Facebook Pages: 9 Steps To Business Marketing Success

Facebook is the social media phenom.  It is the third most trafficked site on the Internet and is increasingly becoming a powerful business tool with Groups and Pages that can be used to connect and educate prospects and promote  your business.

Before you start to build your Facebook Page, make sure you should have an overall social media business strategy.  As we have discussed in previous posts, all the elements of what we call the “distributed web” work together and build on each other.

Organizing all your media prior to building social media pages in the distributed web is also a good idea.  Have your logos, articles, videos and pictures ready in a handy digital file so they are easy to access.  Make sure you have a keyword strategy, a linking strategy that targets specific landing pages on your website and blog, content that will attract fans and link bait that will get leads…before you start building a Page (or any other social media pages).

When you are ready to build, here are 9 steps to take to make sure you are off to a good start in building a fan base:

1. Get the Title right

When first creating your fan page, you need to choose a title; it could be your brand name, personal name, or business name, but make sure you add a few descriptive keywords you are targeting for SEO purposes. The shorter the title, the better, because each time you add content to your fan page your long title will append to each post.  Also, if you promote your fan page though the Facebook ad network, long titles tend to get cut off and make your ad look incomplete.

2. Make sure your picture is optimized for the space you have

Facebook’s ideal size for a fan page image 200 pixels wide by 600 pixels high.

Whenever you post on your own fan page, the thumbnail image that appears will show a section of your main picture, so you may need to play with your graphic to get the image just the way you want it. We found this out the hard way with Surefire Social…

3. Customize a page for non-fans to land on

You can create a customized “landing page” for non-fans to encourage them to become fans.  You can fully customize it with images, keyword-rich text, links, even video.  Just add the Static FBML app, paste in your FBML code (very similar to HTML), then edit your fan page settings to select the specific tab you wish non-fans to land on.

For examples, see http://www.facebook.com/ellentv, http://www.facebook.com/cocacola, http://www.facebook.com/ONE, http

5. Describe your business well and have a call to action

The small text box area just under your fan page picture is a place to summarize what you do, what your product or service is, and how your business will benefit your target customer. Make sure you include a call to action with a hyperlink  (include the “http://” so it’s clickable).

6. Secure a real user name with your business or product title

After you get your first 25 fans, Facebook allows you to register a unique username (often called a vanity URL) at http://facebook.com/username. So, instead of being a long, unmemorable link, you can shorten the link by using your brand name, company name, etc.

7. Import your blog posts

Using the Notes app, pull in your blog feed so that each time you make a blog post, your fan page automatically updates and your fans can read and comment on the post. Doing so also helps to consistently add content to your fan page and keep it fresh and engaging. You will need to do this separately for each Page you have as well as you blog.  It is basically a three step process.  First, to to your Page and make sure you have the Notes Tab available (if not hit the plus tab and then click Notes). Then click on edit notes and after you get to that page click on the top right (edit section) the notes tab.  You can take it from there.

7. Create a dialogue on your Page

We know sometimes we have strategic reasons for showing posts only by you on the fan page, or only by your fans, but we highly recommend setting it to show both. That way, anyone who comes to your page can see the interaction from both sides.

8. Encourage your fans to add content

For some businesses and product categories, it makes sense to allow and encourage your fans to add their own photos, videos, and comments on your “wall.” Allowing and encouraging your fans to add their own content will make them feel more a part of your business and community, and when they tag themselves that content goes out into their feeds creating more visibility for your business.  Imagine if you are a contractor and some of your clients started to put up photos of the great work you did and comment on those photos…

9. Make sure you respond to your fans

Providing quality content is just one aspect of building a good Facebook fan page (or any social networking presence, for that matter). Another critical aspect is engagement. By actively responding to your fans’ comments, questions, suggestions, ideas, etc., you show that you’re a company that cares, listens, takes action, and engages your community.

Don’t try to do all this at once. Implement some of it and then add more once you feel you have some traction.  The key is to keep improving. Most of all, have fun! These are your customers you are interacting with.