Facebook Pages for business

Facebook is by far the most popular Social Networking website, approximately 8 million Australians are part of the almost 500 Million Wordwide Facebook users. I’ve decided to share some tips for business owners that are starting out with Facebook Pages.

Facebook Pages can be setup for just about anything: Businesses, Brands, Products, Organisations, Artists or Public Figures.  Facebook Pages work much like normal Facebook profiles so you can add status updates, add photos and other Facebook users can write on your ‘wall’.  The main difference is Facebook Pages don’t have ‘friends’ they have fans that ‘like’ the page.

I recommend most of our clients setup a Facebook Page for their business because it’s a great free way for businesses to quickly, easily and directly engage with their customers.

My top 5 tips for starting out with Facebook Pages for your business:

1. Choose your page name carefully

Facebook page names can not be changed so choose wisely! I recommend including a keyword or two in your page name if possible as this can help optimise your business in the Facebook Search Results.

2. Be strategic about when you time your updates

According to Facebook the average Facebook user has over 130 friends so they may miss your status update among all of their friends status updates. One of our clients that run a chain of retail store post facebook page status updates on Thursday and Friday nights mentioning specials, new stock and that they are open late on those nights. Another one of our clients that manages a popular restaurant posts updates on Sunday mornings such as “Hangover? Hungry? why not drop in for a Big Brekkie??”.

3. Include photos in your updates 

In my opinion status updates that include photos will help your update stand out in your ‘fans’ news feed and encourage users to engage with your business. A few of our clients use their mobile phones to take photos of new products as they arrive in store and they upload these photos to Facebook within minutes.

4. Promote your Facebook Page

There are a few quick an easy ways to promote your businesses Facebook Fan page: Add a button to your website, add a link to your email signature, send out an email newsletter, promote it at your place of business or you can even pay to advertise your Facebook page on Facebook.

5. Maintain your Facebook Page

I recommend that you review to your Facebook page at least once a week to see your page ‘insights’ (a.k.a stats) and to review comments posted on your page. I recommend you ensure that your contact details (website address, email, business address and phone numbers) are up to date and easy to find!

To setup a Facebook Page for your business visit:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

Feel free to leave a link to your Facebook Page in the comments & checkout Eleven Media on Facebook.