1) A fan page is recognized by Google as a legitimate website that links back to your website. This means that anyone could come across your fan page in a search engine query and any subsequent traffic will ultimately increase ranking of both your homepage and your Facebook fan page.

2) It costs nothing to create a fan page and you can create as many as you wish. For example, a fashion retailer could create a fan page for each of the designer labels it stocks, or for it’s Spring/Summer collection and Autumn/Winter collection. Google recognizes them all.

3) A standard Facebook profile allows a maximum of 5000 friends, but a fan page has no limit and therefore allows a business to reach as wide an audience as possible. This audience is only limited by your ability to attract new fans, and the larger the fan base, the greater the opportunity for online lead generation.

4) With this massive potential audience, you have the opportunity to spread viral media quickly and effectively. If you post something that catches the attention of your fans, they may post that on their own profiles, to their own friends, therefore reaching a whole new audience, who in turn could become fans.

5) You can contact all your fans in an instant. Any message, like notice of a new product launch or advertising campaign, can be posted on the fan page and instantly seen by all your fans at once, in the same way, but perhaps more efficiently, than an email marketing campaign.

6) Because you are directly available and contactable by your audience, you can gain instant feedback about anything you choose and make valuable market research, for example a food manufacturer could canvas opinion about what new flavour of sauce they should launch or a compensation company could canvas it’s fans about recent accidents and generate personal injury leads.

The disadvantages of fan pages are few, but should not be overlooked:

1) Fans can post negative comments about your company, which can be seen by all the other fans and could be potentially damaging. It is important to address negative comments or complaints as quickly as possible.

2) Content must be regularly updated in order to keep your fans’ interest. This is an ongoing job, which requires time and investment.

3) Once you name your fan page it cannot be changed, so it’s important to choose something that sets the right tone and image for the company.

4) Setting up a fan page alone is not going to draw a million fans. The fan page must be promoted properly, for example the URL added to company stationary or emails sent to customers announcing it’s launch.

Given that fan pages are free to set up and very simple to maintain, there is no reason not to use them and the potential benefits are huge. Any digital advertising agency should manage it’s client’s social media presence as a vital part of it’s online advertising campaign.