Facebook Fan Page - Question

[formerguest]

This may seem a strange question but when someone runs a Facebook page and sends an update to their fans, do all the fans receive it? I've been running a Facebook page for about 5 weeks and have approximately 1,600 fans and yet on the rare occasions I've sent an update I feel as though it's went into a void.

I've tried to encourage people to take part in a walkathon and only one person has indicated they will.

I've started a JustGiving page and only one person has sponsored me.

 

[thewashbiz]

how are you generating 1600 fans in 5 weeks?
Seems rather fast! Maybe its spam people you are adding and not people actualy interested in what you are doing

 

[formerguest]

Mainly people inviting people on their friends list to join and I've actively encouraged that. That in itself is good because it's mainly about spreading awareness of a website that has the potential to be used by anyone who feels down, depressed and / or suicidal and people do seem to remember the name. However, the page does seem to be well received by many people who have been bereaved by suicide and it is a cause close to their heart. I had thought more people would sponsor me.

 

[Faevilangel]

Have you got a twitter account? Use that with your facebook account and you should get a bigger response.

I would also look into getting your website redone, it's very poor (in my opinion) as it's difficult to read.

You could also include links in the pages for people to "tweet" and "friend" your message on their twitter and facebook.

I have had a family member with depression (caught before suicide) so it's close to my heart. I am willing to create a more open and friendly design for your website, free of charge. I will also give you a head start on optimising the website to help get your website rankings higher and help integrate with social media sites.

Pm me if you're interested.

cheers

 

[formerguest]

Thank you - you've been helpful and that is a very kind offer.

I hope the member of your family who had (or has) depression is doing OK and that life gets better for them.

I had a Twitter account but didn't really know how to make the most of it, had no followers and so deleted it. In light of the response on Facebook I tried to restore it but Twitter doesn't seem to allow that. That said, I am on Facebook to try and engage people, with the possibility of forming a charity or CIC. If I can't, I will need to delete the Facebook page after the walkathon as I can't continually monitor it as I work in a different area, something I've much less passion for, but it does pay and I'll need to commit to it fully. It'll sadden me greatly if I can't get more proactive support...This is my final push as I've put my heart and soul into this.

A template was used for the website and the developer kindly gave their skills for free. Aside from the content, which is very good, I no longer like the website as it stands but feel a sense of loyalty to the developer because in fairness I chose the template. I cannot speak highly enough of the developer.

Thank you so much - your support is greatly and sincerely appreciated.

 

[WJP]

By update, do you mean a status update? If so then yes, this will appear on all fans' homepages (in the same way that a status update from an individual does). However, I'm sure you appreciate the number of these that appear even every minute and so yours may get lost in amongst everything else I'm afraid...

 

[formerguest]

Thanks for responding. No, there is actually a way to send 'updates' and I don't mean a status update and I now suspect such updates go into a subfolder in the messages section of Facebook user accounts.

 

[WJP]

I know that before Facebook was recently updated there was an updates tab that users could click on, but I'm not sure about the new layout I'm afraid.

 

[sanjiv]

When you send an update, it arrives as a message. When people get messages that aren't from friends, they usually ignore them.

 

[KELKEL]

I also have the same problem with my facebook page - on investigating a little I feel my posts get lost after all the mafia wars and farmville updates...!! I feel its hard work to keep updating it all the time but mine had only been going for 3 weeks, ill stick with it as I want it to work. good advice on this though.x

 

[formerguest]

Thanks for the advice - it does help explain things.

 

[relaxkids]

one great thing is to offer a competition on facebook - so you get people signing up it worked really well for the Relax Kids fan page on face book. We also get our fans commenting on things.

 

[KELKEL]

Im just running a competition on Facebook - while I have had a few entries its not gone as good as I had hoped but a few is better than none - again I fear all my posts get lost which again was confirmed when speaking to a friend last night who said she had only just seen my post which was about my 4th one!! just need to keep persevering....:redface:

 

[formerguest]

I'm glad I tracked this post down.

Faevilangel, I've posted about a new look Stamp Out Suicide! website in the charity and fundraising section of UKBF.

KELKEL, perhaps you should post your competition as a status update, rather than an update via a message, or use a status update to direct those on your page to more details about your competition.





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[KELKEL]

KELKEL, perhaps you should post your competition as a status update, rather than an update via a message, or use a status update to direct those on your page to more details about your competition.

I was:| I might try doing it as a message next time?! I didnt run the competition through my website as its was exclusive to facebook fans (an incentive I thought to encourage them to enter) I suppose these things you try and some you win and some you dont:redface:

 

[FBtips]

also, if people have more than 250 facebook friends then they will not always see every update in their news stream - users need to click on "edit options" (at the bottom of their news stream) and change the 250 default setting if they want to see more...

I just remembered this when I read your post; something I alwways ment to look into further but had forgotten!

 

[KELKEL]

Facebook has changed again... instead of becoming a fan of a page you now tick 'like' I now dont understand how many fans (or whatever they are called now) I have as it seems to be split - this happend last night as I was working on the page.. I am assuming that if I carry on sending update it will still appear on those people who have ticked like updates :|:|

 

[WJP]

It should only be split between how many of your personal friends like the fan page and how many people overall like the fan page...

 

[facebookapp110]

Updates receives to all fans but everyone do not check the updates. Except their favorite fan pages.