Should I have a Facebook Page or Persona?

Can’t decide? You heard about the Facebook “Fan pages” but you’re not sure it will provide you more value than having the Personal profile you’ve got right now? You’re not Coca Cola right? You are a politician – and you’re dealing with people so why would you need a Fan Page? Read this and you won’t have any worries making your decision any more:

6 reasons to choose a fan page if you are in politics:

Search & Visibility: SEO! (Search Engine Optimization – suuuper important). Fan pages are indexed in search engines, profiles not.
Volume: Unlimited Fans versus 5000 Friends.. Surely you have more than 5000 voters?
Recommend: A page can be recommended to be “Liked” by people – profile not.
Measure: You’ve got a whole spectrum of fun data to analyze! Metrics like visits, demographics or what they like or don’t like. Understand which time of the day is best to be active. Cuz there’s no sense in speaking when no one’s listening.
Promote: Pay for higher ranking of your posts when you have something special to announce. Or pay to have your page showing up on your fans friend’s page. The cost is a grain of sand in comparison to usual media budgets + you will actually be able to measure the success.
Honesty: Tell the truth – your voters are followers or fans. They are not your friends.

In conclusion, there is not a lot that the Fanpage CAN’T do that the Personal profile can. On the contrary you gain many advantages such as statistics – you can actually MEASURE your efforts or the possibility for people and other pages to tag you in posts – very important for visibility.

Wait a minute..

You’re still pondering about why you need Facebook at all? You feel you don’t have time? Then you need to stop right here and change your perspective. The reality is that people are using Social Media in everyday life. They have stopped watching TV, stopped reading the newspapers. All their society intake is from their friends on Facebook or following blogs or independent journalists on Twitter. This is happening now – and if you don’t realize that the next big thing after the e-mails is communicating via Social Media platforms – you will be lagging behind. Just look at a recent example in Italy. Beppe Grillo who rallied up voters only via social media. 1 million Fans on Facebook whereas 200.000 of them were ambassadors, willing volunteers campaigning for him. He refused to speak with the traditional media. Why should he? He can talk directly to the people. And so – why can’t you?

Facebook is about

Getting people engaged in something. In you. In your cause. What you stand for. What you fight for. What you do. You will not find a better medium than Social Media which offers you a direct channel of communication.
Visibility – people make choices out of trust. And they trust their friends. If you see that your friend likes a page – you are more willing to check out that page than if it was thrown in your face. And with the power of the networks your message has the potential of exponential reach.

They both go together though. More visibility increases your chances of people seeing you and wanting to engage with you. It’s about maximizing the potential of Facebook, not just using it as a “must have” – because it has become one of your most important communication channels. The rule in communication is always to go where the people are and to provide a value in your message. The people are on Facebook. On Twitter. Or on other social media platforms. Young people are becoming more politically active – online. From a recent report on UK behaviors there is a scaringly steep decline in party members – while an increase in party followers on Social Media. What does that tell you?

Throughout times we have had technological advancements in communication. The fax machine was even once a big debacle. And remember when the emails were introduced? It was the same skepticism, same arguments – I won’t have time, it will ruin the work moral etc. And now – would you be able to live your professional life without emailing?