Hi everyone,

I’m seriously thinking of deleting my Fan Page. I know I have it up for brand recognition but … I haven’t gotten any leads from it. And for the time I invest, I think I would just like to spend more time on my profile. (My business name is my name.)

Tell me your successes and how you got them. I  need some inspiration!

It’s very challenging, @amyhallbiz – I think with the Facebook Subcribe button things have gotten more complicated for people who brand with their name.  I have been coaching more people to focus on a personal profile who brand as their name (Realtors, authors, etc) because there are some advantages.
Advantages for the subscribe button:1.  Personal profiles seen more in the News Feed2.  Some people want to connect with you personally3.  Easier to post to just one place – no double posting.
Disadvantages of subscribe button only1.  Cannot advertise your personal profile (although I think in a way you could)2.  No custom Apps (including no e-mail optin)3.  Can’t run a Facebook contest.4.  Some people may not understand the Subscribe option and think that they don’t want to friend you.  
So most of these advantages and disadvantages are just flipped when looking at the Page option.  I think there are a lot of good things with a Page that you can do if you are branding as a larger business – such as if you sold the business, you could also pass the page over to someone.  If you grow, you can have multiple admins.  
I think it’s really not completely clear cut.  You look at Mari Smith and she has 290K subscribers and only 70K fans.  So that can be a testament to the Subscriber option.  

@amyhallbiz There could be so many reasons why you may not feel you are succeeding with your Facebook account. As an individual contractor / brand, you may want to rethink your social media strategy and do a bit of research to find where your communities are congregating. Once you have this piece of the intelligence, then you are more able to make an educated business decision as to whether you should maintain your Facebook presence. Cultivating a community takes time, patience and a proactive posture to engage. The old saying of “If you build it, will they come” is so relevant in social media. Thus why a strategy is needed for all business people in social media. I did notice upon hitting your blog that you do not cross-promote your social properties (at least it wasn’t easily noticeable). Integration is key for cross pollination, so you may try adding some widgets to your blog to link to your other social media profiles.
My recommendation – rethink what you are trying to accomplish and build a viable strategy and execution based upon your goals and objectives – with the caveat of understanding your available time commitment. Simply because you can doesn’t always mean you should.
Apologies if this feedback is common knowledge to you. 

Hi Amy,

I had a look at your profile and you mention social media in it – hard to promote social media and associated activities if you are not in the space.   I have been on facebook for a long time, but only using for business for a short time, and I am just starting to see personal success – and I do not have a huge amount of fans because I focus on my clients and on engagement for their pages.  We have some great success stories and it is all about content.  Once I started doing regular posts and blogs things have been turning around.  I only launched one biz literally a week ago but have had lots of contact and interest.  My pages are socially skilled and iRespectOnline.   I know many VA’s doing great business on facebook because it is free advertising for your services.  Not being there would mean you wouldnt be found at all.  So many people I know need help with wordpress and mailchimp so I think you are just not marketing yourself the right way.   Just tonight I wanted to link my eventbrite event to my mailchimp and I havent got a clue .    Are you posting up regular hints and tips to get people engaging?   You have to build trust before people feel comfortable in parting with money and social media lets people see who you are and gives you a head start on that

@amyhallbiz  I think there are a lot of success stories out there and so didn’t start launching into them.  Many businesses I’ve seen have been profiled on Social Media Examiner by Casey Hibbard who specializes in Case Studies:  http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/tag/casey-hibbard/  Some of these are larger brands and so don’t apply to small business but there are some small business posts in there too.  

But for every success story there are also lots of stories where things don’t work for people.  I don’t think that in unique to social media but business in general.  

Just taking a look at your Facebook Page, you got a lot of comments on the picture you posted.  I would post more pictures.  Are you commenting on other Pages as your Page? (your clients pages would be ideal)  Sometimes just tweaking the activity can bring you big results.  You mention Mailchimp in your About section but I didn’t see any Mailchimp tips in the last month (I may have missed them in the postings)  There are a lot of people who are confused by Mailchimp (myself included a lot of days) and if you could focus on one area, I would niche down to Mailchimp.  
All that being said, I do know that personal posts are being seen more often in the news feed.  But there are advantages to Pages such as having apps and things.  So it’s a tough choice to know where to focus.  I’m actually doing a post on this right now – how do you decide the right mix?  Page and/or Subscribe button.  I do still like Pages for a variety of reasons, you can advertise them, you can run contests, and the apps.  I think some people still don’t understand the subscribe button and so may feel reluctant to connect.  
So hope that helps some!

Here’s my Facebook Success Story…

I have my Facebook Business Page up! Woo-Hoo!
PLEASE check it out (when you have time) and LIKE it if you feel so inclined. I guess the only reason to do this is if you actually do LIKE it So, I guess we’ll see.

It’s in the most basic condition, but I have my profile pic and my Timeline photo up, which is in keeping with my Redmond Reflexology website branding.

Thanks for being here everyone – it’s nice to know I’m not alone.

Wayne