It’s a fact. There are currently 400 million Facebook users and more people are joining Facebook every day so as a small business owner you’d be foolish to ignore such and easy, free platform for gaining exposure. Setting up and administering a Facebook Fanpage is quite manageable even for the technically challenged.
Facebook Facts
Most Facebook users have already graduated college and the fastest growing demographic of Facebook users is those 35 years and older.
Businesses with a Facebook Fanpage can very easily get found by people who are searching for the products or services you offer.
Creating a Fanpage for your business is Easy. Simply log into your Facebook account and from the “Home” tab you will see a link on the left that says “Ads and Pages.” From there you will see a link that says “Create a Page” and you are off to the races.
Just like with your personal page you can add content to your Fanpage wall and also have the ability to include pictures, information about your business, and even includes a “discussion” area which allows you to start your own little mini-forum.
A Fanpage is great for creating community around your business and promoting other content you create, including webinars, blog articles, or other resources. Recently for my clients I’ve created “Facebook only” web coupons or promotions, and have placed links on the Facebook Fanpage. This cost us absolutely nothing and has been highly effective.
Unlike the approval process with personal page friend requests, anyone can become a fan of your Page by simply hitting the “like” button. This requires no response from you.
How to promote your page
This may sound obvious but don’t forget to do it! Put an easy to find link to your Fanpage on your main website. Also include a link to your Fanpage in newsletters and emails sent to current or potential clients. If you have a blog there are plugins available to all your readers to share an interesting post with their Facebook friend in the click of a button. This can indirectly draw more fans to your Fanpage.
Promoting your page from within Facebook is easy as well. As the administrator you’re able to suggest your page to the people on your personal page friend’s list by clicking a simple link on the left sidebar. You should suggest your also staff promote your Fanpage within their own friend’s lists on Facebook. They can do this by first searching for the Fanpage on Facebook and then clicking the suggest to friends link once the page comes up.
The suggest to friends method is great to reach many people in an instant however I recommend sending a personal email (on Facebook or offline) to key people or people you’re close to to personally request the add. It’s easy to simply copy and past the URL for your Fanpage in the body of the email. Experience has shown me that sending a personal email in addition to suggesting the page through Facebook proves most effective, and following this up with phone calls can’t hurt either. Most of us are prone to ignore automated emails but contacting folks directly tends to yield a better response.
You should strive to create an engaging Page. Use the discussion board to engage dialogue and make it a point to post pictures or even YouTube videos. Give users good reason to become a fan of your Page. Offering discounts or other incentives can be extremely effective.
There’s even an “Events” tab which enables you to promote Facebook exclusive events (ie/and open house, party, or a free service offering on a specific day). The prominent benefit of creating an engaging page is that every time a fan engages with your page, a link is published to their “news feed” which is then visible to all their Facebook friends.
Another way to network and promote your Fanpage is by joining Facebook groups. Groups, unlike pages, are only visible to Facebook members. Groups can be formed around anything from politics to religious affiliations to love of a particular sports team or pet. Surely there are groups out there related to your business. You’re able to find and join groups by first executing a search for a term or phrase in the search box up top near the Facebook logo then once the results appear blow click the “Groups” icon in the left side bar to filter your results. A list of related groups you can join (join link appears to the right of each) appears at that point.
Chances are your prospects already participate in these groups and you can also discover interesting industry related content and discussions within groups or even find others to network with. For the most part I recommend business owners stick to the use Fan pages for themselves but there are some benefits to joining groups.
Lastly, Facebook offers a paid advertisement service. Ever notice those ads in the right sidebar of your personal Facebook page? You too can appear there by simply clicking the “Ads and Pages” link on the left and setting up your own ad. This may be a good option for you to quickly boost your following or promote a specific easy-selling product or service you reference within your Fanpage.
SEO Design Dynamics can help you set up or maximize the effectiveness of your Facebook Fanpage. But my guess is you can make a good go of it on your own by following the steps presented above. Don’t hesitate to ask us any further questions by simply completing and submitting an inquiry through the Contact Form.
One last and very important piece of advice….keep your Fanpage clear of negative sounding comments or profanity…anything that will not be a good reflection of your business. Occasionally I’ll have a less than savory friend post comments about “how much partying they did this past weekend,” etc. You can delete these from your wall and even hide all future postings from a specific user by hitting the little “x” off to the right of the comment. This is a practice I put into place for my own personal page as well.
Like Facebook, Twitter is a fantastic tool for generating free traffic to your site and for quickly getting short messages and promotions out on the fly. Let’s move on to learn more about Twitter for small businesses.
