Facebook and Your Business
If you’re looking to create a Facebook page, you’re not the only one. Businesses have begun to see real results from the use of these user-friendly pages. Since so many people are using Facebook profiles for personal use as well as for professional reasons, it makes sense to learn how to create a Facebook pages for your business too.
Types of Facebook Pages
Facebook Fan Pages
Once upon a time, there was an option to create Facebook Fan pages, and most people in business still refer to them as such, but Facebook now refers to Fan pages as "Official" pages. The stir in naming came about when Facebook changed the button for following these pages from "Become a fan" to "Like". You can ‘like’ as many of these pages as you want and you can create as many Facebook Fan or "Official" pages you want for others to like.
Facebook describes the benefit of creating business pages as:
"Communicate with your customers and fans by creating and maintaining an official Facebook Page."
Facebook Group and Community Pages
You can also create a Group or Community page, rather than a Facebook Fan page, and there are options to do that to the right on the page that opens when you create a business page. However, keep in mind the following about the different types of Facebook pages:
- Facebook Group pages are not indexed in Google, while Facebook Fan pages are.
- If you create a Community page and it gets very popular, you run the risk that Facebook will take over the administration of that page and you will lose all control over it. This is not true of a Facebook Fan page.
- Facebook Fan pages are far and away the best choice for a Facebook page to promote a small or home business because you can fully customize them, appoint an alternate administrator(s) and because you retain full control over them.
More Benefits of a Facebook Page for Business
The benefits for business of having a Facebook page are many. They include:
- The Facebook page for your fans will help you to connect with your customers and clients in a more personal way.
- Having a business Facebook page helps to create a more professional appearance and a more professional reputation in your market.
- A Facebook page allows you to send updates about events, promotions, and other newsworthy happenings related to your business.
- You can interact with your customers and clients by starting discussions and within comments and photos that you post on Facebook.
- Having a Facebook page for your business also give you an additional method for controlling access to your most private (and potentially embarrassing) Facebook posts. Rather than agreeing to be Facebook friends with strangers and clients (who you’d rather not know about your personal and family life), you can invite them to "like" your Fan page instead and send them the URL for the page. That way they can keep up with developments about your business without having access to your personal Facebook updates.
- About Home Business - http://facebook.com/About.HomeBusiness This is a basic fan page with hardly any customization. I just used a screen shot of my home page as my profile picture for this Facebook Fan page. You'll see the "Like" button at the top of the page if you havent' already clicked it. If not, I encourage you to do so and you'll get updates automatically in Facebook.
- Mari Smith – http://facebook.com/MariSmith - An example of how Facebook Fan pages can be fully customized. Notice that you land on her Welcome tab instead of her wall.
- Social Media Examiner – http://facebook.com/smexaminer - Another great example of how Facebook Fan pages can be customized to the hilt. Like Mari Smith’s page, you land on the Welcome tab where you are encouraged to “Like” the page. Once you “Like” the page, you’ll go straight to the Wall tab when you visit instead.
You have an option of letting your Facebook page visitors write on your wall and you can control what they post. However, the more unrestricted you are about letting people post on your business page, the more interaction you’ll get and the more followers you’ll get. You will want to check regularly for spam posts and remove them promptly, but it’s worth it to allow your prospects and customers – your “fans” – to interact freely with you.
See a Sample Facebook Page
Here are a few examples of Facebook Fan pages for business so you can see what’s possible in creating your own:
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