans and get them active.
This means many of the people here will never go on to click the ads on the actual website, but over time, many will.
Even if many do not click the ads, visit the website or even buy anything from the website they are still helping the site owner build trust with the other visitors to both the fanpage and the actual website. Trust is great because people who trust you are more likely to buy from you!
REPEAT: Trust is great because people who trust you are more likely to buy from you!
Let’s look at some specifics of what people on Facebook interact with.
- Viral Memes (like this) and (this)
- Images (can be funny or of anything niche related) (regular example)
- Videos – Just look around you’ll see them all over…
- Great Content – With Image For Attention (Image example below – content example here)
Image Example Attached To Content
People also like discounts. If you do decide to do a promotional post coupon codes and discounts are always great! You can then link the visitor to a discount post you have setup on your website where people can get a discount (through your affiliate link of course).
Here is an example of a promo or discount. This is where the viewer would end up if they clicked the image or link.
Pretty cool.
Which Route Should I Go?
Honestly, every single niche is totally different. The best thing you can do is search for fanpages in your niche that have thousands of followers and see what they are doing. Steal the methods they are using and use them too!
Don’t be afraid to test and try some new things too. The worst that can happen? You get no results and you simply need to test something else.
How Often Should I Post Content?
Again, it depends. I would try to post something every 2-3 days at the minimum and as often as you’d like otherwise. I’ve seen pages that push out several pieces per hour! That’s personally too much for my tastes but it’s an option if you love social attention.
How Can I Get Fans?
That is the all important question that you should have.
Fans are people that like your page. The more fans you have, the more people that will typically see your content. There are a few ways to get fans.
- Directly from your site visitors
- Invite your friends you already have on Facebook
- Advertise Cheaply
Directly From Your Site
As people come to your website from the search engines or any other source to your website you can lead them to become a fan of yours on Facebook. You can see an example of Rachel using it here.
Simply add this to your sidebar widget somewhere. Optionally you can use any other plugin that’s out there that does this as well (there are dozens) (see Niche 60 member, Brent using one here in his sidebar).
Inviting Your Friends
This is somewhat a one-shot trick. Because the supply of your true friends is limited. So you can invite your friends to like the page but once you’ve invited all of your friends this method is done.
Advertising Your Page
This is actually pretty cheap and easy to do. I will tell you how it works and show you where Facebook will walk you through this at. Again, I don’t want to update this lesson every two weeks and I rather let Facebook deal with that!
Here is Facebook Advertising Information Page. Bookmark it and study it in your spare time.
What I personally do is simple.
I spend a few bucks just to get my page going. Here’s how.
First, go to the create ad area of Facebook.
A. Select “promote your page”
B. Select your page
C. Click “continue”
Next, you’ll be onto step 2.
A. Set your location you’d like to pull audience from. The less, the more targeted your ad becomes. This is also helpful if you are targeting a specific country for any purpose.
B. Select your age group. This comes down to understanding your audience. Try to get this age group as close to your audience as possible and always make sure you’re targeting people over 18.
C. Select Gender or all if it doesn’t matter.
D. Select language if it matters.
E. They have several different demographics you can target. this is important if what you’re promoting has a very specific target.
F. Target your audience by interest. Again, the more targeted and narrowly you marginalize your market, the better.
G. Select various behaviors of your audience. I haven’t used this much yet. If I do I’ll report back my thoughts. Feel free to mess with this and test.
It’s important to remember that it will take a little bit of testing on your part. I have used the same settings on different niche markets and some of them worked and others failed. You just need to test and try things.
Next, if you continue down the page you get to this part.
A. Select only people not connected to your page.
B. This meter will show you how targeted you are. As you continue filling out I’ve found the closer you get to the red, the better in most cases.
Next, continuing on.
A. Set a budget. I usually start with $5-$10 a day for just a couple of days to test.
B. Set a length you’d like to run. Again, I usually use just a couple of days for the test.
C. Target page likes.
D. You can let Facebook set this or you can set it. I typically set it myself but again, TEST! Different niches have different price points. You can always start low and work your way up if you’re not seeing many new likes.
E. Just leave this alone until you get more advanced.
F. This is your estimated targeted audience. A small amount of people will typically mean less people liking your page. However, smaller groups means that you’re usually targeting your specific audience much better.
Now move along.
A. Add images here. Again, test what works and look at what other ads look like in your industry for ideas.
B. You can add another image here.
C. Upload your image (or leave it alone to use the default). I usually use default if I have a really nice looking Fanpage already. Facebook recommends 1200×444 for images here.
Next, scroll down.
A. Enter any text you’d like here or leave it blank for Facebook’s default text.
B. This is the page you’re promoting.
C. If it looks good, place the order.
Once Facebook approves your ad you’ll be up and running! This is usually fast.
Now you’re running an ad to grow your audience.
What Next?
As your audience grows you’ll want to start putting out content (shown above) to increase activity and get traffic to your website. Again, go look at the examples I provided in this tutorial. Here they are: Muscle Old School – German Shepherd Fans – Wine Library. All 3 are doing an amazing job!
Post Boosting To Your Audience
One great way to get your content in front of your audience is to simply boost any post you’d like on Facebook.
A. Simply click boost, add a few dollars to the campaign and watch the likes and clicks come in.
You’ll find that people will like it the post, click on it, visit your site and perhaps buy or click on your ads. Though keep in mind we are not looking for sales here, just engagement. Sales will come as your audience grows and trust builds.
A Post-Boost Tip From Rachel Keele
Rachel shared a cool little strategy with me. It’s nothing fancy but it works and it’s easy to do.
After you boost a post and the campaign ends you can see a number of people who have liked your post.
You’ll also be able to see people that liked your post but have not liked your page yet. This is where you can grow your audience without spending any extra!
First, go to a post that you boosted. You’ll see a list like I show below and an area where it says “and xxxxx others.”
A. Click on the number others like this.
This will open up a sub-menu. Here you’ll see people who are not yet members of your page who liked the post but haven’t liked your page yet. Note: if none of them fit this description you will not see this.
A. Anyone that has the “Invite” message beside their name, click it. This will then invite them to like your page!
This is a fast, free way to boost your page likes. Thanks Rachel for sharing! 
Closing Out
If you’re nervous to get started just watch what they are all doing for a few days. You’ll really start understand what audiences want.
However, the best way is to simply get in and get your hands dirty. That’s how I learned. I made mistakes (still do) and I test different things. There is not a better way to grow your Facebook audience.
If you want to dig deep into using Facebook I highly suggest following the teaching of Social Media Examiner. Anytime I have a question that I do not know the answer, I find it there.
Lastly, if you need any help or have questions on Facebook simply ask us inside the forum and we’ll answer the question for you.
