Yesterday I started a Facebook fanpage for my blog. For vanity minded reasons? Maybe. But I can give you tons of other good reasons to start one yourself as well. Let’s do it bullet point style.
- A fanpage gives you a good overview of who your readers are. As you might know, on the average blog only one percent of the readers comments on posts. With a Facebook fan page you’ll make a fair amount of that other 99 percent visible. And that helps, especially during those lonely rainy Sunday afternoons.
- You can aggregate content that is relevant for your blog (but didn’t make it to a blog post). Like interesting links, videos, or random thoughts. Basically anything you’d post on Twitter. A lively community around your blog will be the reward.
- More promotion: people’s activity on a fan page will show up in their feeds. Hello there, new friends!
- It looks great when people hit your page for the first time. ,,Wow, all these people are fans? I better read this stuff then!”
- It makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside
Fans are fun. Photo: Roger Marshutz
There are only two downsides:
- You’ll have less comments on your blog, since people will comment on Facebook.
- It will look silly the first day. Check out my box in the sidebar, only five fans. I love them though.
Did I convince you? Head over to facebook.com and look up the application ‘Ads and pages’.
See? Everybody is commenting on the fan page, instead of here :-)
Funny thing. I was actually considering using fb as a personal blog. Not enough customizable content though. Still, I love the idea and connectivity behind it all.
My opinion: the web is full of people wanting more hits/tweets/twats/whatever-attention-may-be-called-today. And suddenly it is not about content = news value anymore. It is beautiful empty bubble. What would you rather say in – like ten years from now: “Back then we had such and so many followers” or “We actually made a difference”. My advise: go for good content and you’ll grow an audiene as a side-effect.
Thanks Arnoud, everybody should print your comment and hang it above their desk.
I mention the exact same thing in my ‘Internet is the new LSD’ presentation.
So you might wonder by now: why is he talking about fanboxes and all that then? Well, it’s because I they think they can help in making a difference.
For example: my goal is to get as many people possible hooked on blogging. Since it’s a great way to sharpen yourself and sharing your knowledge with the world. If I want to make a good first impression, it helps when people see a large number of twitter contacts and RSS readers. Like I wrote: ,,Wow, all these people are fans? I better read this stuff then!”
Then, hopefully, they’ll continue with reading and might get convinced to start a blog as well.
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