How Facebook Pages Can Use "Invite Friends" to Gain Fans

The following is an excerpt. The complete article, available in our Facebook Marketing Bible, includes a full walk-through of how to send invites for friends to Like your Page using the "Invite Friends" tool Facebook launched this week, as well as additional strategies for maximizing the conversion rate of the invites you send. To grow a Page, you need dedicated fans. These are the people that share your Page with friends, tag it in status updates, and take actions that seed Facebook's Sponsored Stories ad unit. Page administrators can convert their friends into dedicated fans using the "Invite Friends" tool which sends notifications to friends suggesting they Like a Page. This can help jumpstart growth for new Pages or facilitate further viral growth for established Pages. Here we'll walk through how the tool works, and provide strategies for attaining the highest conversion rate on your invites through timing, targeting clusters of friends, and more. "Invite Friends" can be accessed from the right-hand Page admin menu that admins see when viewing their own Pages. It is the most direct and visible way Facebook has ever allowed Page invites to be sent. Therefore, we recommend using this tool now in case Facebook removes the feature or begins delivering the invites through a less visible channel. Invite Friends Strategies Timing You want to send your invites at a time when friends are likely to be using the web version of Facebook. This is because users are more accustomed to browsing Pages from a full sized browser, and some native mobile apps do not support Page browsing or Liking. Think about what time zone your invite recipients are in and send invites when they're likely to be home, such as in the weekday evenings, rather than out using their mobile device, such as weekend evenings. This way when they first see the notification they'll have the time and correct browser to check out your Page and Like it. If several of a user's friends Like a Page in a short period of time, they may see a "[friend name] and [x] other friends Like [your Page] story in the news feed. For instance, if within a few hours four of my friends Liked the Starbucks Page, I might see a news feed story that says "Eric Eldon and three more friends like Starbucks", with the name of the Page linked. These stories can expose a link to your Page to people you aren't friends with via a compelling implicit social recommendation, helping you earn additional Likes from your invites. The full version of this article, including a full walk-through of the tool and three more strategies for sending successful invites can be found in the Facebook Marketing Bible, Inside Network’s complete guide to marketing, advertising, and ecommerce on Facebook.

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How Facebook Pages Can Use "Invite Friends" to Gain Fans

Josh Constine

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