Facebook admins of any new or smaller Pages now have additional tools to invite their customers and web contacts to connect with their Facebook Pages.
They can now import their email contacts and send them an invitation to Like their Page through a new tool called Tell your Fans.
The aim of this new feature it to help businesses convert their email database they have built for years into a Facebook audience.
To access the email importer, visit the “Tell your Fans” section on the Marketing tab of your Page Manager.
Admins are given two options: Upload a Contact file, or Find Your Web Email Contacts.
1. Upload a Contact file
Uploading a contact file lets Page admins upload a file containing email contacts that Facebook will securely import. Any Outlook, Windows Mail, .csv, or other contacts file are accepted (maximum of 5,000 contacts supported).
That means you can also upload your email contacts saved on SendBlaster!
SendBlaster allows you to export contacts from a distribution list to a .csv format file in a easy way. Just follow these simple steps:
- Click on the “Export button” placed inside the “List and addresses” left box,
- Choose what type of addresses you want to export (for example only subscribed addresses)
- Choose a name for the exporting file
- Specify the field delimiter and whether first row contains field names
- Select the fields to be exported
- Click on the Next button, exporting process will start
After process is completed you will be able to upload your email contacts file to Facebook!
Once they have been uploaded or imported, admins see a list of names and email addresses who “are not yet associated with [Page name].” All contacts default to selected, but admins can uncheck boxes to exempt certain contacts from receiving an invitation. The language in which the invitations are sent can be changed. To ensure admins know what they’re sending, they must view a preview of the invitation before being allowed to send the invitations.
Those who have a Facebook account associated with one of the selected email addresses will see a Recommended Page sidebar module. This is much less direct and prominent than the Page Suggestions users get from friends which appear on their Requests Page and the Requests panel of the home page’s right sidebar.
Those without a Facebook account connected to a selected email address receive an email stating “Check out [Page name]. [Page name] is inviting you to join Facebook.” When the included link is clicked, users are prompted to “Sign up to connect with [Page name] on Facebook.” When they complete the sign up process, they’re brought directly to the Page.
2. Find Your Web Email Contacts
Facebook Page admins can also suggest their Pages to their email web contacts.
Find Your Web Email Contacts prompts users to enter the email address and password for their account on one of many supported email services including Hotmail, Yahoo, and apparently Google.
More details on InsideFacebook