Putting That Facebook Fan Page to Work

Feeding story links to your brand’s Facebook page is a good start, but there’s much more you can do.

By Bill Mickey
Monday, November 9, 2009

For publishers looking to tap into social media, Facebook has become a go-to source. Most magazines, however, set up their fan page and do little more than feed it story links. At MPA’s Innovation Summit in October, Fabio Freyre, Facebook’s VP of advertising, outlined a more robust approach for publishers to drive engagement, traffic and conversions through their Facebook pages.

As of September, Facebook had 300 million global users, 50 percent of which, said Freyre, use it every day. Furthermore, users friend an average of eight brands—a key metric that reveals a willingness to connect with products, in addition to humans. And, said Freyre, users qualify the brand, not the other way around. By friending a magazine, users are extending a valuable vote of confidence.

Publishers are not taking advantage of that confidence however, said Freyre. “From my perspective, no magazines are leveraging Facebook in an appropriate manner.”

Freyre outlined specific tactics for publishers to follow to get the most out of their Facebook page. Not surprisingly, advertising was a key component.

1. After building your fan page, use “engagement ads” to help build your fan base. These ads can target demographics and psychographics from more than 200 datapoints said Freyre, who added that CPMs are around $7.50. Ad styles include fan solicitations, video commentary, virtual gifting and polling. By signing up as an advertiser, publishers have access to two levels of analytics—daily engagement and user metrics; and Nielsen supplied metrics that measure brand lift, message intent lift and purchase intent lift. These data are available in a two-day turnaround. “The reality is, people are not searching brands,” said Freyre, “they’re searching for friends. The best way to get to them is through ads.”

2. Use the page publisher to distribute content and insert your brand into your friends’ newsfeeds. Freyre recommended pushing 3-4 updates per week and to mix up the messaging. Use updates to promote specific stories; drive friends to the brand’s Facebook page or to its Web site; announce a new issue on the newsstand; announce a contest or special deal, and so on.