Why Your Blog Needs a Facebook Page

I’ve been debating (avoiding) the idea of creating a separate Facebook page for my blog for a long time.  Truth be told, I really didn’t want to have one more piece of social media maintenance to deal with.  I also wrestled with the concept of developing my brand as being primarily myself as a person versus being primarily my blog name. But over the past month or so, I’ve come around to the realization that having a Facebook page is possibly the most important piece of social media real estate I can procure for my blog (and it’s free, aside from the time investment).  And, it seems, most people find Instead of the Dishes to be way catchier than Fawn Rechkemmer in regard to brand recognition.

At the Savvy Blogging Summit last month, I heard time and time again that Facebook was the number one referrer for the bloggers in attendance (that means people are coming to the blog by clicking a link in Facebook).  One blogger pointed out to me that the primary audience for most blogs is mommies and that there are far more mommies on Facebook than Twitter, LinkedIn, or any other social media network. As bloggers, we’re always looking to interact with our readers.  In order to do that, we need to go where the readers are.  Our readers are on Facebook.

Then, last week, I had a guest post on another blog that has it’s own Facebook page.  A reader from that blog wanted to follow my blog, and since she couldn’t find my blog’s Facebook page (it didn’t exist), she abashedly sent me a friend request to my personal account saying that she hoped that was the proper way to “subscribe” to my blog.  I accepted her friend request and sent her another note back saying thanks for following.  And then she sent me another email back saying thanks. And now, in addition to my blog posts, we also have ALL of each other’s status updates cluttering up our news feeds.

This got me thinking: if I really want to reach out and grab my readers, I need to give them something easy to hold on to. It’s a heck of a lot easier to “like” a Facebook page than it is to send a friend request or fill out information to subscribe to a blog via email or RSS.  It’s easier because there isn’t an extra email that has to be read or RSS reader interface that has to be opened.  Many people who are on Facebook don’t visit blogs directly, but they read their news feed daily. Once a user likes your page, your content is right there in their news feed, where they are already spending an hour per day (based on the average FB user) reading things.

So, one morning earlier this week, I ignored the sink full of dishes, and I set up a Facebook page for Instead of the Dishes.  Within the first day I had 35 “likes”.  That’s more people than have subscribed to my blog via email and RSS in the past two years.

Over the next couple weeks, I’ll be devoting time to molding my Facebook page into a useful tool for my readers.  I’m using two main resources.  The first is an eBook written by a Savvy Blogging Summit attendee.  Heather from Freebies 4 Mom was nice enough to tweet out the link to The Freebies 4 Mom Guide to a Fabulous Facebook Fan Page.  I’m following her fab tips first, since she has over 150,000 Facebook “likes”. I will also be referencing the Facebook Pages Resource Guide for more ideas and examples.

Do you have a Facebook page for your blog (hobby or business)?  I’d love to hear your tips!

I’d also love for those of you who have been considering creating a Facebook page for your blog to join me in the process.  Post questions or resources here and we can help each other out!

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#SBsummit Blog Conference Re-cap