I talk about how I once ran a successful community-focused social media page that includes what I think I did right and wrong. I also talk about how and why it eventually came to an end.

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Post author By Charlie April 21, 2022
How I Once Ran a Successful Facebook Page – The
Rise and Fall
theweeklyrambler.com/how-i-once-ran-a-successful-facebook-page-the-rise-and-fall/
Featured Photo: Image by Coffee Bean from Pixabay
I once ran a successful Facebook Page to do with a game I used to play. It got over 3,000
likes/followers at its height and many players regarded it as a primary source for
information and news to do with that game. Many posts got at least a dozen or more
comments. Here is how I made it work…
Note: 3,000 likes/followers for a niche game, given its small player base, was not bad at
all. When compared to a larger game like Clash Royale an equivalent number of
likes/followers would have went into many 10s of thousands of more.
There are several reasons I can think of on how it managed to work. One is that games
are more engaging than a Facebook page that is to do with a business that sells boxes
for example. On a Facebook page like that the primary goal would be the reach and
views obtained and less about gaining comments as there is little need to build an active
community around selling boxes.

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My page worked as it tapped into the game’s core community which already primarily
used Facebook for communication, the community had a number of Facebook Groups for
the game. So, setting up a Facebook Page to do with the game rather than a Twitter feed
for example was a much better decision.
As a large part of the community regularly used Facebook as a social function alongside
the game, they would not have to waste time going to another external website which the
game’s community rarely used if at all. If I had set up the same social media content as a
Twitter Feed rather than a Facebook page, I very much doubt it would have been as
successful.
Another reason it worked is because the company that developed the game was known
to be a bit slimy and greedy and not the most transparent. Often any information they did
release was poorly presented and was not really centralised, even though they had their
own website and active forums they failed to capitalize on it correctly.
This left open an opportunity for me to provide what the company was failing to do – to be
an outlet to the community with information and news about that game in an easy to
access centralised area that was also actively used by the community.
I also chose not to suck up to the game company as well and sold my social media as
player run and player focused, which enabled it to gain the kind of trust and respect that
the company did not have from its player base. I made sure to be fair and critical when
needed and also transparent unlike the game company.
So not only was I making information and news easy to access, I was also tapping into
the long-running popular discontent with the game company in question and providing a
place where the players could give outlet to their frustrations, concerns and questions.
And they could do all this without the risk of being unfairly banned or ostracized by the
game company.
The game company itself handled its player bases’ questions very poorly and its player
support functions were widely known to be flawed, slow, and rarely transparent, as well
as manipulative. So, my page provided a player-backed alternative for support.
I made sure not to sell out to the game company. It is possible that if I had decided to be
more aligned with the views of the company in question then my social media might have
had the future ability of becoming a partner that may have even provided some kind of
monetary benefit for promoting the game. But I chose not to do this as I did not want to be
slimy and manipulative just for the chance of earning a bit of money.
I reckon if I had it would have destroyed the original grounds and meaning of the
Facebook Page in that it would no longer be by the player for the player, I would have
become just another bland corporate front for the company. Interaction would have
plummeted and a sense of community would vanish.

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My content also made sure to be engaging and did not go over the top in its criticism, it
had a good balance between challenging content and positively engaging content. I
provided helpful reviews for new things released to the game that involved comparisons
to older things and my general thoughts, once again consolidating all the information into
one place.
I also made sure to engage the community by asking questions, telling them when events
would begin and end, and asking them how they were doing with said events, and just
asking of their general thoughts on such things.
I eventually made a weekly timeline on what days certain posts would happen. Some
days would ask for ideas from the community, others would ask questions of the
community related to the game, and days for reviews and news.
All the above is what made it successful. But to get off the ground you do also need to
play a few tricks of your own. You can build something that would be successful but that
simply just never gets off the ground due to failing to get any awareness.
What I did initially in this is spread my Facebook Page within the aforementioned
Facebook Groups I was a part of, but I shared it as if I myself had just discovered it and
found it helpful, but did not disclose I was the person running it.
People will be more willing to look at things others in the community find helpful when it is
presented in a way that does not look like you are selling out or self-promoting. If it comes
across like an advertisement this will often be received negatively or worse many
communities and places will remove you for advertising as usually it is against some kind
of rule.
So, you may have little choice but to act in a disingenuous way and find loopholes around
such things in a bid to get yourself off the ground. Once you begin rolling and develop a
core base of followers it should then naturally grow from there as long as all of the above
is followed. At this point others will themselves spread your content and followers will
increase and they will also spread the content and so on and so forth.
The above is more easily done when the content is independent and not affiliated with a
company or organisation. A company or organisation seeking to get kicked off will
probably have some specific plan to follow made within the company and organisation
itself. This may include a fund to do with promoting content, as well as guidelines on
contacting people who run groups and community and finding out about how you can
promote content with permission.
Networking for success takes more time. But if you have the connections, the time and
ability, and the patience to do it, you will certainly be thanking yourself later as it will
provide many boosts and opportunities.
At the same time companies and organisations have been known to conduct covert
marketing on social media by using similar loopholes and plant accounts. This enables
them to spread awareness and gauge opinion without needing to get through initial

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paperwork, networking, and other red tape. AKA less time and less money.
Now the downward spiral begun when I eventually lost interest in the game and no longer
enjoyed running the Facebook Page. I had by that point lasted a few years and so it had
worked better and ran for longer than I could ever have originally imagined and it worked
because I was so passionate and entertained by doing it. I also obtained a lot of
gratification for it.
Without those key emotions and feelings, it simply would not have worked as I would
have felt like it was more of a chore rather than a fun hobby on something that I enjoy. So,
I attempted to change the Facebook Page on to a new game that I had come to enjoy
more.
But this did not work out and this is why: the game in question was already far more
covered by others, there were people for example on Youtube who regularly covered
news and added transformative content alongside it. The game was also far more popular
in general.
My Facebook Page therefore could not run on the same formula that my previous one
had, as the game company was also far more transparent, even beaming news and
information into the game itself, and so was far more centralised with their content and
news, and they fostered a better community by taking full advantage of their website and
other social media.
So, there was little popular discontent or poor management to capitalize on. And with the
abundance of other much more well-known and established personalities running
channels and pages for the game, it was a very saturated area, perhaps if I had got in
much earlier it may have worked but of course back then I was still interested more so in
my original focus of the page.
Therefore, there was little incentive for players to come over to me, and many players of
the game were far more active on places like Youtube, Reddit, and Discord rather than
Facebook. By this point Facebook had begun falling out in popularity with much of the
younger audience, and there were many younger people who played this game.
When looking at the previous game it was played more often by adults who were often
aged around 20s to 50s and more likely to be using Facebook. Meanwhile this new
game’s player base was far more often played by kids and those aged from 13-18. Such
younger ones less likely to be using Facebook if any social media at all.
And so, with the presence of a good company who knew how to engage and keep their
player base informed, great and well-known personalities who had already established
themselves as a core player and created engaging content on platforms more likely to be
used by the community, and the community in general being a different age range, I had
not adapted enough to compete.

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And as for the existing 3,000+ followers on the Facebook page they were naturally not
interested in a different genre of game that had a different age range. If anything, I should
have found a game more closely like the previous genre of game and moved on to that, it
would have been much more possible to then stop existing followers from becoming
inactive.
I hope this gave some ideas. I know it focuses on a game rather than an organisation but
I think there may be some certain things that can be picked out from it.
1. Use social media platforms that your audience are more likely to be using.
2. Create content that seeks to engage and is friendly and open to questions and
concerns.
3. Understand your targeted base so that you can tap into current affairs, content
and styles relevant to them.
4. Understanding your base enables you to craft content that is specifically more
targeted and as such engaging.
5. Use tactics to spread your content to areas (such as Facebook Groups) where
your target base exists. If needed try not to make it look too much like self-
promotion or advertising that solely benefits you, but that it is something widely
useful and community-focused.
6. Sometimes you need to use tricks and exploit loopholes, especially when just
beginning, to get your content recognised.
7. Companies and organisations should focus on networking with people on social
media who lead groups and communities that are relevant to the
company/organisation and agree on some kind of promotion through their
group/community.
8. At the same time companies and organisations have also been known to conduct
covert marketing by using similar loopholes and plant accounts on social media to
spread awareness and gauge opinion.
9. Take on board the advice and comments you obtain from your engaging content
so that you can more closely tailor future content to your base. Ignore and/or
remove or block anything that goes beyond respectful and constructive criticism
(abusive/offensive comments etc)
10. When making some kind of change be transparent about it and make sure it
aligns with your current base. If your idea more closely aligns with a different base,
then you need to make a new social media, possibly on another platform entirely,
targeting that new base.

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11. The person who manages and posts content on the social media platform needs
to be passionate about it and enjoy it. This guarantees their best effort and greatest
content. This can be anyone from a passionate employee to a voluntary attendee or
regular who feels strongly connected to what they do through said
organisation/company.
12. If the content is engaging and community-focused, rather than just acting as a
bland corporate front, activity and popularity should increase along with animated
interaction, respect and a friendly atmosphere. ‘For the player by the player’ = ‘for
the people by the people’.
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