Do You Think Adding 900 Fans in Two Days is Impossible?

by Jonathan Rivera on February 16, 2010

Sometimes mistakes turn out to be the best discoveries.

Last week I was working frantically to finish the first draft of a new product. I had only two days to whip out the recordings, videos, mindmaps, and transcripts before my wife and I were leaving for our first ever snowboarding trip.

The morning of our flight I remembered what I forgot to do…

I hadn’t asked my VA to moderate my Facebook page while I was away. “Holy CRAP!” I thought, then how’s everyone gonna get their referrals???

As I boarded the plane I quickly forgot about it and enjoyed my five hour internet free flight to Salt Lake City, Utah. When we landed we hurried off to get our equipment and hit the slopes.

***Did you know that Park City Chamber offers you a free lift pass on the day you fly in? You just take your boarding pass to the Park City ticket office and they give you a lift ticket***

Needless to say I forgot about my page and all my “responsibilities” as we began to enjoy our adventure swooshing down the powdery white slopes. The next morning I woke up and posted the regular morning referrals. Shortly after I realized that I had to get my page taken care of or I wouldn’t be able to enjoy my trip. I quickly emailed my VA with instructions for moderation while I was away. That was February 5th.

Normally I post the referrals around 4 or 5 am EST. I didn’t expect my VA to do that, so I just asked him to post them daily at any time. He started posting the referrals on Feb 6th. Watching the video below you’ll see that we added 910 new fans between Sunday February 7th and Monday February 9th.

Can you guess what led to this growth? Here’s what some of the top minds (in my sphere) thought:

(In order of their replies)

Peter Liu: Kaiscapes Internet Consulting

Drew Burks: Web Real Estate Tools

Tim Moore: @TimMoore

Scott Bradley: @ScottBradley

This is how we did it…

By changing the times we were posting the referral alerts, new people saw them. They either commented or joined the group and then the viral newsfeed effect took over (as mentioned by our pros above.) This shows that something as simple as posting time can have a dramatic effect on how you connect with your network.

Want to learn more about Facebook Pages?

I’ll be writing more about how to use Facebook pages in your online marketing efforts.  Anyone can tell you how to put together a Facebook page, but how many of them can tell you what works…from experience? Make sure you  subscribe to my feed so you don’t miss a thing.

Got a happy mistake? Why not share it in the comments section below?

{ 16 comments }

1 peterliu47 February 16, 2010 at 4:54 pm

I love it! Thanks for sharing! I've had similar things happen by moving posting times, but nothing as dramatic.

2 Warren Owen-Realtor February 16, 2010 at 5:57 pm

What a great insight. I usually post updates to my blog ( http://TheWarrenReport.info ) late morning or early afternoon, followed by posting it to Twitter and FaceBook friends. I then add the link to my Business (Fan) page ( http://tinyurl.com/KarenandWarrenOwen-FBFanPage ) and I'm done. Hopefully I can reach a totally new mix of viewers by varying posting times to each of these venues. So utterly simple! Thanks for sharing.

3 chuckmurphy February 16, 2010 at 6:16 pm

This is AWESOME! So, it really is possible to touch that many lives in such a short time.

There's hope for all of us!

Illinois home mortgage rates

4 Jonathan Rivera February 16, 2010 at 6:38 pm

Do You Think Adding 900 Fans in Two Days is Impossible? http://ow.ly/16AJLs

5 edase February 16, 2010 at 6:58 pm

definitely it's the Real Estate factor.
Agents are desperate for income now, lots of investors are looking into ways to invest out of state (well, it depends where is the best value for the dollar invested). Referrals is a good way to share the pie of the RE commission. No-one is willing to lose a customer even if the return is just a couple hundred bucks.
Well, and behind of all, there was probably some good targeting done from the Fan Page admin part. Now all the growths is like an geometric progression. Good Luck and thanks for the tool!

6 Jason B. Nelson February 16, 2010 at 8:15 pm

RT @Real_TechGuy: Do You Think Adding 900 Fans in Two Days is Impossible? http://bit.ly/bmCJGe

7 Real-TechGuy.com February 16, 2010 at 10:56 pm

RE: Hey Peter, thanks for the write up at Kaiescapes, it's much appreciated sir. It's funny how what may seem as an i… http://disq.us/c469l

8 Jonathan R. Rivera February 16, 2010 at 10:58 pm

Isn't is amazing how such a small change can make such a huge difference? That wave led into the SMM Camp wave and now the Page is really buzzing. I love to see all the little parts working in sync.

BTW- Thanks for the write up at Kaiscapes.

9 Real-TechGuy.com February 16, 2010 at 10:58 pm

RE: Isn't is amazing how such a small change can make such a huge difference? That wave led into the SMM Camp wave an… http://disq.us/c46dv

10 Jonathan R. Rivera February 16, 2010 at 11:00 pm

Put it to use Warren, and when you've tested it come on back and share the results.

11 Real-TechGuy.com February 16, 2010 at 11:00 pm

RE: @warrenowen Put it to use Warren, and when you've tested it come on back and share the results. http://disq.us/c46j0

12 Jonathan R. Rivera February 16, 2010 at 11:04 pm

This is a great demonstration of the power of viral marketing =)

13 Real-TechGuy.com February 16, 2010 at 11:04 pm

RE: This is a great demonstration of the power of viral marketing =) http://disq.us/c46ur

14 Jonathan R. Rivera February 16, 2010 at 11:05 pm

You're right, the Facebook Page was highly targeted from the start. Now that it has so many members, you can read results more easily. Go an put this new tool to use ;)

15 Real-TechGuy.com February 16, 2010 at 11:05 pm

RE: You're right, the Facebook Page was highly targeted from the start. Now that it has so many members, you can read… http://disq.us/c46zb

16 Joy Lulis February 17, 2010 at 3:53 pm

Want to increase fans on your FB Page? Do You Think Adding 900 Fans in Two Days is Impossible | Facebook Pages Case Study http://ow.ly/18hS3

Comments on this entry are closed.

{ 1 trackback }

blog comments powered by Disqus

Previous post:

Next post: