Facebook Tips For Business
You’ve heard of Facebook, right? You may have a personal profile but you need to realize that Facebook could be very powerful for your business too. 150,000,000 (150 MILLION) people is a huge market to tap in to, not to mention that it’s free! Here are a few tips and tricks for creating your own business presence on Facebook!
Your Decision: Once you have made the decision to introduce your business to Facebook, you need to decide whether a business group or business page will be the best fit. We use a business page for PhotoBiz {http://photobizfanclub.com} because of the advantages described to the rightand strongly encourage you to do the same!
Web-Connection: It is important as a small business to only market 1 domain name (your website) so linking everything together effectively is vital. A splash page is one great way of doing this with your Website, Blog, Facebook, etc… Here are a few great examples!
DayDream Photography :: Photo Umbra :: Yray Marie :: Visio Photography
Frequency of Content: You should get into a routine to post messages often. This should be multiple times a day and try to include content that will help your customers. There are applications, explained later, that can really help you in this section. Also, be sure to be swift on answering questions and responding to inquiries. If you are not on your page, what makes you think others will want to be?
Type of Content: There are all kinds of great ideas on relevant content that you can post on Facebook. You could leave a coupon code, talk about specials or rave about sessions and fun events coming up. Highlight a recent photo shoot posting some images. Also, posting videos and other fun content on your Wall will all be a great way to encourage customers to come and engage! When you post on your wall, many of your fans will see this on their “Mini-Feed” enticing them to come and interact with you on your page!
Developing a Fan Base: You will want to invite all of your friends from Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Blogs, Forums, etc… The more people that you invite, the more fans you will acquire. You will want to link to your business page from everywhere that you can. You want to announce to the world the grand opening of your Facebook business page just like you would a brand new business. Offer coupons, prizes, and whatever else will entice your target market to become a fan in the first month. PhotoBiz offered a free IPod to one lucky fan that joined our business page in the first month. Once you develop a pretty strong fan base, you will want to influence them to interact on your page.
Viral Customer Engaging Benefit: Getting customers to come and interact with you on your page will result in the biggest benefit that Facebook has to offer you. If you post on your Wall, your fans receive a notification on their Mini-Feed. If your fans post on your wall, all of their friends see this on their Mini-Feed! This is great because you are now spreading the word about your business through to thousands of people! Check out your visitor statistics to get more information on your customer interactions!
Quick Tips:
1. Always check spelling. Using Internet Explorer, right click on the text and click “check spelling”. This is quick and will be more professional than a bunch of misspelled words (it’s ok to misspell on a personal page, not with business)!
2. Always display your links with the http:// in front! Do you want your viewers to copy and paste www.photobizfanclub.com into their address bar? OR Do you want them to be able to click on http://photobizfanclub.com??? Make it easy for them!
My Favorite Applications: Adding certain applications to your Facebook page, can really make your page more attractive and exciting for customers to come visit. Here are some of my favorite applications and what they do:
1. Selective Twitter Status Application- I prefer this application over some of the others because you can choose which status from Twitter will be transferred over to Facebook. Your tweet must end with “#fb” and it comes right to Facebook!
2. Social RSS- If you have a blog, this will transfer all of your content to Facebook! Better Content = More Readers!
3. Static FBML- This will give you great flexibility! You can add up to 10 different FBML Boxes. Here are some examples of how we have used them! Email, Twitter, Blog, Display Products, etc…
4. Video- Search for Video and it should be the top app. created by Facebook. Unbranded, very nice, gives an added touch. Most people are more visual, so give them something to remember you by.
I hope that these tips on Facebook pages help your business and prepare you to take full advantage of Facebook. Remember that there are many other great applications and tips out there to help you benefit on Facebook.
Thanks for the information. As always, you are full of useful tips.
Become a fan:
http://www.facebook.com/thememoryboutique
(how was that?!!)
Nice Article!
Facebook can be used not only for social networking but also for businesses use.. great tips !
I originally created a business page, but found that I had much more success creating a separate account, treating my business name as a person. It seems that people are more likely to add me as a friend than they are to fan my page. It has been one of my best marketing moves and drives a lot of traffic to my website.