I had no idea what to expect. But it appears that a large part of our audience (home users) are on Facebook.
Now, 10 months later, the Collectorz.com page on Facebook has almost 12,000 fans and it has proven to be a great new way to communicate with our customers.

Here’s a quick post on the why and how of Facebook fan pages for software.

Why create a Facebook fan page

For us, the most important benefit of having a Collectorz.com page on Facebook, is being able to reach 12,000 of our customers a few times each day.
Sending email newsletters to your existing customers is powerful, but you are limited to once or maybe twice a month, for risk of being reported as a spammer.
While on Facebook, nobody has a problem with seeing a short message from us a couple of times each day (as long as the messages are interesting/useful/funny).

Some examples of what we post about:

• Small updates on what everyone at the office is working on.
• Announcements of new releases (including small maintenance builds).
• New testimonials.
• Reminders for sales we are running.
• Tips for using our software.
• Special offers for fans.
• etc… etc…

Want more ideas for Facebook updates?
Just “Like” my Collectorz.com page and watch my daily posts

Doing this helps to keep our company “top of mind” and our customers involved. They comment on our posts and create new wall posts themselves. We always try to respond as soon as possible and our users like seeing that there are actual human beings behind this company, directly interacting with them.
The result: they buy more stuff and are more likely to tell their friends about us.

How to attract fans for your Facebook page?

Of course, the more fans your page has, the bigger the effect (and the more effective your time spent on Facebook is). Here’s some things we do to attract fans:

• Facebook fan boxes on our home page and all product pages, like on our Movie Collector page (on the right, scroll down a bit).
• Regular invites to existing customers to join us on Facebook (in newsletters).
• A link to our Facebook page in the signature of all our emails.
• A dedicated email about our Facebook page on Day 2 of my auto-responder sequence for trial users and Day 7 of my new customer auto-responder:
  

  Howdy,

  Alwin again, of Collectorz.com. I will keep it short and sweet.
  I was just wondering, are you on Facebook ?

  You see, I am posting regular updates on our Collectorz.com Facebook page. The latest news on what we’re working on, hints and tips for our software, special discount offers, and other fun stuff.

  So if you’re on Facebook: Connect with Collectorz.com by going here:

  http://www.facebook.com/Collectorz

  then just click the “Like” button at the top.

Now go create your own Facebook page.
Let me know about it in the comments and I’ll “like” it

(I did find the “MicroISV” group, but the last post there was in Oct 2008)

So I figured, why not start a “Software Marketing” group myself?

My idea is to have an easily accessible place to find (and post!) tips and useful links about marketing your software. And to discuss marketing ideas and problems with other developers and people from the industry.

Topics: Adwords, SEO, trial versions, Website Design, A/B testing, email marketing, shopping carts, social media, sales tracking, press releases, etc…

Are you on Facebook? Then just go here and click Join at the top to become a member:

Software Marketing group on Facebook

It would be great if you could also invite any ISV friends that you may have in your Facebook friends list.

Let’s help each other sell more software.