Last week, I tried giving my “Ask Without Fear!” Facebook page fans a special offer. Since they were already fans, I simply “updated fans” with the content of the special offer.

That didn’t work.

I’m so glad I tweeted and updated my Facebook status. People replied to the tweet and status updates saying they didn’t get the message.

Today I found out why. Look at this picture:

Facebook separates fan page updates

It turns out, Facebook separates fan page updates from other messages. I had 453 unread updates! Including the one I’d sent from my page! I’d been getting messages from friends so I had no idea I was missing updates from pages.

Here’s What I’ve Learned

1. If you have a Facebook page for your charity, use the “update fans” from time to time. Having a fan page is a great benefit to your organization. Updates have the potential of going into their newsfeeds. But mixing it up by sending an occasional update is a great way to try to get interaction with your fans.
2. Use multiple methods to tell fans to check their updates. Use Twitter. Use your own Facebook status. Even use your email list. Let them know to check their messages. (Obviously, a side benefit of this is getting other people to possibly like your page!)

   You’ll have to let them know they’ll need to go to their messages and then look in their “updates” off on the left. As you can see above, Facebook segregates the fan page updates. As a user, I think I’m glad for that. I would’ve probably been annoyed by those 453 updates. But it’s a real hassle for page owners! So take the extra step to help your fans find your update.

Honestly, while still a hassle, I think all this additional work will force fan page owners to actually make their updates newsworthy and helpful for their fans.