02 Dec How to Convert Email Contacts to Facebook Fans Using “Tell Your Fans”
Yesterday, Facebook released a new tool for Facebook pages called “Tell your Fans” that allows page administrators to import email contacts, determine which email contacts are not currently “Liking” their fan page, and message these contacts with an invitation.
This new tool is an attempt to provide a simple and targeted way to increase fan bases (a win win for both Facebook and page managers). In this post, I will review how brands can utilize this tool, and cover some of the pros and cons of this tool from my initial experience testing it.
Step 1: Locate “Tell Your Fans”
Under your page admin dashboard, locate “Marketing”, and then click on “Tell your fans”. This feature appears to have released to all fan pages, without regard to the number of fans.
Step 2: Upload a Contact File
For brands, the best way to import contacts is through the first option to “Upload a Contact File”. Click on the “How to create a contact file”, and then you will be offered specific instructions for your specific email service. Following these instructions will make the process painless, because the document will be correctly formatted for the tool. Once you have exported your contact list, simply upload it back into this tool.
Step 3: Select Contacts
Once you’ve imported, you’ll get a list of the contacts who are not currently fans of your page, including those who aren’t fans because they also aren’t on Facebook. You have the option of hand selecting, or selecting all that are recommended.
Step 4: Send Invitation
At this point, you will receive a preview of the invitation before sending to contacts. Those who are already on Facebook will be offered the page within “Recommended pages”. If they aren’t on Facebook, they will receive an email with an invitation from your brand inviting them to join Facebook, and then they can join the page after they have joined.
Pros
- Really, there is only one obvious “pro”. This is an easy and cheap way to grow your fan base.
Cons
- Contact Duplication: In real life, people have multiple email addresses. The email address you have in your database may not be the same email your contact used in registering for Facebook, so the tool could send a message to one of your most dedicated fans with the message that they should first join Facebook, and then join your page. This has the potential of ruining strong relationships with your current fan base, and is my major hang up with this utility.
- Timeliness/Reliability. I sent out invitations to those who I work with in the morning and hours later they still haven’t seen an email notification from Facebook. This either means the notification can easily get blocked by standard spam blockers, or the tool isn’t reliable (a consistent problem with most Facebook tools).
- Lack of Customization: In social media, a form filled message just seems impersonal. If this tool is to take off – it really needs to offer the page managers with the ability to tailor the message towards their fans.
What do you think of this new tool? Do you see it as an opportunity or a liability?
