Your Business Needs to Be on Facebook

If your business is not on Facebook, what are you waiting for? Facebook is one of the two most highly trafficked websites in the world. The average American spends over eight hours per week on Facebook. Let’s talk about the first steps of how to use Facebook for business and create your very own Facebook Business Page.

A Facebook Business Page can be inexpensive to set up, maintain, and there are no user fees. Links from your Facebook business page can rank high on Google and other search engines, and the interaction and links from Facebook can help make your website successful.

When you set up your Facebook Business Page, you need to decide on what type of page to select. If your business is local, and will never grow beyond your local town or city, choose Local Business or Place of Interest. If your business has clients outside of your local area or plans to grow into a wider area, or is an incorporated company, choose Company Organization or Institution. If you want to promote a brand or product line, rather than a specific business, choose Brand or Product.

When you give the business/organization name, be sure to check spelling and ensure it’s listed as you want to present it. You can’t change it later, except by deleting the Page.

There’s Just One of You

Before you can set up a business page for Facebook, you need to have a personal profile, and be logged in to Facebook. Do not create a second “business” profile, separate from your personal profile.

Not only is this against Facebook’s rules, it creates a situation where you try to juggle people between your personal and business lives, and in reality the lines just aren’t that firm. Instead, learn to use Facebook’s privacy settings to control what personal friends see versus what business acquaintances can view.

You Need a Facebook Business Page, Not a Profile

Some people make the mistake of setting up a profile for their business. They pretend that their business is a person, and create a completely new Facebook account in the name of the business. Although Facebook tells them that an account must belong to an individual, they try to “cheat”, and use their business name.

This doesn’t serve them well, since there are interactions you can do on a business page that you cannot do on a personal profile. For example, you can insert a lead capture form on a business page, allowing your visitors to sign up for a newsletter or other free content. Most importantly, you’ll lose the whole account once Facebook notices, since it’s against their Terms of Service – so spending time to build a place to interact with your clients, knowing you may lose that place later, isn’t good strategy.

Let Them Talk

A main point of having a Facebook Page is interactive communication to clients and potential clients. Some make the mistake of turning off wall posts on their Facebook Business Page. They fear negative comments, but by turning off wall posts, they cut off all communication from clients. It’s like telling your clients “I don’t want to hear what you have to say”. You can’t stop people from saying negative things about your business. If it happens on your Business Page, at least you can respond.

Most importantly, every time a visitor interacts with the Facebook Business Page, that interaction gets in front of their network, spreading information about your business far beyond your original customer base. That’s the whole point, so turning off your client’s ability to comment or post is doesn’t serve you well.

Activity Matters

It’s also important to update your Facebook Business Page regularly. When a visitor Likes your Page, your updates remind them of your existence. So if you do a new blog post, have a contest or special offer, or just have some news to share, be sure to post on your Facebook Business Page.

This does not mean connecting Twitter to Facebook and spewing every tweet you make to your Facebook followers. Regular, useful, valuable communication is important. Don’t go over the line and spam them several times daily.

Attractive and Professional

I used to be IT Director for T. Harv Eker, famous for the line “How you do anything is how you do everything“. While your Facebook Business Page doesn’t have to be both excellent and beautiful the moment it’s created, you do need to get some quality graphics on it, proofread it, and generally present an attractive and professional Page to the prospective clients you hope will do business with you.

Here’s an excellent example of a Facebook Welcome Page. Notice how the graphics integrate with Facebook, and how you’re reminded to “Like” the page (please do!). If you, like this client, need some help learning how to use Facebook for business and set up custom pages on Facebook, contact me and we’ll talk about how we can set up your Facebook Business Page to attract more business to your business.

About the author

Karilee

I'm a big fan of entrepreneurship. Most of my learning, teaching and business is focused on effectively creating "freedom businesses" that allow you to focus on your strengths, and bring what you're really good at to the world - profitably. My clients are looking for more of the right customers - and I show them how to make that happen. I help them develop their web presence through their website, SEO, social media and other marketing tactics.