Do you have a Facebook fan page but are struggling with what to do with it to get more fans and get them commenting more?
It’s not as hard as you might think.
Here are 12 simple things you can do to spice up your fan page:
- Create an event.
Creating events on Facebook is simple and is a great way to promote your next big seminar, summer camp, promotional ceremony and more. Events allow you to invite your students and parents, know if they accept or not, and provides an easy way to keep everyone in the loop. Not only that, but they are easy to share! Follow these instructions to create your own event. - Share videos and photos.
People love watching videos and looking at photos. You can share your own or highlight other people’s (see ideas #9 and #10 below). An example of this is could be sharing a link to a video of a bully caught on tape and how your program helps keeps kids safe from bully’s. Share photos from your classes, seminars, tests, etc. Additionally, you can share photos from your archives over the course of your training. - Let them know what they missed.
I started posting “what did you miss in class last night? You missed…” type messages a couple of months ago and have had a lot of people come up to me or comment that they’re bummed they missed class after reading my Facebook update. This can be a powerful tool to not only keep your existing students motivated but also gives a glimpse of what potential students can expect from your lessons. - Share articles or blog posts.
Do you write a blog? Have you written an article you can share? Add a link to your article and help share your content! - Ask questions.
Do you know what engages people more than just about anything? Questions do. You can ask trivia questions, true or false questions, fill in the blank, use a poll (new feature on Facebook) or open ended questions to start. I’ve seen a ton more interaction since implementing the use of questions on regular basis. Definitely something to try if you haven’t yet. - Share famous or motivational quotes.
Do a search for “Martial Arts Quotes” and you’ll find a ton you can share. I would only share one once a week. - Share trivia.
Post interesting factoids about your style, instructor, martial arts school, etc. - Ask for reviews.
Every business can benefit from reviews. And, it’s easy for you to add “reviews” to your Fan Page. You can also link them over to your Google Maps, Bing, Yahoo, Yelp, etc. page and ask them to review your martial arts school. Or, if you have a reviews form on your website, you could direct them there. - Ask for photos.
Ask your students and parents to upload their favorite photos. These can be from tournaments, belt tests, class, doing the splits, their highest kick, fund raisers, demos, etc. - Ask for videos.
Facebook allows you the ability to upload a video directly to their site or you can share a link from YouTube.com, Vimeo.com, etc. Just be sure to prompt people how to do it to make it simple. - Post your coupons or deals.
If you already provide coupons or have a special promotion, why not link people over to where they can find them? If you don’t have any yet, you can create your own in a post on Facebook and ask your fans to share them. - Promote a contest.
Once you have a decent following, run a contest to help bolster interactivity. Or, use a contest to help build your fan base. Either way, promoting a scavenger hunt, photo contest, video contest. Note there are specific rules you must follow when running a contest on Facebook, but it is still easy to promote a contest.
If you don’t already have one for your martial arts school, learn how to set up a Facebook fan page here.
As for posting frequency, I usually post about one time a day on my Salt Lake City Utah Martial Arts Schools Facebook fan page. Sometimes twice a day, but not very often. You can overdo it so be careful not to overload your audience. It could potentially turn them off.
What other ideas would you add to this list to help martial arts school owners have a more interactive Facebook Fan Page?
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i think the most important one is to ask questions. this get’s people engaged in your page. the most successful topics i see on facebook start with someone posting a link to a video or article and asking a question about how it applies to others. if i see just a link get posted, it might get 4 – 6 responses. questions can get 40 or more.
This is a very good and informative article. Thank you for posting it. Keep up the good work.
Hi Ryan,
Thanks for writing such nice post. I am also running a Karate school. But I don’t have a website at present. So can I still create a Facebook Fan Page for my Karate school?