
Tips for Running a Successful Facebook Fan Page
We are living in an era where having a Facebook Fan Page is a normal and mandatory step in successful business development. World’s leading teams and athletes are relying on opportunities offered by social networks and in Facebook they see a simple and effective way to promote themselves.
A properly managed page can engage more fans and it can simplify athlete’s/club’s communication with them, but to make everything right, it requires constant work and a dose of creativity.
In this article, we’ll give you some tips that can help get on the right track from the beginning…
million and counting - number of fans of the most popular sports team on Facebook (FC Barcelona)
Set your goals
Creating a proper strategy is one of the first steps you’ll have to do if you intend to run a serious page. With clear goals, you’ll be able to evaluate your progress and learn from the results you get. Making some future adjustment will be easier if we know where are we heading to.
The design
Visual presence is important! You can do your best, but if your page isn’t visually attractive it will immediately repel some of the potential fans, as well as potential sponsors. Make sure to set a recognizable profile and cover picture. Fill out your profile completely – create interesting, but simple description in “About” section and then you can focus more on content you’ll be sharing.
million and counting - number of fans of the most popular athlete on Facebook (Cristiano Ronaldo)
Create your own content
Probably the most challenging part of running a successful fan page. Post about the most important news and create interesting posts that will attract attention. Give your fans information they need to know about you / your team. Offer exclusive content. Focus on shareable content. Photos and videos have proven to be perfect engaging types of content. Ask for opinion and try to create content that will involve your fans (polls, contests, games…). Make sure you post at the right time and think about the frequency of your posts. Avoid unnecessary posts – it’s good to stay active, but do not overdo it. Pin important posts to the top of your page. Keep up with trends to get more attention and bigger fan involvement. Share fans’ content.
Communicate with your fans
Don’t ignore your fans. Respond to their messages, read their comments and reply when you feel that your action is required. Show your human side and be part of a discussion (encourage more comments by doing that).
Share content from other pages
By sharing some content from other pages you’ll save some time and make your job easier, but what’s more important, you’ll make others recognize you just like you recognized them and maybe they’ll return the favor one day. Tag other pages for greater impact. Especially, make sure to share content about you and your team. To show diversity, sometimes it is good to share content that isn’t connected with your field of work, but is interesting enough to get positive feedback.
Promote your page
Use your official website and other social networks to promote your Facebook page, and do the same for other official social media channels.
Measure the success and learn about your fans
Keep tracking your stats and use Facebook Insights to learn more about your fans. Any and all additional information about people who are visiting your page can help you create content that’ll get more engagement.
What’s the point of posting content if you aren’t able to get any Likes or comments? Think about how you can get users engaged before you churn out content.
Mari SmithConclusion
It doesn’t matter if you are a small or a big player, follow these steps and your Facebook fan page will look professional. Keep in mind that content is the most important part of this story. Unique, relevant, interesting and perfectly timed posts will make your page worthy of another visit. The more you involve fans, the more you’ll know about them and that can be used to improve your page and set higher goals. And last but definitelly not least – follow trends, but don’t be afraid to try new things (or set new trends) yourself. The worst thing that can happen is failure, and if it does, change strategy and keep moving forward.

Nikola Popović
Overtime Sports Marketing
If you have any questions about sports marketing, feel free to contact me at ni.popovic@outlook.