I don't recall what inspired me to start a Facebook fanpage for my favorite movie, Jim Henson's Labyrinth. There were very few pages on Facebook on the subject, and none of them were active. I was 13 at the time and certainly had nothing better to do. I didn't have my hopes up and didn't expect much. If I could go back in time and tell my 13-year-old self that the page would grow to 11,000 likers, I'm sure she'd walk away in disbelief.
The creation of Labyrinth Is The Greatest Movie of All Time has been quite the wild ride and one of my proudest accomplishment. As its sole admin since its creation in February 2012, I have learned a great deal about the joys and perils of social media. Overall, it's one of my favorite things that I do. Here's what I learned from being an admin for a Facebook page.
1. Networking is everything
Quite often it was tempting to buy advertisements for my page, before I had reached the thousand-likes mark. How would Labyrinth fans find my page and join in the love? But as a jobless teenager, it did not make sense to ask my parents to pay for it. The best thing for me to do was network. I posted comments as my page on other pages, promoted it on my Tumblr blog (which later also grew to great heights!), and offered to promo-for-promo with other pages. I learned not to be afraid to ask for a promo-for-promo. In fact, no one had ever turned me down. Facebook pages are no place for competition. It was great to cooperate with other page admins with similar ambitions, and I made it this far!
2. Keep at it
Even when I was under 500 likes, even in the double digits, I kept posting daily. Sometimes it didn't seem worth it. Sometimes I thought I had reached every single Labyrinth fan on Facebook. But to look back and realize that I built a community from the ground up (without paying anything!) is astonishing to me. Maintaining a page still requires some dedication. I hate posting the same picture or quote twice, but I do if someone sends it to me. Quite often I have to search the depths of Tumblr for new content. Sometimes I can only post things related to Jim Henson or George Lucas, the creators of the movie, because it's relevant in the slightest. I encourage my likers to send me their art and related works. Sometimes, especially now that I'm in college, I'm not as active as I'd like to be. Still, I've come too far to abandon my page, and I always come back to it when I can.
3. You can't please everyone
I know better than to stress over people un-liking my page, especially at 11,000 likes! Sometimes people are upset (even for the most trivial reasons) by a post and announce in the comments that they're un-liking my page. I've never been upset by that, but usually I wonder why it's such a problem. It's best to shrug it off and keep posting. If something were really wrong with my posts, I wouldn't be at 11,000 likes! So, I've learned not to fight against hotheaded commenters; it goes nowhere.
4. Anything is possible
Like I said earlier, would my 13-year-old self with too much time on her hands believe that she would make it to 11,000 likes before she turned 19? Absolutely not. Quite often, I've found that my most inconsequential posts are the ones that blow up with likes, shares, and comments. The appreciation I get from my likers is amazing. When I post art or Tumblr posts (always directly crediting the source, of course!), I'm amazed to find that the creator reveals themselves in the comments. Quite often they're flattered that I posted their work, just as flattered as I am that they like my page! This community is really something else!
5. I'm not alone
I wrote in earlier articles why the Labyrinth fandom is the nicest and warmest fandom, but I feel the need to say it again. As a 13-year-old outcast, I knew that I would not find anyone in close proximity to me that shared my feelings about an obscure 80s movie. That was why I made the page. There were people on the Internet who liked it nearly as much as I did, so I made a place for them where I could lead. I live for the positive comments I get on my posts. It's absolutely wonderful. Running the page is more than a fun hobby. It's an accomplishment. A safe place for me to be myself—a crazy person with an unhealthy obsession with an obscure movie. To my surprise, I'm never the only one!
To the likers who are reading this: thank you for all of your support. I would be nowhere without you. Long live the fandom!
