What is the point of a Facebook fan page?

Aren’t those the reserve of the great and good.. Super stars, Barrack Obama and such like??

I can’t remember when or how, but I stumbled across this website and I learned that even I could have a fan page. I downloaded their free book and read it cover to cover in under 20 minutes, and hour later I had set up a fan page for Ethnic Supplies Ltd!

I invited a few friends/contacts to join and some did. I then asked myself a question that some of you reading this may be  asking themselves. How do I keep my fans interested so they stay and how do I get new fans?

Enter Nikki Pilkington with a blog on 10 things to post on a fan page, I don’t kid you when I tell you what a God sent this list of things was. I followed this list religiously and the fans grew from 72 to 274 today.

I have found having a fan page useful for another reason, I have not gotten round to putting together a newsletter for those folk interested in my work. I have therefore used the fan page to bring them up to date with what is happening at Ethnic Supplies. I do like the idea as fans can join or leave as they see  fit. In addition the fan page allows  for a two way   interaction between the readers and I on anything I have posted and i use this as feedback from the fans.

One thing that I had not counted on when I set up the  fan page was that a Senior producer at BBC Radio 4 and BBC World service would turn to Ethnic supplies Fan page for research for content of a programme about Rwanda.

But that is what happened last week. An email came through and here it is word for word

I’ve noticed from your Facebook pages that you’re in negotiations to do business in Rwanda. I’m travelling to the country in a few weeks to make programmes from BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service and as part of my research would be very interested to hear how you’re getting on. If you’d be interested in having a chat please give me a call or drop me a note.

Well you can guess my reaction to that, and several conversations later and the BBC man has agreed to include the co-op we are working  with in rwanda in his week long programme and also give us a slot to present a UK perspective.

Something else happened too, we were struggling to get infront of buyers with our wares but when my colleague mentioned that our artisans are due to be part of a BBC documentary, the  doors started to open, quite literary!

So have you got a fan page or do you think it is a waste of time? If you don’t know how to set one up Nikki Pilkington and her team offer such a service and in fact they will maintain it for you, if you are too busy to do it yourself and here is how you can contact them http://www.nikkipilkington.com/contact-us

As usual I would be interested in your views on anything raised here