Unless You’re a Rock Star Your Facebook Page Should Shouldn’t Have Your Name


We all get Facebook friend requests everyday (well…except for those 4 of you who are still not on Facebook) and we most likely look at and accept many of them.  We get invited to events and ignore most of them since they are being held 8,000 miles away (you CAN target who you send those to, you know…but that is another blog post all together).  We even tolerate those pleas from farmers everywhere to help them plant their corn or put mud on their pigs, but when I get a Fan Page request that just says “Become a FAN of Bob Smith” I ask WHY?

What will I gain by becoming a FAN of YOU?  Now don’t get me wrong- I manage 4 fan pages myself, and I believe every business and entrepreneur should have a fan page (now just referred to as a PAGE), but if I sent out a request to my friends, colleagues, and clients asking them to become a fan of GINA SCHRECK, I don’t even think my mother would become a fan (partly because I still haven’t mailed her birthday present).

If you are a celebrity, like Vin Diesel (who has 7.5 million fans on his page) or Michael Jackson (who has over 11 million fans on his page) or you have reached ROCK STAR status in your career like, Bill Gates….okay never mind that example, like Gary Vaynerchuk (who has over 39K fans), then you will have no problems getting folks to join your fan page, but until you reach that status, you might want to consider naming your PAGE something that tells me what I will get or benefit from becoming a fan.

It is a lot of work to market your fan page-people are just getting too many requests for connections, to click BECOME A FAN, unless you tell them WHY they should.  If your fan page is “Frazzeled Parents of Teens” you will get thousands of parents joining you.  If it is “Clean Houses without Lifting a Finger” and you provide tips on getting my daughter, the Schrecklet, to stop leaving her clothes in the middle of the floor, I am clicking that JOIN button so fast my fingernail will break.  Do you see the difference?

HEY BECOME A FAN OF ME

Give me an inkling of a clue as to what kind of information you will provide IN THE NAME OF YOUR PAGE, unless you are only after those who already know you.  It will just make it harder to virally grow your fan page audience.

So what do you do if you have already named your PAGE, Joe Cook?  Well, the bad news is once you name a PAGE you CANNOT change it.  I would suggest, unless you already have hundreds or thousands of fans there (which would indicate you are on your way to ROCK STAR status), create a NEW page.  Ask your fans to join you there and explain that you don’t want to confuse people with your personal profile and your page being the same name~or you could explain that you ate some really bad Chinese food the night before you created your first page and it caused delusional thoughts of touring with Barry Manilow and Rod Stewart.

Like always I love arguing…I mean having deep discussions with folks here, so share your thoughts and opinions, and if you have a fan page…go on PROMOTE IT HERE YOU ROCK STAR!  I’m going for some Chinese food!

Gina (no last name needed…it’s like Cher!)

Manager of

GETTIN’ GEEKY

My VSTA (Virtual Speaker’s & Trainer’s Association) BRAND NEW PAGE!

YOUR SUCCESS

MARRIAGE MECHANICS

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February 23, 2010 | Filed Under Facebook, Social Media 

Comments

2 Responses to “Unless You’re a Rock Star Your Facebook Page Should Shouldn’t Have Your Name”

  1. Donna Fisher
    on February 25th, 2010 12:14 pm

    Gina,
    Thanks for this post! I didn’t feel comfortable creating a fan page with my name although I noticed others doing that. I finally decided to creating the fan page using the name of my most popular book, Power Networking. I had already created fan pages for my other business, the Percussion Center and my charity event, The Texas BigBeat. After reading your blog, I realize that I could have been even more creative with the fan page names.

  2. Understanding the Four Faces of Facebook | Synapse3Di
    on May 2nd, 2010 8:48 am

    [...] One word of caution when naming your page: You may want to put your business name or other benefit-revealing name on your page instead of your personal name.  Your friends will know the value or type of information YOU will provide but if your goal is to grow your fan base beyond your friends, your page should give an idea of WHY I SHOULD allow your PAGE information to be added to my information stream.  (see post: Unless You’re a Rock Start, Your Facebook Page Shouldn’t Have Your Name) [...]

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