FanBridge – Grow Your Fan Base

Viral sensations rarely happen by chance anymore. With virtually every major brand relying on social media to increase its online visibility, competition to boost the number of fans and followers on popular platforms like Facebook and Twitter has become fierce. FanBridge is a tool that all types of individuals and companies — ranging from bands and actors, to small businesses and large corporations — can use to manage the relationships they’ve cultivated with fans online.

The way you use FanBridge will depend largely on the goals of your online marketing campaigns. Select a plan based on how many followers you currently have and the FanBridge features you plan to use. FanBridge’s tools are divided into four main categories: grow, engage, monetize, and manage. Use FanBridge’s signup forms and fan incentives to encourage people to “like” your company on Facebook, and use the platform’s engagement tools to manage multiple accounts, schedule recurring posts, and send pre-made messages to people who’ve recently started following your social media accounts. FanBridge even offers tools to create multi-channel sales engines, meant to encourage online followers to purchase your company’s products online.

FanBridge uses opt-in emails and analytics tools to help its users learn more about their followers, and automatically curates a “social digest” with links to a company’s most trafficked posts (to be sent to subscribers each week). Individuals and businesses can get more out of the social media marketing tools they’re already using when they connect their accounts to FanBridge’s fan management platform.

Practical Uses:

• Encourage people who visit your website to follow you on Facebook
• Send a weekly email digest to your subscribers
• Find out more about your Facebook fans
• Encourage followers to interact with the content you post

Insider Tips:

• Track key social media metrics using FanBridge’s SocialStats dashboard
• Individual users can manage multiple accounts within the FanBridge platform
• Users can export fan lists to their hard drives for safekeeping
• Companies can sign up to receive alerts each time a fan posts a question online

What we liked:

• FanBridge gives companies a way to measure their fans’ engagement
• Brands can monitor and moderate their social media pages through FanBridge
• FanBridge helps entertainers turn social media followers into email subscribers
• Companies can actually see the monetary value of each online follower

What we didn’t like:

• FanBridge’s tools may be too sophisticated for small business owners who aren’t comfortable with digital technology

Alternatives:

• Bandcamp – http://bandcamp.com
• ReverbNation – http://www.reverbnation.com
• Topspin – http://www.topspinmedia.com

Company Info:

• Launched: 2006
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: San Francisco, California, and New York, New York
• Founded by: Noah Dinkin and Spencer Richardson
• Web site: http://www.fanbridge.com

Costs:

• Free trial
• Silver plan is $19.99/month
• Gold plan is $49.99/month
• Platinum plan is $129.99/month