OK, we get the fact that the internet has changed the way people get their news. Now we are all developing our online strategies including Facebook pages to sign up our fans. There are a lot of you doing a very good job at attracting fans. Trust me, five or six thousand for a television station isn’t that unusual.

But now what? What do you do after you have invited all of these people to come into your online tent. If you think you can just throw news headlines and a couple videos at them during the day, with details at six and call it being social, well – you are wrong.

The latest Pew Research digs deep into internet users attitudes and found that 37% of them are using social media to participate in the news of the day.

The report states, “the advent of social media like social networking sites and blogs has helped the news become a social experience in fresh ways for consumers. People use their social networks and social networking technology to filter, assess, and react to news.”

Point being, if you use the broadcasting model to talk to these people, its not going to work. So how do you engage with your fans? Polls, discussions, coupons, quizzes, virtual gifts? None of the above?

There are new online services that you might want to check into that may help you recruit, engage and socially interact.

FanAppz, launched a professional version of its online software this week. The company says its new software Fan Appz Professional “gives any Facebook Fan Page admin the ability to create and distribute brand-specific polls, quizzes and promotions that fans can enjoy and share with their friends to extend brand awareness and drive traffic.”

I talked with Jon Siegal, CEO and founder of FanAppz and he sees what I see in companies using Facebook trying to go social. “We see this day in and day out, lots of thier posts are passive communications, so potential fans just look at it and do nothing with it. Social gives you the opportunity for engagement and conversation. It’s a higher form of communication, you create a more viral audience.”

“Most businesses and brands have only scratched the surface of how they communicate with their fans ” there is a huge potential for people to harness the collective passion of their followers,” says Siegal.. “Fan Appz gives customers an accessible and affordable way to spark user engagement and extend viral sharing and social competition, while delivering a compelling way for brands to solidify and monetize their relationships with fans.”

There is a free version if you want to check it out. The professional version will cost you $50 a month, but this week you can kick the tires for 7 days free of charge.

And if you are still fence about Facebook, it is projected they will make about $1.1 billion in 2010. The US population is estimated at 113 million users, up 5 million in just the last 30 days.

Companies like Zynga, an online social game company, is reported to make $100 million this year selling things like virtual FarmVille seeds and Texas Hold ‘Em chips.

48 million Facebook users are sending virtual birthday cards and gifts, buying them with real cash! A dollar goes a long way in the virtual world.

I would call Facebook a platform that needs your attention.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 7th, 2010 at 8:32 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.