Nowadays, it’s deemed a must for brands, restaurants, companies, website owners and even bloggers to have their own Facebook page. It doesn’t just allow them to promote their products, services, posts or contents in a more effective and faster way (since almost everyone now is on Facebook), but also it lets you communicate with your audience better and more personally.

Why Monitor the number of your Facebook Fans/Followers?

Exactly why would anyone want to monitor their Facebook page’s followers, fans or “likers”? There can be many reasons behind this, including the following which are my reasons why I’ve been observing our Facebook followers and their activities:

• Monitoring your success towards your goals. Are you able to reach your target audience? Are you keeping your followers interested?
• Hosting giveaways or promos where winners must also be among your Facebook followers.
• You can even use the report you’d generate to better understand your followers.

Tips on Monitoring Facebook Fans / Followers

This is pretty easy. I strongly suggest that if you just started a Facebook page, then, start a list of your followers right away. Make it a habit to update it daily so you won’t be way behind once the numbers spike, especially when you’re generating very high and stable increase in followers.

How to Get a List of Your Facebook Fans / Followers?

Very simple. Here’s the link (right-click or click on the link to open and just copy the URL):

http://www.facebook.com/browse/page_fans/?page_id=YourPageIDNumber&notif_t=page_new_likes

I underlined and emphasized on the part that you MUST edit. You have to replace that with your Facebook Fan page’s page ID number.

If you already have a username set up for your page (you can do so when you have over 25 fans / followers already), then, it’ll be a li’l tricky.

How to get your Facebook Page’s ID Number?

1. If you already have a username for your Facebook page, then, here’s how to get the page ID number:

On your page, click on the Edit Page button on the upper right side:

Once you’re on the Edit Settings page, the URL / address will show your page’s ID number, as highlighted on the image below:

(more…)

I was checking and updating my WordPress blogs earlier when I saw this message that ShoutMix free chat box is “currently” unavailable.

I clicked on the link and I was directed to this page where Snecx Tan, the owner and creator of the chat box service ShoutMix, shared, through an open letter, that they can no longer continue the free service because it is no longer sustainable.

They said they’ve tried everything and wouldn’t want to impose popup ads like their competitors (they could only mean CBox, right? ). This was actually the main reason why I switched from cBox to ShoutMix – no annoying popup ads.

Most of the bloggers I know have a chat box on their sidebars where they get to quickly respond to their blogs’ visitors. I find it a convenient way for those who are not familiar with the commenting system to send me messages (though I would prefer they use the contact page since there’s a form they can use and my email address is also posted there).

Now, upon searching for an alternative for ShoutMix, the closest I got was cBox. I’m not willing to shell out $0.99 per month for a chat box I don’t really use as often as my email. But, if you’re one of those who use it a lot, then I recommend you upgrade.

Alternative Chat Box Plugin for WordPress Users

For WordPress users like me, there’s actually a cool plugin you can setup on your sidebar and it’ll be your very own chatbox. It uses your commenting system, but it will be setup as a sidebar widget. It’s WP Wall.

I used it on a client’s site. I liked the fact that I can completely change how it looks. I implemented it as a message wall and it’s now displayed on the main contents part of one of the pages on their site instead of the sidebar. Here’s how it looks like:

Oh, how I love WordPress!

You can fully customize CSS file wp-wall.css to your liking. Plus, it’s updated real-time, meaning you don’t have to refresh the page to see the new messages. You can see IP address of the poster, the time they posted the comment on your dashboard so you can easily moderate them too. Cool, eh? These options were for premium or pro plans on ShoutMix so it’s great that they’re available for free from WP Wall.

I’ll be setting this up on my other blogs (Update: I just implemented this at the footer section of this blog). I wish I can find something like this on my Blogger blog.

Found any alternative for ShoutMix you’d like to share with me? Feel free to leave the links in the comments section.

ShoutMix should remove the misleading message that the free plan is “currently unavailable” since they’re no longer offering it for free. It should read “free plan is no longer offered”.