Why You Should ALL be Using Facebook Pages for Business
Facebook is the most popular social networking site at the moment and is growing at a rate of thousands, if not tens of thousands per day. With so many users across a range of demographics covering the entire world, it’s not surprising that more and more businesses are trying to take advantage of this. Using Facebook Pages for Business can boost a brand’s reach to people who have never previously responded to traditional advertising methods.
I’m sure most, if not all of you will already have a personal Facebook profile. Businesses however cannot have Profiles; they have to use a Facebook Page. The differences might seem small at first, but pages and profiles are very different and there are some key things to point out first.
A Profile can only have 5000 friends. While 5000 might seem a huge number to many small businesses, in reality, who would want to limit their customers? Pages can have unlimited “Likes”.
Pages allow any Facebook user to “Like”the brand. If somebody “Likes”a Page, they can’t access any personal information of other fans, and the Page cannot access any personal information of the Profile so there is no privacy risk.
If you’re still not sure of the difference, I have both a personal Profile for myself, and a Page for my business.
Anyone can set up Facebook Pages for Business
The trick is to get people to “like”your page and become a true fan and this is not always as easy as it sounds.
One great tip is to make visitors “Like”your page first. This can be done by creating a landing page that all none fans see when they initially click onto your page. By clicking the “like”button, they will then be able to see the rest of the information, write on your wall and in return, they will receive regular updates that you post into their newsfeed.
The profile image you use on your page should be something that you give a lot of thought to. It is your main chance to express yourself and put the brand over to your audience visually. As the Facebook Pages for Businesshave a standard layout that everyone has to use, you can really set yourself apart from the competition if you show a little creativity and imagination here.
Make sure that you give as much information as possible so that your fans know more about you. If you have a website or a Twitter account you might want to post those details here as well.
Once you have fans on your page, you need to keep them there. Post regular and interesting updates, ask questions, start or join conversations on your wall. Keep the content fresh by using a mixture of posts, links to blogs, photos, videos, just make sure that what you are posting reinforces your brand message in a positive way.
You can further reward fans of your page by making special offers and incentives that only fans can have access to.
Don’t overwhelm your fans with content. Think about the newsfeed on your own profile page, if you have one friend who posts all the time and fills your newsfeed it gets annoying, you might even hide their comments or unfriend them… Every brand is different and there is no hard and fast rule. A good idea might be to post a couple of times a week initially, check the feedback and the number of “likes“you’re getting and then do more as you get a bigger fan base. The Page Insights that you‘ll have access to with your Fan Page can be a great gauge as to how your posts are received as well as how many people are subscribing and unsubscribing. Make sure you use this as part of your Social Media Strategy.
Finally, remember that out of sight is out of mind! If you don’t post anything, then people will quickly forget about your Page. Don’t let your efforts go to waste, keep your fans and customers hungry for more by clever usage of Facebook Pages for Business.
About
James Debono is a small business owner and Internet entrepreneur. James dedicates his time to helping other small business owners leverage the power of the Internet to drive business growth and positive change. Click here Join James Debono on Google+
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anyone can create a facebook page but not everyone doing facebook marketing correctly.
You mentioned a very important point which is posting regularly and awesome updates, as one of the facebook latest changes make fans easily hide our updates from their feed which will decrease our Facebook edge rank score.
as a result, we don’t need to annoy our fans with crappy updates..
Thanks for this nice post..
Faissal Alhaithami @market on facebook recently posted..The facebook Edge Rank formula
Hi Faissal,
It is important to keep up to date with the changes made by Facebook.
Guaranteeing that your ‘quality’ content continues to reach your audience.
Thanks for your comment
James