As written for Social Media Today
Facebook Page vs. Website?
Within the social ether, web forums, and industry conference circuits there are lots conversations and articles assessing the effectiveness of Facebook brand pages in an overall marketing strategy. And questions like, “Should a company use a Facebook fan page instead of a website?” generate a variety of perspectives. You can find nearly two dozen related questions on the subject in a Quora search.
Guy Kawasaki even wrote about it nearly two years back, citing eight reasons why the Facebook page is so appealing. Inherent elements like curation, shareability, and near-instant gratification still hold true to the medium. There’s one certainty about making your brand’s Facebook page an effective marketing channel: use tools that maintain strong on-page engagement.
If you’re going to attract fans there, keep ’em there, and keep ’em entertained and busy.
Facebook Page Engagement
One relatively small company is helping brands do just that. With a remarkably affordable set of solutions and deceivingly expansive market reach, Woobox has become the leading provider of page apps on Facebook. WooBox’s static HTML app is the most popular of all page apps on Facebook, and the company’s sweepstakes app is the most popular giveaway app used, as well. Woobox boasts 40 million monthly active users of its apps, serving up over 150 million monthly visits.
I met with Woobox CEO, George DeCarlo, at MediaBistro’s All Facebook Conference in San Francisco. According to DeCarlo, companies, brands and agencies both large and small are using Woobox for their Facebook application needs. Woobox’s coupons, sweepstakes, photo contests, polls, and custom Facebook tabs are all proven, effective methods used by brands to “woo fans.”
DeCarlo attests, “We have the most viral features anywhere for the best price.” According to metrics, 60-80% of friends will participate in a Woobox sweepstake. With advanced features that allow for sharing incentives, bonus entires, and integration with Facebook’s Open Graph APIs, Woobox offers a portfolio of high functionality. And with prices starting at $29 a month (no, our editors didn’t remove a digit or two), this type of advanced social engagement is available to the masses.
Pinterest & Twitter for Facebook
This keeps fans engaged and on-page, right where you want ’em.