Facebook, Facebook, Facebook. Everybody’s using Facebook. Are you?
More importantly, is your business? If you’re a business owner, you really should set up a Facebook Page, or else risk being left behind as more businesses shift to social networks like Facebook. Here are a few quick tips for setting up and getting the most out of a page on Facebook for your business.
Facebook pages are different than profiles. You may have a personal profile for you, but your business can’t have a profile – it can have a page. You need to have a personal Facebook profile in order to set up a business page, but don’t worry, your customers and people who view your business page won’t be able to see your personal info. A page is a place to house all the pertinent information about your company. It’s useful because you can include everything that relates to your business in one place with a built-in potential audience:
- Overview of company
- Website and contact info
- Press releases
- Videos
- Company news and status
- Customer interaction
One of the major benefits of a page on Facebook over (or in addition to) a webpage is that it’s so simple to update. With Facebook, updates are as easy as logging in and typing or uploading. The more often you post fresh content, the better the chances of people taking notice which can lead to better interaction with existing and potential customers and business partners.
Once you’ve logged into Facebook, scroll to the bottom and click on Create a Page. Select the type of business that applies to you and start filling in all the details. The more information you add, the better your page will be (and remember, Google thinks highly of Facebook in its search engine results).
Make sure to include your company logo, videos, images – the whole nine yards. Once you’re satisfied with the page, publish it, then get ready to dive into promotion.
The tricky thing about Facebook pages is that you can’t friend someone the way you can from your profile. People can elect to become fans of your page by ‘liking’ it, but only if they know about it, so you’ve got to spread the word yourself (and keep doing it) to introduce people to your page and to your company.
First, identify contacts from your profile that are either business connections, people working in a field related to your business, or who would otherwise benefit from the information your company provides, and invite them to visit and ‘like’ your page. Send a short note explaining what you will be offering from the page (remember, people are thinking “what’s in it for me?”) and include a link to the page. Once they have ‘liked’ your page, any content you publish will automatically show up in their Facebook feed, an instant and easy way for you to interact with people directly.
You should also promote your page elsewhere online by putting a Facebook page button on your website to help others find it, spreading the word on Twitter if you’re there (and you should be), sending out an email notification, and putting a link on your business cards and promotional materials. Do whatever it takes to let people know that you’re on Facebook and you want them to become a part of your community.
It will take time to build your fan base, so remember to keep sending out invitations to new contacts asking if they want to become a fan of your business page. Constantly promote the page in any way possible, and keep your content fresh – give people a reason to check in on your page regularly and provide them with important information they can use or that is specific to your industry.
Once you are up and running, there are many options for importing content you may be generating elsewhere (a company blog page, a Twitter account, a flickr photo page etc.) and cross posting that content in Facebook as well, saving you some time and making it easier to update content more often.
Your Facebook efforts will be ongoing, so plan to dedicate a few hours each week to getting new fans and updating content. You’ll quickly appreciate the ability to connect with existing customers and develop new customers and business relationships too!
We are building our fan base as well and invite you to join us on the Kiers Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/KiersMarketing Hope to see you there!