The Source - Great Content

I read somewhere that we process more than 90% of our information through our eyes.
I also read that the most succesful piece of content on Facebook for brands are pictures.
I also know, from personal experience that about 70% of what I share online with my friends are pictures, the remaining would be videos.

Now I'm going to ask you a question, think about the content you see from the brands you follow on Facebook, what type of content do you actually care about?

I read somewhere that all people want from brands online are discounts but I don't buy that. Just think about it, I would say close to  80% of the brands I follow are based in America and they almost always have some type of location restriction on their contests and sweepstakes. That puts me on the "not qualified" list immedeately. So why do I keep following them? For great content of course.

Great content is unique.
Great content has a "wow"-effect.
Great content adds a smile to my face.
Great content makes me want to share.
Great content inspires me.

You want more fans, more followers, more channel views and subscribers on Youtube? Produce great content and the rest will come.

Look at companies that produce great content and you will see the number of fans resonates pretty accurately.

This also brings me to Pinterest which I love - For the great content I find there. For the visual experience, for the low maintenance.
For the focus on great content instead of the real-time urgency you have on Twitter.

------------------------

Related posts:
Why I Love StumbleUpon
3 Social Media Tools I Use dailyTweet

How To Gain Facebook Fans or eerr..."Likes"

The number one focus for a brand shouldn't be just the number of Facebook fans. You would rather have 100 engaged fans than 500 who hide you in the newsfeed everytime you post something right?

But still, it IS one of the many ways you can measure success on Facebook and since the basic idea is to reach many people, of course we would like to increase our fan base.

Somebody who was going to start his Facebook Fan Page once told me his strategy was to invite all is contacts because for sure they would "fan" him and suggest to their contact and soon he would reach as least a few hundred people. That page has not hit 200 people yet and it's been up for about a year.

Also that option contradicts the nature of social media so let's not put all our cards in that bucket please.

I'm not saying you shouldn't send out an email to your email list though, tell people about your page and include the latest Facebook posts and links/Like button in your weekly E-letters.

Fisrt of all, just like the post How To Gain Twitter Followers you need to create visibility for your fan page. Embed widgets on your website, use the Facebook Social Plug-Ins and link from your blog, include the Facebook button in your email signature and integrate the LIKE button on various sites.

The Landing tab is another important thing that according to many people increases the "liking" ALOT. Make sure you have a nice landing tab and make sure it tells people to like you (and tell them WHY! for exclusive offers, contests e.t.c...)

Use Apps! Some are for free, some you have to pay for, but they spice up your page and make it more interesting. You can do simple polls, or maybe more advanced quizzes or contests.

Some examples below:

http://fanappz.com

http://wildfireapp.com

http://northsocial.com

With some apps you can launch Fans-only offers.

Use Facebook ads and make sure that by clicking on the ad the user likes your page. make sure to TARGET well. If you are in the education industry you may want to target people in a certain age rank and in certain countries.

If you publish a company magazine or something else that's printed, make sure to include an info box about your Facebook page.

If you have a store, include a little sign on the door or in the check-out counter and tell your employees to remind customers about your fan page.

Go to other pages that are in the same industry and comment on their post, sign with your fan page name (in the settings of your page so can choose to post as page or fan) IMPORTANT! Don't mis-use this. Be smart and clever and DO NOT spam pages and people.
Also, don't over post cus then people will UNfan you. Try to experiment with the timing, try posting on nights and weekends and pay attention to the Insight section of your fan page to see what is working and what is not.

If I would have to pick a good ending pgrase it would be the following:
Be a solution provider to your customers and craft GREAT content!

Tweet