Facebook offers fan page administrators the ability to invite people to their pages based on email addresses. This article explains how to have Facebook send invitations to your newsletter subscribers. Having your subscribers on your page increases your ability to communicate with them.
It’s pretty simple…
The page administrator uploads a file with the email addresses, then Facebook sends notifications to the Facebook users that match the email address. If there is no Facebook account for an email address in the list, Facebook sends an email instead.
Having Facebook send invitations to your list to get them to like your page might seem like a waste of time, but it’s not.
You see, chances are less than 30% of your subscribers open your newsletter. Sure you could send an invitation directly to your subscribers, but most of them would never see it.
By having Facebook send the notices, you increase the chances your readers will see the invitations.
Note: Facebook doesn’t seem to send these messages out for new fan pages. If you’ve just built your page, you need to let it age for a month before you follow these instructions. While your page is aging, you should link to your fan page in your regular newsletter.
Downloading Your Newsletter Subscriber List
I use Aweber for my newsletters, and it’s simple to just export your subscribers as a Comma Separated Variable (CSV) list. Any autoresponder service will allow you to download your contact list as a CSV. Just follow your autoresponder company’s instructions for exporting your subscriber lists.
Save the list to your computer so you can find it easily in the next step.
Uploading Your Email List To Facebook
Go to your Facebook page, click on “Edit Page,” then select “Resources.” On the resources tab, click on “Tell Your Fans” under “Connect with People.”
In the “Tell Your Fans” box, click the browse button near the top of the screen, and then select the CSV file. Facebook will open the file and read the email addresses.
You’ll see the email addresses in a list. Use the “Select All” checkbox to tell Facebook to send notices to all the email addresses the click on the “Preview Invitation” button.
You cannot change the invitations so just scroll to the bottom of the preview screen and check the “authorization notice,” then click on the send button.
Facebook will then send invitations to each email address. If the address matches a Facebook account, the invitation will be by notification on the Facebook platform, and if the user has email notifications enabled – this is the default so most will have them enabled – the user will also get an email.
If the email address does not match a Facebook user’s email, Facebook will send an invitation to join Facebook on behalf of you and your page.
I added an email address to my list when I had Facebook send invitations to my Fan Pages Guide Facebook Page so I could see what Facebook did to non-matched email addresses.
This is what the email looked like:
Subject: Check out Fan Pages Guide
Hi,
Fan Pages Guide is inviting you to join Facebook.
Once you join, you’ll be able to connect with the Fan Pages Guide Page, along with people you care about and other things that interest you.
Thanks,
Fan Pages Guide
You can repeat this process every month or two. Each time you’ll get new fans on your page.
