How to Update Your Facebook Page: Vary, Schedule and Automate

One of the frequent questions I am asked is:

“What’s the use in a Facebook page? I created one, invited all my friends and it now has 300+ users but I see no traffic at all!”

My answer is obvious: commitment. You can’t expect your Facebook page to drive traffic and followers to your site unless you spend time daily making your page worth it. And the most important thing is to update it regularly and consistently.

Without updates and the interaction they foster, your Facebook page is just a brochure. The general advice (that works) is as follows:

1. Create a page update editorial (just like with your blog): make it a rule to post updates throughout the day. Also, plan the set time daily when you  visit to moderate and answer users’ comments and submissions. Automating and scheduling some of the Page wall updates will help a lot (below I will share a few ways to plan and schedule Facebook page updates).
2. Vary the content types you send to your page wall by posting links, videos and photos.  Moreover, play with various content styles: questions, polls, mini-contests and calls-to-action.
3. Spur and encourage discussion: always comment on what your fans post to your page wall.

Automate Posting to Wall from Your Blog Feed

The best way to share your blog updates on your Facebook page is still to do it manually, of course, for the simple reason that you can add an engaging notice to go with link: ask a question, invite comments or add a call to action.

However, by automating things we have more control over our timing: we are able to schedule updates even when we are away from the computer and cannot update our page “likers” manually. So in many cases automated updates are still the way to go.

There are many applications that import blog updates right to the page wall – one of the most useful ones is “Deliver it”. It offers a nice interface that allows you to choose which page you would like to post blog updates to:

Note: Another popular way to pull your blog RSS feed into your Facebook page is to use the “Networked Blog” application.

Post Smart Twitter Updates to Your Page Wall Automatically

“Smart Twitter for Pages” is a Facebook application that automatically updates your selected page with Tweets skipping all replies, hashtags or Retweets:

The application also has a nice dashboard that allows you to see all your pages, whether or not they have a matching Twitter account, and which exact updates have gone live through the application:

Note: If you’ve been researching the topic long enough, you might have seen many social media blogs recommending “Selective Tweets” app to post selected Twitter updates to a Facebook page. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to set the application to work with my pages, neither did many more people – so I guess those who recommend it never really tried using it for pages.

Schedule Wall Updates: Leverage Hootsuite

Hootsuite is the feature-rich social media marketing tool that (among many other options) can update and schedule updates to your Facebook page.

To add your Pages to HootSuite, go to Settings, select Social Networks, then click Add Social Network. You will notice an option indented underneath Facebook that says Pages. Click on this option, and you’ll go through the same steps you might have previously used to authenticate private Facebook profiles.

The cool things about using Hootsuite for updating your Facebook Fan pages are:

1. You can schedule your updates to make sure you post regularly (and stick to your editorial even though you may be away or offline)
2. You can update several pages simultaneously (or from the same dashboard)
3. You can choose the page thumbnail to go with the shared link and edit the pre-filled snippet:

Post to Your Facebook Page Wall from Your Browser

All the social media and bookmarking tools you are aware of are most likely to have a “Share on Facebook” option; the Facebook official toolbar does have it as well. However, none of them can send the update directly to your Facebook page (they are good only for updating your profile, not your page).

Luckily we have the Hootsuite FireFox addon. It installs a nice little button in your browser toolbar: whenever you feel like sharing anything online, click the button and it will grab the URL of the page, let you choose the page you want to share it to, and generate the snippet, page title and thumbnail. Obviously, you can schedule the update – which means you can schedule your Facebook page updates right from your browser!

Post and Schedule Page Wall Updates through Email

You can enable posting to your page wall via email by going to: Edit Page -> Mobile (click “Edit”) – be sure to keep this email address private:

Being able to update your fan page from email is great when you are away and can only use mobile phone. Note that the email subject will be used as your updated status if your email contains no photo or video – so if you want to send a link, include it in the email subject:

Note that this way you’ll end up with the update containing the “bald” link: no thumbnail or snippet – but this is still a great way to share news with your page users when you are away from the computer.

Besides, this method is perfect for sending photos and videos taken with your mobile while on a trip, conference, etc (imagine how easily you can “live stream” any industry event to your Facebook page using this method):

Moreover, with services like Letter Me Later you can schedule your Facebook page updates via email. Isn’t that great?

Give your Fans Exposure: Tag and Credit Members on the Page Wall

The fact that you know and appreciate every single one of your page “likers” will quickly increase your brand credibility and page engagement. It is easy: just make it a rule to share your fans’ links (that you received from Twitter or their blogs) and tag the users in the update:

Collect and Share Social Testimonials: Facebook Notes

While the built-in importing feature of Facebook is somewhat buggy ( for example, when you use it to automatically import your blog posts, there will be no links back to the original link source), you can still take advantage of it: use Facebook Notes RSS Import feature to collect and share your Twitter testimonials.

The first step will be to collect the positive feedback around Twitter related to your brand and “favorite” (i.e. star) those Tweets. Then, import them to Facebook:

Navigate: “Edit Page”, scroll down to the “Notes” application and click “Edit”. You will notice a tiny link on the right – “Edit import settings.” Click on it:

Provide your Twitter favorites RSS feed there:

You are done! From now on your page notes collect and share the positive reviews of your brand you find and favorite on Twitter. How sweet is that?

Do you have useful tips on how to update your Facebook page wall to achieve active interaction with your “likers”? Please share them in the comments!

Speaking of regularly updated Facebook pages, why don’t you join us at our BlueGlass Facebook page: we promise to regularly provide you with high-quality, relevant content!