If you’re like anyone else who’s just starting to learn about Facebook Fan Pages, the biggest question on your mind is probably:
“Why?”
It’s a good question do Fan Pages really stand out as exceptional among social media platforms? Dear reader, hold on to your hat:

Yes.

Here’s our pick of the top 10 reasons why Facebook Fan Pages are worth investing in. Not all of them are unique to Fan Pages, but only Fan Pages have all of them.

1) Facebook is huge. Depending on the statistics you look at, it’s the largest social networking site in the world – it recently edged out MySpace with monthly unique visits, and at over 250 million registered users and still growing steeply, it could soon have the most of those too.

2) Facebook has real people, with real data and real connections. You know this not only because it’s part of the user agreement, but because people put their social lives online – you can trace their social graphs, which are maps of real-life connections. Nobody can fake that. We hope.

3) Social media provides a new mode of customer interaction: The Dialog. Marketing is no longer a one-way street. Listening, as well as talking, is a new way to attract customers and win them over. And a Fan Page is a dedicated forum for customers to talk. Not to mention, you can learn from your customers. Granted, 90% of the conversation is positive (these are your fans, after all), but when they do complain, it’s worth listening (and responding to!).

4) Put enough fans in a social forum, and they pump each other up. Give them a starting point, and fans will go on and on about how and how much they love your brand! It’s not just an ego boost (though that’s nice as well), but it’s a perpetual generator of brand loyalty and enthusiasm.

5) Fans who spread this enthusiasm among their friends – and Fan Pages are designed to make this very, very easy – earn you new customers and fans. We call it “going viral,” and it’s the true Holy Grail of online marketing. The only catch is that you really do need to thrill your fans.

6) Fan Pages can connect and integrate any other social network site. This means you only have to publish content once and it’s everywhere you want it to be – and it makes the effective reach of your Fan Page much greater than those 250 million.

7) A Fan Page supports your main website by linking it to a solid, concentrated community of people who like what you do. It’s not the ultimate answer to everything, but it will direct traffic to your Web catalog quite nicely.

As part of the Facebook platform, Fan Pages have standardized but flexible technology that enables you to do pretty much anything that you want with it. And because everyone is using the same platform, apps can be very low-cost – with the right vendor (sorry, not a plug… ).

9) Customizable branding and content is important, of course, and MySpace wins big points for this one. But still, designing a page takes time and money. Fan Pages are simplified, standardized, and you can import your brand image without needing to write a single HTML tag.

10) Everyone else is doing it. No, I’m not trying to use peer pressure, I mean it. The fact that Fan Pages are the Next Big Thing means that if you don’t have one, you’re missing out, and people notice. Fan Pages level the playing field –a company without the, um, stamina, to actually converse with customers is failing to even play the new favorite game.

Fan Pages do provide a unique advantage, if your marketing stance is adaptable enough to accept the new terms of engagement. And with the right strategy, that advantage is considerable. Not all big brands are as successful at the new game as Nike or Coca-Cola – but check out their Fan Pages to see just how great this advantage can be.

Oh, and:
11) It’s free.

Here’s the deal. We’re application developers, but with a twist: Instead of charging thousands of dollars to build or license each bit of software to clients, we offer a comprehensive Fan Page application suite as a very inexpensive SAS subscription service.

Our apps are designed to help users publish content, interact with their fans, and do all that is fun and useful with Fan Pages. I won’t list the apps, because you can just visit the App Gallery, but there’s a lot of good stuff there that you’ll actually use (we do!). Not to mention, we’re always working on new apps.

A major part of our business model is the very affordable monthly subscription system, by which we hope to make our SAS offering available to anyone who wants to spruce up their fan page – anyone. Plus, you only pay for it as long as you want to. That’s really what it’s all about: bringing stellar (if we can toot our own horn!) Fan Page application development to anyone who needs it.

Not really a techie? Not sure if you need a Fan Page? Not a problem. We’re working hard to provide free education materials for every level of Fan Page expertise. We want you to have a successful Fan Page that you’re happy with, so it’s in our best interest to help you learn how. Check out InvolveSocial University and keep an eye on this blog — subscribe to our RSS feed, follow us on Twitter, be a fan, or whatever your favorite method is. We’re constantly updating the University with new tips and best practices, guides to getting started, in-depth white papers, and quick & easy tutorial videos and slideshows. This blog, of course, is where we talk about relevant issues and useful info.

Speaking of info, always feel free to drop a line and chat about your progress! We love to hear peoples’ Fan Page stories and answer any questions you might have, whether you’ve got apps yet or not. Or, just sit around to find out what wild and crazy Fan Page topics we’ll blog about next…

So, you have a new fan page. It displays your brand graphics, has your company info, and you put up a few posts. But you have only 34 fans, and most of them are your own employees or family members or people trying to sell you something (how rude!). How do you get the word out to your target audience, cheaply and effectively, to jumpstart your Fan Page and tap into all that social media potential?

Happily, traditional outreach efforts are only half as important, because simply making your current fans happy increases the likelihood that they’ll recruit their friends as fans too. So, here’s an overview of the basics to get the process rolling. I’ll be covering more of these topics in detail in future posts.

1)      Use SEO best practices to get your fan page to show up in the first fold when people google your keywords. Do it right, and this technique is easy, free, and ever-so-effective.

2)      Use Facebook ads to help drive interested traffic to your spiffy new Fan Page.

3)      Implement a holistic online strategy: Connect all of your other social media to the Fan Page, link to it in your e-mail signature, get domains that reroute to it – it’s your new online über-business-card.

4)      Provide real value. Add informational content and apps that cater to your audience’s desires – coupons, interactivity, relevant news, etc. Make it exclusive, a great catching point for those online ads.

5)      Make sure your content is fresh and relevant. Update frequently and regularly so that users learn that there will always be something new – large gaps in updates indicates you’re asleep at the wheel. Apps can greatly facilitate the updating process, so it’s easy, fast, and efficient.

6)      Add apps that allow you to implement fun promotional strategies. Contests, fan lotteries, polls, giveaways, and other treats will boost engagement. Try a scavenger hunt on your page, or provide cool (branded) virtual gifts for your fans to share with their friends.

7)      Be social. Your fan page isn’t a bulletin board or a soap box – it’s a soon-to-be-packed clubhouse. Respond personally to your fans, give them an app that allows fan-to-fan interaction through your page, and use the opportunity to immediately and positively address any non-positive feedback and turn it to your advantage. Remember, you’re establishing conversations with your fans to engage them and get them excited about your brand.

A new study by Anderson Analytics looks into the demo and psycho-graphics of users on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and MySpace. The study shows overlaps of users among these social networks and what this could potentially mean for brands.

Over half of social networkers feel neutral about Interacting with Brands

When it comes to brands online, the study found that:

* 52% of social networkers had friended or become a fan of at least one brand

* 17% felt positive when seeing a brand on a social network,

* 19% felt negative when seeing a brand on a social network,

* 64% were neutral or didn’t care about brands on social networks,

* 20% would like to see more communication from brands online,

* 35% would not like to see more communication,

* 45% were neutral or didn’t care.

As brands move to social networks and executes campaigns via Facebook Fan Pages, both technological and strategic skills are required to acquire success.Opportunities for smaller brands exist as the playing field is leveled and the viral potential for clever execution plus ultra-specific targeting through social ads awaits any brand ready to connect with its audience.

As the statistics show, over half the people are neutral about brands in social networks. Tremendous opportunities will arise as brands and agencies figure out how to work with fans in an authentic, engaging and consistent way.

This only shows a correlation, but I think it’s safe assume causality. The more proactively your company seeks to reach and engage users on social media, the more benefit you’ll be able to get from it. Social media is, without doubt, worth pursuing for the vast majority of businesses, individuals, and organizations, especially when integrated as a key element of an overall online marketing strategy.

Wait, the vast majority of businesses? Even those who can’t afford most other forms of advertising, and aren’t tech-savvy? Absolutely, if you’re talking about a Fan Page! Let’s break it down.

A Fan Page is your company’s presence on Facebook. It’s the commercial version of a personal profile page that establishes your company, celebrity image, product, or organization as a social entity, capable of reaching and engaging customers, both on Facebook and off. Personal social connectivity provides outreach, and endless possibilities for convenient content publishing and social interaction make effective and lasting engagement possible.

If “significant potential ROI” isn’t enough, here are some more specific advantages to starting your own Facebook Fan Page , in no particular order:

* It’s free.

* It’s flexible and customizable, and makes online branding easy.

* You don’t need to be a techie to make and use it. In fact, shops such as www.involvesocial.com provide and install extremely affordable and useful application suites for getting the most out of your Fan Page.

* It can act as either a central or a secondary element of your online marketing strategy; as a target destination, or as a funnel to direct traffic to your main website.

* It can expose a wide array of brand- and revenue-building applications and functions to your fans.