Social Media: A Case Study on FanHistory.com

In late May 2009, I applied to become a social media intern for FanHistory.com (the company is FanHistory LLC.) Fanhistory as I mentioned in another blog is a wiki site for fans. Already this site had over 750,000 articles in a variety of fandoms when I took the position. When I first joined, the site was barely pushing 2,000 visitors a day and now only a few months later, it is pushing 3,000 visitors a day. The owner had already made several social identities dedicated to bringing the site’s content to as many people as possible.

Some of their social identities include:
– Group page and a Fan Page on Facebook
– Account at Identi.ca
– Account at Twitter

…as well as various accounts through Fanpop, LiveJournal, and many more.

The one thing that I think is interesting about FanHistory.com is that not one person can really say that they are not a fan of anything. Fandom can contain celebrities, pop culture, internet websites, hobbies, writing, and so much more. This site is relevant to most anyone. That is why the data is the most precious commodity this site holds. FanHistory has a lot of potential educational value for those wanting to document and learn about the different aspects of each fandom. It is ran by volunteers who have an passion or even an interest on certain topics in fandom.

When Michael Jackson passed, myself as well as Laura Hale (the founder of FanHistory.com), and the other administrators of FanHistory.com scurried to make a decent page for the pop icon. Why? Because at the time he was a relevant topic and we were sorely lacking in information on him. After filling his page out, plugging it in the various social networks and even I re-tweeted it through my own stream, traffic has gone up. This is just one topic of several and even David Spark wrote about it at Mashable recently in the article, Trending Topics: 5 Ways Companies Used News Trends for Business Success. As a side note, FanHistory.com was also spotlighted at AboutUs.org for July 2009.

Of course, for those involved in fandom that have fanfiction sites, celebrity gossip sites, fanart sites, and just about anything fan-related can easily become involved in contributing. On a SEO angle, you would be able to add your link to the relevant topics that are on FanHistory.com, therefore getting a link back to your site. It is a no brainer in my opinion, especially when adding the link to your relevant topic is free, and the site gets a pretty good amount traffic.

Now, this is just a beginning to this case study, but with further work, I am confident that all of the administrators will make FanHistory.com soar in traffic. Of course, my hopes are that other tech sites like TechCrunch, and WebProNews can write FanHistory.com. It might not be as fancy, but it is definitely full of relevant information to those looking for a central point for their fandom. In a way it is a wiki and a web directory in one. 🙂

The bottom line is -plugging your site into the social network does take a bit of work, but with a bit of time, it does pay off. Try it if you have not already.

Have you ever to contribute to FanHistory? Do you have a site that you have used social media techniques and have made your site more success?