What is a Facebook fan page?

We often get asked - so how do I get my business on Facebook?

Let start with profiles. A Facebook profile is designed to represent a person. It must be in your name, not your business name. Your Facebook profile page is for linking / sharing with friends.

Facebook pages (fan pages) are a place for you to represent your business. Its like a mini blog where you can post short announcements, events, links to your website, photos and videos allowing your fans to comment an interact with you. You can host a discussion, send messages to fans, gather visitor statistics and promote your page with Facebook ads.

Fan pages are good for developing a long-term relationship with your customers. They are visible to unregistered people. People do not have to be a fan to view the page, but they do have to be a fan to make a comment on your posts.

Take a look at J6 design on Facebook.

Note: Businesses that use personal profiles instead of fan pages look like amateurs (plus its against Facebook’s terms of service).

Why have a Facebook fan page for your business?

With 500 million Facebook users (as of July 2010) and more than 100 million users logging on to Facebook every day - what other reason do you need!

Here are a few:

• Building relationships with prospective clients on a social networking level.
• Promoting events, special offers and other features.
• Generate traffic to your website by posting comments with links on your Facebook page.
• It is FREE to setup and use!
• The big companies are doing it.
• It’s so simple to update.

Australian Facebook statistics

Understanding the demographic present can help you decide if Facebook is worth it for your business. At the moment, Facebook skews towards females. 53% of Facebook users have kids and a majority make over $60k a year salary.

• Over 6.4 million Australians use Facebook - thats a huge 38% of the Australian online population
• 55% of Aussie Facebook users are female and 45% are male
• 29% of them are 25 - 34 years
• 28% are 18 - 24 years
• 30% are 35 years and over - this is the fastest growing segment according to Nielsen Online

Are Facebook fan pages good for SEO?

Yes, your Facebook page gets indexed and is searchable in Facebook and in Google.

How to set up a Facebook fan page for your business?

Step 1. Name it

Visit the create Facebook page.

Carefully choose the title of your page, ideally your business name, including your key words or phrases for SEO purposes. Your title is the ONLY feature you cannot change so get it right from the start.

Step. 2 Brand it

Add your logo, web address, company profile etc.

Step 3. Give it a reason for being

Some pages are used as connection hubs, but others offer information of interest to their customers.

Step 4. Promote it

Many companies expect their consumers to find them on Facebook automatically. However, that’s not usually the case. So add your Facebook fan page link to your website, email stationary etc.

Step 5. Add bells and whistles to it

You can enhance your Facebook Page by adding applications to it like YouTube videos (there are hundreds of apps designed to help you do business better on Facebook).

Step 6. Maintain it

Your Facebook efforts must be ongoing, so plan to dedicate an hour or so each week to getting new fans, reviewing fan comments and updating content. Good luck!

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