EVERYBODY wants to have a huge fan base. You know, the people who say they love and adore you, who want to be like you and most importantly people who will buy whatever it is you are hawking. Nowadays, there are no limits to which a promoter will go to draw attention to himself so as to attract fans. No limits I tell you.

Both international and home-grown entertainers and celebrities have cornered this market. To establish their notoriety and win over the Gen-Y youthful fan following which loves the “in-your-face daring”, boldness and over-the-top-naughtiness, the internet-rotated, x-rated video with them as the porn star, is now par for the course. They film it, You-tube-it, create a link, put it on Facebook, Twitter and every other social-networking website, and viola, instant international stardom. Some have claimed indignantly that their ‘performances’ were ‘leaked’ (wink-wink, nudge, nudge) by jilted lovers looking for a quick pay-day or revenge. But we, the jaded bunch, now know better. It sets everybody talking. With their names on everyone’s lips, for them, is there such a thing as

bad publicity?

And now, not to be outdone, some businesses are getting into the act of building and increasing their fan base. Perhaps not as raunchily as celebrities with exhibitionist tendencies, but they are putting themselves out there with the rest. They are creating massive gatherings of the people who say they love them, bunching them together on Facebook and using them to push the love of their products on others.

There are more than 400 million people on Facebook and worldwide, more than three million businesses, brands and celebrities have created Facebook pages. The truth is that with such a large audience, it has become one of the best places to put-up a storefront. Facebook seems to be morphing from a cool hang-out place where you meet to network and socialise into a huge mall. Yes, you and your crew can still ‘chill-ax’ but at every other corner there will be a brand calling out to you to become a fan. This is inevitable and smart marketers know that it is the most perfectly segmented market place you could ever want. You do not have to do much research to find out about your audience’s interest. It will be out there on their wall: to the world.

The innovator that it is, Digicel has taken the plunge with FaceBook and reaped fan-page success with 100,000 fans. According to a March 18, report in the Jamaica Observer Digicel’s head of marketing Donovan White said: “As an innovative and dynamic brand, we are always looking for new ways to delight our growing customer base and to ensure that we continue to deliver the best value, best service and best network to our two million-strong family in Jamaica.”

“Social-networking media is playing a huge part in connecting companies around the globe directly to their customers. So far, we have received phenomenal support from our fans in giving feedback on different products and services that we introduce and how we introduce them. We would like to thank all of our customers and all of our Facebook fans for their continued support and promise to keep delivering lots of fun, excitement and giveaways on our Digicel Jamaica Facebook page,” he added.

You say you want to build your fan-base and that you want a fan page. But before you think about creating a fan page for your business you might want to ask yourself a few questions says, Business Communications guru, Shel Holtz. Ask yourself, ‘who do you want to become a fan of your page?’

You and I well know that not everyone who says they are a fan, really loves you. And need I remind you of the occasional whack job, the fan gone wild changing into the crazed celebrity stalker creating a whole new set of international laws for himself and the rest of us. You should only open the can of worms that a fan page will bring unless you are thick-skinned and ready for the glare of the public spotlight. People will have uncomplimentary things to say in this open forum because they can hide behind the seeming anonymity of a nom-de plume such as ‘Ja’can Browning’, and they may create a groundswell especially if you have not been doing your homework but are just into the business of pretty-pretty window dressing.

Clarify to whom you are trying to appeal. Says, Holtz, “Based on the goals you’re trying to achieve more sales to a particular group, a home for raving fans of your product, a place for customers to stay in touch with the company and learn about training opportunities and other events, or a place to address corporate social responsibility issues (for example) you’ll craft the kind of content the audience will want crossing their news feeds.”

What will they want from your fan page: “If your company produces or sells consumer products, Facebook members want to be kept updated about promotions and offers… If you represent a local community hospital, on the other hand, it’s likely that people do want to establish a direct connection. Be sure you’re targeting the content of your page to the people you want to reach and who are likely to spend time on Facebook, Holtz advises.”

Getting the fans might be easy but keeping them takes hard work. Ask some of our local Lotharios who claim to have many ladies. You have to constantly engage them with new information; or some other new lover with not much to offer will easily win them over. Don’t create a fan page and leave it empty or without creating content that will keep your fans coming back for more. Build if it suits you but keep it fresh.

Yvonne Grinam-Nicholson, (MBA, ABC) is a Business Communications Consultant with ROCommunications Jamaica, specialising in business communications and financial publications. She can be contacted at: yvonne@rocommunications.com. Visit her website at www.rocommunications.com and post your comments.