Facebook Business Page

Facebook. Even my mum is on it now, keeping up to date with the extended family.  God knows what she thinks of the photos my cousin in Edinburgh keeps putting on there.
Anyway - love it or hate it, there's no denying the fact that facebook is now the de-facto social network.  Others exist and have their niches, but if you want to build an online relationship with your customers, engage them, entertain them and keep them interested in what you do - you need a facebook business page.

First off - we'll be setting up a proper Facebook business page here.  Some businesses have personal facebook accounts as their business account - you can tell because they have 'friends' rather than 'likes'.  That's a terrible long term strategy.  It's tempting at first because you can add people as friends yourself, rather than needing people to actively 'like' your business, but it appears spammy and unprofessional, and it means you're not going to be able to take advantage of the business tools facebook offers if you sign up for a proper business page.

In order to set up a business page, you'll need your own personal facebook page which will become the administrator account for your business page.  If you don't have one, go and sign up here, then come back. If you're on the run from the FBI, or can't bear the thought of being contacted by people from high school who want you to know about what they ate for breakfast, just use a fake name. It's probably best to use your real name if you can though.

Done?
Okay - click this link to open the "create a page" page.

It looks like this:

Choose a category - probably local business or place, but maybe one of the others.  You can click around and explore the different options until you find one that suits your business.  Then fill in the business name and address details it asks for, agree to the terms, and click "get started".

Like so:

You'll be presented with a page that looks like this:

So follow through the steps to get the basics sorted out. 

(1) Upload a logo (or photo).

(2) Invite the friends you have on your personal facebook page to like your new business page.

(3) Invite your email contacts - probably worth a try, but it doesn't work with all email accounts, so just skip it if it complains.

(4) Post a status update - do this now so your page isn't blank.  Something along the lines of "Welcome to our new facebook page! Please like the page to be kept up to date with promotions and special offers and remember to check out our site at www.example.co.uk."

There are also a 5th and 6th step on this page - "promote on your site", and "set up your mobile phone".  By all means have a look and get stuck in if you feel confident, but at this stage you can easily skip those bits and come back to them whenever you fancy.

Got that done?

Next step is to click the little "Edit Info" section at the top of the page (circled in red in the image above).  That'll take you to this page:

Fill out everything you can, and don't forget to include your website address. (I like to include the web address in the "About" section too as it appears fairly prominently on the page.)

Once that's all filled in, you have a Facebook business page.  Add the address to your promotional material and make sure all your customers are aware you have a facebook account.  You now have a direct line of contact to customers with an interest in your business and can use it as a direct promotional tool and for relationship management.  Update it as regularly as you can with interesting, relevant and engaging content.  Offer deals that are exclusive to those who 'like' your facebook page, let them know about new products or services first, and encourage existing fans to share your page too.  As the number of people who like your page grows, you'll find facebook to be an excellent way for you to communicate with your core market, not just as a sales and marketing tool, but as an invaluable feedback generator and highly targeted market research vehicle.

The next step....

Underutilised and full of potential!  There's a lot more you can do with your facebook account - just check out the screenshots below.  That's development territory though - you need to have a decent understanding of some web programming languages, so if you'd like to take your facebook page onto the next level, please get in touch.

Shopping on Facebook:

Music on Facebook:

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