The Benefits of a Facebook Page

Kerry Farrow from Multiple Mummy has fallen in love with Facebook all over again since creating her Fan Page on there and she now shares the benefits she has discovered with us all

My Facebook experience started pre-children. I remember being the first of my friends to sign up and many of them saying at that time that they would never have the time to ‘do Facebook’. I can’t think of one friend not involved in Facebook and even my 80-year-old Grandma has an account.

Facebook gives me the opportunity to post updates of how I am feeling, funny things that have happened and parade my children in all their photo glory. I am guilty of trawling through the photo’s of a wedding of someone I have not seen in years, and searching for ex-boyfriends just to see what they are up to! We all have, haven’t we?

From a personal perspective Facebook has been great. I never however, considered it’s potential as an ‘advertising’ platform or ‘marketing strategy for a brand or in our case a blog.

I started my Facebook blog page one year ago this month. I had seen talk of other bloggers having one and promoting their pages on twitter and I thought it was just another thing to have as a blogger.

Recently I have seen tweets from people asking if there is any point in having a Facebook blog page and additionally saying they rarely update their page.

My answer to this is yes, it is absolutely beneficial to have a Facebook page and it really does work if you take the time to interact with it and I shall tell you why:

• Not all readers are twitter user

My ‘light bulb’ moment as to why Facebook is great for readers was realising that not all readers are twitter users, and in fact if I did not blog, I would probably not be a twitter user either. I certainly know that most of my friends do not use twitter, but all are Facebook users. So how do non-twitter readers get interaction? Well I suppose they can via comments on the blog, but as we all know the commenting process can be timely and you cannot get that back and forth discussion. It means someone has to come back to your blog to check if you have replied and I totally get that people just don’t have the time for this. However,

• Time

If like me you have a personal Facebook page, you will probably check it at least once a day so you can catch up on the goings on of your friends that don’t tweet. As I am there, it takes no time to go to my blog page and add a status or comment. In fact now I probably use my blog page more than my personal page.  My posts get updated to it automatically courtesy of networked blogs so I never have to do that, so it is mainly status updates and photos! Additionally any status you write automatically goes to twitter so often I will write on FB first knowing it will be tweeted.

• Likes

I love the fact that people can immediately react to something on FB when no words are required and just like a photo, or like a point of view.

• Conversation

You can see your FB page from your phone and ipad, or whatever other devises you use, so replying in chat form to a comment is easy and quick. I think readers love the fact they can get instant interaction and I know that I do when I Facebook. You can spark debate and gain instant thoughts and opinions.

• Facebook following

This has grown quite rapidly over the year. Sometimes I run comps and get people to follow, but interesting I find that they stay on Facebook and again begin to interact. I have been a part of Ghostwriter Mummy’s Facebook Friday, but mostly I think people have found me. Again the following tends to be different from twitter so you reach different people.

• Photographs

I love a photograph. It gives me immediate insight into someone’s world, but to get someone to look at a photo on twitter they have to be intrigued by the statement that comes with it. On Facebook the photo speaks for itself and get immediate reaction. To make life even easier you can set up instagram to you FB blog page and it will share it automatically. I love putting up picture.

• Working with brands

It is a great way to follow brands and companies and for them to keep up to date with you easily, without necessity having to trawl the blog. It gives people an instant insight and is a great ‘front cover’ for your blog. Lots of brands and companies will follow and also comment, along with communities, for me this is a lot of twins communities. It is another great way to work together.

• Sometimes 140 characters are not enough

Sometimes you have a little anecdote to share, or a bigger point to make, and it is not enough for a blog post but you want to share it. If you tweet it, you know it will cover three tweets which defeats the object of twitter use, so Facebook if perfect for those situation. Sometimes 140 characters are just not enough!

• The Facebook community is very friendly

People chat, comment and like. They will share posts they like on their Facebook pages which all helps spread the word, and of course any post and status’ stay on longer and can be seen more easily as you don’t make as many status updates as you do tweets and any conversation that occurs, happens under that status so does not block your feed and what people see.

I have fallen in love with Facebook all over again due to having a blog page. I love how honest people are, how forward and how supportive they are. People that have a genuine interest in what they are reading, which is why they take the time to ‘Like’ you.

So these are my reasons why I love Facebook to enhance blogging, but what are your thoughts. Do you love it or loathe it?

Kerry is a Science teacher by trade, but is currently a stay at home Mummy due to having three children within 15 months (two of which were twins, you will be relieved to know!).  She has been blogging at www.multiplemummy.com for just over a year which include an eclectic range of posts including her passion for craft and education. She is amazed by the experiences and opportunities that have been open to her and can’t believe how much she has learned in such a short time including setting up Science Sparks which is full of science based experiments and activities that can be done in the home!. She tweets as @MultipleMummy rambling on about the good, the bad and the ugly of three toddlers. Kerry aspires to become a freelance writer and hopes that the opportunities to date might lead to a dream career. Of course do stop by her Facebook page along with Google+ where you can chat more and see more of her antics.