Facebook Fan Pages

A couple of weeks ago I created a Facebook fan page for HotLINX magazine, a publication I design and edit for the London Internet Exchange. While part of reason for doing this was vanity I also recognised that there was potentially a lot to be gained by adding this facility to LINX social networking activity.

Now, HotLINX is quite a specialised magazine which is aimed primarily at its ISP members peering Internet traffic at the LINX exchange but it does also try to reflect some of the broader Internet industry issues such as government regulation. As a quarterly publication it is inevitable that not every article feature up to the minute news so I wanted to introduce a way of publishing related material that kept the HotLINX name in the consciousness of its stakeholders.

Facebook has two networking types: The Facebook group and the Facebook fan page. As I’ve already stated I went for the fan page which I felt better suited my needs though that will not necessarily apply to you. Rather than go into the differences in-depth I’d like to refer you to the Search Engine Journal site which actually carried out some detailed research into the two services. You can read about the findings on their Facebook Group vs Facebook Fan Page: What’s Better? page.

So how have I used the HotLINX fan page. Well, as the upcoming issue was iminent I wanted to add some teasers about the content to be included to keep followers aware that publication was just around the corner. I’ve been mostly posting daily over the last couple of weeks but if I only talked about the new issue there would end up being no point reading it as I would told everyone all there was to know anyway. For that reason I interspersed the general wall posts with snippits like the most downloaded past issues, images of the covers and photos from various industry events to keep it fresh.

Ideally I want to encourage feedback with comment of the Discussion page but this may take time. What this area does allow is the facility to make longer posts similar to a blog so I decided to add an article that hadn’t made the final issue and include links to supplementary content and images. While the content was a little dated if gives the material an outlet and something that differentiates the fan page from the magazine and therefore a reason to subscribe to the page.

While fan numbers are currently a relatively modest 35 it is noticeable that it has attracted followers from beyond the LINX membership, staff and partners. By reaching a wider audience that increases the likelihood of identifying prospects and that can only be good for everyone.