This is Guest Post by Sam Bakker
There has been much online debate concerning the true effectiveness of Facebook groups for businesses in comparison to fan pages. There are two main differences that distinguish one from the other. Facebook groups are typically business based and rely on engaging Facebook users through conversation about itself. This contrasts Facebook fan pages, whose main purpose for the majority is to see humorous or opinionated ideas. They have a laugh, click the “Like” button and share it with their friends by being associated with it.
I recall the first time I created a group page on Facebook for a local business. Much of my attention was spent making it look nice and clean. Expecting Facebook users to love my new page and support me for making it, I sent out requests to my 500 friends. Two days passed by with only 8 Facebook users signing up to my group… and half of them were related to me. In contrast to this, I witnessed a Facebook fan page go from no members to 80,000 within days. It got me thinking as to whether I had made the right decision by creating a group for my client’s business.
That incident got me thinking about the possibility of generating viral traffic with simple one-liners whether being funny or controversial. I had seen on many occasions these simple statements gather massive momentum. Just last week, I witnessed a fan page called “There’s always one friend who eats everyone’s gherkins in McDonalds” go from single figures to now 44,000 fans. And the title isn’t even funny!
Fan pages don’t have to be perfect; in most cases, it’s just a topic you know others are interested in. In my experience, group pages tend not to go viral unless it is a compelling page that offers value to the user. Fan pages on the other hand go viral on a regular basis, making them the perfect marketing tool for internet marketers like us.
The key is to figure out a legitimate system that works a fan page ‘til it’s on the verge of going viral. What I’ve found on Facebook is that it takes around 20,000 fans for a page to go viral, growing on an almost exponential level. With that in mind, 20,000 fans becomes our aim.
When I first started my Facebook group page I was unsure whether it was the right move to make. It was…however I learnt later is that a group on Facebook needs fans from various sources to succeed; the main one being “Facebook Fan Pages.” Once a fan page goes viral, your business can tap into an ever increasing number of users. This boosts performance and profitability. For this reason, Facebook fan pages should be the main strategy for directing fans to your business page, Fan pages are the most viral marketing tool available online. Your challenge is now: how do I build up 20,000 fans and put marketing on autopilot?
Sam Bakker has been making money online for the past 7 years. He owns a number of businesses including his new internet marketing website which he has just released. If you would like to find out more about Sam or making money online you can visit Sam’s internet marketing website.
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Another major development came in the field of Facebook Pages on 1st April 2010 when facebook initiated the concept of Community Pages… Although most of the users thoguht it to be a April Fools Joke, it wasnt a Joke and with the initiation of this now there are only genuine pages on facebook and no spam pages or general pages
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