If you follow the CatsEyeWriter blog, you know that last week I was dragged kicking and screaming into the Facebook universe.
I wondered what the point was.
I didn't understand who was seeing what when I made a comment. I didn't know how to separate family and business pals because, obviously, these are two different groups.
I was confused.
Still, I was seeing many of my buddies using Facebook. And talking about how good it has been for their business. How many new clients they were getting.
But it was the blog post of Michael Stelzner, executive editor of Social Media Examiner, that put me over the top.
If he changed his mind, maybe it was time to give Facebook another try.
But it was so big, so overwhelming, that I didn't know what to do. Until I decided that I needed a goal. Not a big goal.
More like a reason.
Why should I be on Facebook, anyway?
I needed a reason. And it needed to smack me in the face. Because Lord knows I already have enough social media sites to juggle.
I decided, because I am a blogging coach, that all roads should lead to my blog. I wanted to drive traffic there because that was where the meaty posts, the calls to action and the sales pages for my services were.
That made my goal on Facebook easy. I would give advice, offer tips and because I can't help it, throw in a little strange, weird and funny every once in a while. Things that might make people curious about me.
Breaking it down: my Facebook goals
After I figured out the why, I needed some measurable goals. How would I know if being on Facebook was getting me more blog visitors?
I decided to focus on building my fan base and then see if doing that gets me more pageviews on my CatsEyeWriter blog. And I gave myself 90 days—three months—to reach my goals.
So how did week one go?:
Goal l: Build a base of at least 1,000 fans by January 15, 2011
The experts say you don't get traction until you have 500-1,000 fans. Because I've always been an overachiever, I chose 1,000 as my goal.
Accomplishment: I went from 0 to 74 fans in week one.
What I did: I focused on my current personal page fans first and asked some of them to "like" my biz page. I also asked a friend or two to click on "Suggest to Friends" to get some more love coming my way.
Next step: This will probably be a mini-campaign across my other social networking platforms (Biznik, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.) For that to work, I'll need a landing page to send them to, with a promise of a reward (contest, free information product or something similar). Because they'll need a reason to click on the "like" button.
Goal 2: Increase overall blog traffic by at least 50% by January 15, 2011
I set these numbers high because the main reason for being on Facebook is to get more people to visit my blog (and hopefully become regular readers).
Accomplishment: Traffic to my blog increased 24% in week one.
What I did: This was amazing growth for the first week. Facebook friends linked to my post. But also, more people were coming from Twitter. It was the direct result of engaging people on Facebook. I also found that when I gave deserving friends a shout out, they reciprocated, linking back to my blog.
Next step: Set up a regular schedule of Facebook updates with a mix of tips and advice that relate to the topic of my next blog post, links to other thought-provoking posts on blogging and a few updates just for fun.
Goal 3: Increase blog traffic from Facebook by at least 40% by January 15, 2011
Okay, if I'm going to do this thing, I want a return. Know what I'm sayin'? So, I'm looking for 40% more blog visitors from Facebook than I had in the month before I created my biz page.
Accomplishment: Visitors to my blog from Facebook have already increased by 29% in week one.
What I did: I participated in Facebook discussions, posed questions about blogging and answered questions proposed to me.
Next step: Set up at least 4 blog posts in advance, with lists of resources, tips and questions to build curiosity around the topic of my upcoming blog posts.
Goal 4: Increase blog traffic from Twitter by at least 25% by January 15, 2011.
I'm keeping the numbers in this goal lower for now (may adjust them later) because I am already getting fairly good levels of traffic from Twitter.
Accomplishment: Visitors to my blog from Twitter increased by 16% in week one. And some of those people visited other pages on my blog, such as my about and services pages.
What I did: I haven't quite figured this one out, but I suspect that some of my Facebook fans also tweeted the link to my blog post.
Next step: Find out which of my Facebook "fans" are also on Twitter, send a FB message to tell them I have followed them and, hopefully, get a follow back so we can support each other on Twitter, too.
That's as much as I have thought out right now.
Please drop by to get periodic updates on my progress in my Big Facebook Experiment. And if you want to fan me on Facebook (I'll have new, relevant content because I despise spam), just click the "Like" button on the top right, in the sidebar, or go here.
How about you?
If you have a Facebook biz page, what's its purpose? Do you have certain things you'd like to happen there?
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