Welcome searchers! If you’d like help with your social media strategy, including Facebook and Twitter outreach, please feel free to contact me for social media consulting.
As much as Facebook may not be kind to businesses, it’s still a tremendously valuable business tool. After all, Facebook could eat the web. In fact, you’re likely spotting the shift; instead of companies posting their URLs on television commercials, they’re asking their followers to join them on Facebook. Therefore, it’s a force to be reckoned with. Let’s just take a look at the potential of Facebook for business for a moment here and review the various options business owners have in order to be effective with Facebook business marketing.
Profile Page versus Fan Page
The average Facebook user uses Facebook not for business but for personal communications. I am one of those users. In fact, I explain my Facebook usage by stating that if you want to follow me in a professional capacity, you can use one of my two fan pages. Simply stated, for a business, you should create a Fan Page. Want one? Go here. If you are officially representing your company, you’d want to create an Official Page.
Don’t use a Facebook Group. They are outdated (from Facebook’s early days) and do not support Facebook Markup Language (FBML) or Facebook Apps, so they are not as interactive and thus do not make as strong of an impact. Additionally, don’t create a personal account (a regular Facebook profile page) for your business. You’re supposed to use your real name and you’re also only supposed to have one account. Your Facebook Page should be created under your primary Facebook login. If you elect not to have one, you can still create a Facebook page by following the steps after you fill out the relevant data for your business Facebook Page.
Identification
For your page, consider using a title that’s memorable here because you won’t be able to change it later. It’s preferable to reflect your business and use a business name, not a funny character or other business persona that nobody can relate to. People will be looking for your business on Facebook, so make it easy for them to find you.
Once you get 25 fans, you can set up a username which makes accessing your profile a lot easier. Make sure you apply the username to your Facebook Page, not your personal profile, and be sure to use something memorable that people can find by plugging in the URL. I have a hard time believing that Facebook will address errors like these without an intellectual property complaint.
Customizing Your Profile Page
Great! Now that you have opted to create a Fan Page, you need to customize it. Simply stated, you can upload a profile picture (200 by 600 pixels maximum, though there are some reports that 180 by 540 pixels might work instead) and start filling out the relevant details about your business. Tell people how to find you and give them a history. They’re there because they want to learn! Depending on what type of page you are creating (for a business, publication, celebrity, etc.) the text fields differ, but utilize what’s available to you to your advantage. Don’t shy away from giving your community the information needed to find you elsewhere both online and offline.
If you want to be more creative, start thinking about building upon your profile with the aforementioned Facebook Markup Language (FBML). Here’s how to create a memorable Facebook Fan Page via FBML. In short, you’ll need to install the Static FBML app, add a custom tab, and learn the language, which is very similar to HTML, to create content that is appealing to your customers and prospects. Need some inspiration? Check out the screenshots for some current implementations below.
Reese’s uses its Facebook page to welcome users and compels them to join. It also reminds you that Facebook is one of their social destinations on the web, but that you might be interested in their YouTube page. (Their YouTube page, ironically, only features a playlist of videos that they love but does not show any videos made by themselves, such as the process of making a Peanut Butter Cup. Wouldn’t you love to see how they’re made? I know I would.)
Promotional products company rushIMPRINT features on its Facebook page a tab of products for sale. These tabs take the visitor back to their website where they can complete the purchase. This method is smart because it helps build interest on another platform and drives conversions directly on their home base. (Disclosure: I helped plant the social media seeds for rushIMPRINT.)
Offer Deals
Lisa Barone calls this specialized content, and that’s exactly how you should see it. Give people a reason for telling the entire world that they like you.
The big question of return on investment comes up often. How do I know if there’s ROI in Facebook? One way is to see is by giving exclusive deals to Facebook fans. You can elect to do this one of two ways. You can offer deals exclusively to Facebook followers only. Don’t cross promote to Twitter (offer a different incentive on Twitter). Don’t post it on your blog. Don’t share it on your email newsletter. This is a good way of checking specifically if your Facebook efforts are working when you see that the Facebook coupon codes have been redeemed.
On the other hand, you can also share the same discount code across all social platforms. What if you want to offer 10% off? Share the 10OFF discount code for everyone, for example. Let it be posted on every social platform of choice and then watch as it seeds through other communities (which is likely to happen and shows that your marketing is viral).
Of course, you can also just use a Facebook application for that.
Buy something, get something. That’s how Baskin Robbins is doing it besides making an interactive page that visitors might be interested in exploring further.
People interact with brands online because they want deals. Try to offer some every so often.
And while you may not be able to easily run contests within its rules, you have some flexibility with the Wildfire App platform, so consider that as well if you’d like to offer incentives of some kind.
Encourage Community Interaction
In the simplest form, have a Facebook wall and ask your fans questions or share cool company or even personal insights with them. Give them a reason to want to communicate. Better yet, to show that the page is active, give the users control by letting their Fan posts show up on the front page. (Not all companies will be comfortable with this option as it will require frequent moderation.)
Instead of using your updates as the default view, let your fans take over. In the screenshot above, control is shifted to everyone and empowers your community members. As a result, engagement goes up as the page appears very active.
There’s a cost to this, though. The page should appear active but it should also appear like you’re not neglecting your community. Therefore, beyond letting them have control, grab the mic regularly (a few times per week and daily if possible) and engage your community.
The more you engage your community, which could be as simple as asking your followers how they are going to be spending Mother’s Day or sharing a link of interest to your followers, the more visible your page is to your Fan’s friends. After all, every interaction shows up on the Fan’s news feed. And that translates to more visits, which you’ll start seeing when you receive a weekly email from Facebook entitled “Your Weekly Facebook Page Update” that features fun statistics like these:
+41 Fans this week (3,284 total Fans)
31 Wall Posts, Comments, and Likes this week (68 last week)
1,477 visits to your page this week(1,869 visits last week)
You might also be interested in learning more about EdgeRank, Facebook’s own algorithm to determine visibility on a user’s home page. This algorithm takes hold from three main components: (1) the affinity score between two users: how often do they interact?, (2) the type of interaction (is it a like? a comment?, etc.), and (3) the length of time since the action was done. Based on this information, fresh content with actively engaged brand adopters are is key. Give them a reason to be actively engaged. This is basic News Feed Optimization.
Engagement is not limited to wall posts. Post photos of your service and product offerings and invite your fans to do the same. A tremendously wonderful execution of this is on Graco’s photos tab. You’ll learn about their products but you’ll also see a plethora of user-submitted images — complete with cute babies.
And that’s not the only thing you can do to encourage online interaction. Why not solicit reviews from your community to see what they think about you? If you offer great value and have firm believers amongst your midst, you have nothing to fear. Online retailer Newegg isn’t afraid and proudly displays its Facebook reviews for all to see.
Another great way to do this is to host polls where you can get customer feedback. That’s how Ben & Jerry’s is doing it.
Of course, there’s also the potential to encourage community interaction within Facebook using the Facebook page as that home base. The EA Mobile Human Tetris project takes you to a Facebook application where everyone participates in a game of Tetris.
Such games require expertise of a Facebook Application developer but could have lots of potential as long as your Facebook Apps resonate with your audience and compel users to install them.
Aggregate Your Other Social Streams
If you’re only on Facebook, this step isn’t for you. Hopefully, though, you’re considering other social networks to broaden your social media reach. If so, you should show your Facebook fans what you’re up to elsewhere! Hootsuite, for example, has multiple tabs that highlight their social involvement elsewhere on the web.
There are takeaways from this. Offer different content to your different audiences. Don’t just broadcast the same messages to your Twitter and Facebook followers.
Be Creative
Facebook confines you to its site and its feature set, but clearly we can see that they do have a pretty rich feature offering. You can do many things to market your business, add value, and empower your customers. It might be a good opportunity to build upon that to further your mark in the online space.
You’ll find that as your page grows, you’ll likely be tasked with handling customer service issues. People don’t care who is running the social media presence online; if it’s the marketing department, they’ll still demand technical support. Help them where you can or redirect them to the phone number, email address, or contact link that gives them direct contact with your support representatives. Be on your best behavior — after all, good customer service is good social media marketing.
Growth can be a good thing. You may find opportunities to host real life events, be them at conferences or whatever else. This is especially true of businesses who have a brick and mortar location and even better for businesses. Why not invite your Facebook fans to a special event at your venue? Let them connect with each other and build bonds.
There are a lot of different opportunities here, and with such a tremendous penetration, it’s silly to ignore Facebook altogether.
Your Facebook page might be a great opportunity to market your business, but it’s earned media, so keep in mind that it’s a community too. Give your Fans a reason to want to come back.
Evaluate Your Needs and Tread Carefully
Ask yourself what you want to use Facebook for. Is it to communicate with friends and family or is it to drive prospects? Are you joining Facebook’s social network with the intention of spamming your friends with marketing messaging? If so, don’t. Brent Csutoras ruffled my feathers when he said that he doesn’t use Facebook for marketing and “maybe that is why I still have so many friends.” The truth of the matter is that to an extent, he’s right. Of over 1500 friends that I have, I’m constantly being pitched to join groups I have no interest in. What I didn’t like about Brent’s statement is that most savvy marketers do understand the fragile nature of online (and even offline) relationships and that smart ones do not abuse those relationships at all.
If you’re a business, ask your customers to follow you — don’t force it out of those people you are already connected with for other reasons.
Facebook is One Piece of the Pie
With more than 400 million members, if you want to go where your customers are, you’ll probably find most of them on Facebook. That said, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. You should still consider your blog or website as a viable way to build community and/or to drive sales and conversions. If nothing else, that’s the official channel to communicate your business objectives, and you have total control over the process there without risks or usability concerns.
Use Facebook, but use it wisely. It should be considered a subset of your overall online marketing efforts.
What other tips would you add to this list? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Treading carefullly is pretty important. I recently started a fan page for a business we work for and I had the opportunity to add all of my friends, but knew the business was irrelevant to 99% of them. I held back. Asking them to join is the equivalent of all those pesky application requests we never care about but get so frequently. It’s an irritant. It devalues the sender – to me, I actually see it as admission of a lack of intelligence.
That might not apply to Facebook fan groups but the idea is similar.
Thanks for the post, very comprehensive!
My friend’s Facebook status message this morning said “Pay me $100 and I will become your Fan.” Yes, it clearly is getting out of hand.
“Yes, it clearly is getting out of hand. ”
– completely agree with that.
People are even selling 1000 “friends” for $100 :p http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/09/not-enough-facebook-friends-buy-them/
btw – gem of a post there.
-AD
This is great, you are so thorough in your blogs and I appreciate that. So once I got over my craving for Reese PB Cups, I really let what you wrote sink in. I like the idea of a promotion for Facebook fans only in order to measure your ROI and link promo codes or specific promos to that page specifically. Just like with any other marketing campaign you need to be sure that you are not “putting all of your eggs in one basket” just like you mentioned. Some people only use Facebook, some only Twitter, and some neither of the two. Basically, think about how some television commercials only run on specific channels in order to reach out to a particular office. Think golf and luxury vehicles!
Thank you for all you do! I always make time to read your blogs!
Man, I really want Reese’s too! I’m on a post-baby diet though… still. 😀
And whoa about those commercials. The funniest ones are always on the local commercials! Surely they could learn a thing or two from the homemade YouTube ones!
What a great post! Excellent information, very clearly explained. There are huge opportunities for business promotion with Facebook. Why a business wouldn’t want to be there at this point is really questionable. As you bring out in the post, there are many methods of broadcasting, sharing, engaging with customers on this platform, with lots of tools available to configure however you like.
I am new to your blog. Can’t wait to read more!
Yeah, businesses want to be there, but I understand why they have difficulty recommending it to their friends.
Thanks so much for coming, Cathy Ann! Great seeing you here 🙂
Thanks so much for such a helpful post. We have already forwarded it to many of our clients and colleagues who find this type of advice most helpful.
Best,
Ken Lingad
1680PR
That’s great! Thanks so much, Ken!
Great insight, Tamar, on the constantly changing “face” of Facebook for businesses. Opportunities abound there and businesses need to figure out how to leverage the time the average consumer is spending there… as opposed to past media spaces.
And, even though Facebook can be painful (and is constantly changing) I would argue that’s the nature of online marketing. Wouldn’t we be complaining, or have totally abandoned, Facebook by now if they did not offer these many options and changes, even to us humble businesses? Take MySpace as just one of many examples of an online property that become too comfortable with its “space.”
Thanks for allowing me to comment!
YUP! That’s why this post follows one of my most successful rants to date 😉 Thanks for commenting! You’re always allowed!
Tamar, I had a friend show me a FB page he is designing for an insurance agency where he put a promotional picture (save money on your insurance) where the profile picture would normally be. My first thought was that there is no way I would fan that page because I would expect nothing but promotional posts. I felt the same way for your rushImprint example (but that might not be the opening page). Do you think going promotional in the opening page would deter people liking your page, or do you have a different objective for those pages?
Great post – I’m a new subscriber!
Hi Jamie, thanks for commenting. EXCELLENT question.
If that’s a business page, well, business are using Facebook not to twiddle their thumbs but to self promote, so I think using a promotional picture is fine. It’s a question of how far you’re willing to go with that though that, though.
The rushIMPRINT example is a tab, not the first page you see. Here’s the page.
I think you’re right, though. You need to tread carefully and experiment. Personally, I probably would not affiliate myself with a business who is strictly self-promoting, but there are some people who have pages like this who offer tremendous value.
Ask your closest friends or your customers what they prefer. I personally unfriended a Facebook friend I knew in real life because his profile photo displayed a “I offer SEO services, so hire me now!” Then again, that was a personal profile, but yes, the social graces aren’t there. You don’t want businesses pushing in your face though there might be ways to do it that are subtle and still feature the same message.
Thanks for the feedback. Treading Carefully!-)
Tamar: I dig the comprehensive post you’ve provided; great advice! I think that consistent interaction is key. If you post consistently, it sets the expectation that you have new, fresh and relevant content. If you post very infrequently, I think people a tendency to lose interest and flock elsewhere.
Indeed, Ricardo. 🙂 Keep them engaged regularly and you have a true fan. Ignore them and they will forget about you too.
Great details. Before clicking I was like again the same article but u guys nailed it in deep great job
Yeah, I always try to go a little deeper than the average “how to” article. 🙂 Thanks!
Thank you for this comprehensive and timely post, Tamar.
I’ve had a personal FB account for over a year. I recently set up a business page, but have been paralyzed with uncertainty about how to jump in and get it started with the right biz tone and value offerings – so, there it sits, a blank canvas.
These pointers will inspire me to create an action plan and go for it!
Awesome! Glad it helped, Nikolas!
Really great post, thank you sharing…
Thank YOU for commenting, Joydeep 🙂
Thanks for the comprehensive evaluation – I really got a great deal out of it. Your posts are consistently helpful – I appreciate the pointers. I have a FAN page but don’t do much with it. Most of your examples are consumer good specific – do you have any additional suggestions/ideas for someone offering professional services? Just not as sexy as peanut butter cups.
Jack, there are takeaways in the professional space too for this. You could give value — for example, links to blog posts on your wall (and that’s easy; there’s nothing FBML about it!). But you can also think along the lines of other creative implementations. For example, let’s say you’re an insurance agency or a bank. In both cases, you can build an app on your Facebook wall that will let you estimate your monthly renter’s/homeowner’s insurance costs or your mortgage.
Let’s say you did something along the lines of what I do — social media consulting and strategy. What if you hosted a nice quiz that determined individuals’ needs?
What if you had offices everywhere? You could set up an office locator.
The key here is to be creative.
Fantastic advice, and one that people need to read before Facebook finally takes over the web!
Thank you, Andy. 🙂
Sold. Agreed. Great post here, as usual, you have the pulse of this, as many organizations are trying to decide what to do and not do.
Great stuff.
Dean
…and this is just the beginning. I’ve been told I should make an eBook. I might just take everyone up on that!
Hi,
Great post! I loved the tips and direction on where to take your facebook fan page. I just have one question. I’m trying to create an atmosphere where individual brands can post on the umbrella brands facebook fan page- I know business pages can’t do this, but can I create brand profile pages? This is my biggest hurdle right now, I can’t wait until the page is up and running and I can use your tips!
Cheers.
Jill
Hi Jill, I’m not entirely sure what you mean — can you create brand profile pages? Sure, I guess. What exactly is stopping you?
Is this a question for a legal department? Or … can you give me specifics?
If brand A has sub-brand B, there’s no easy way to affiliate the two pages, if that’s what you mean. You can say sub-brand B is a “favorite” page of brand A and vice versa – but otherwise, I’m not sure what you’re asking.
Thanks for the response Tamar!
Your example was exactly what I was talking about- I appreciate your insights and glad I found your blog!
Cheers
Great post! You really know how to dig deep and give a ton of great content.
Thanks Katy 🙂
EXCELLENT post Senorita Weinberg! Very thorough and great for usage as a training tool. Definitely going to have our new Social Media Intern read this over before revamping our Facebook strategy. The all encompassing nature of your posts make it much easier for CEO’s of small companies to train new employees in a quick & easy way…so for that…thanks! I’ve also used some of your older posts as training material, such as the Best Internet Marketing Posts of 2009 & Best Internet Marketing Posts of 2008…both classics imho 🙂
Thank you sir buddha 😉 <3
Thats a great and comprehensive information! Also if you are not doing social media right it can actually harm your business! So those who are running social media campaigns should be aware of that!
Yup! I always point to my social media etiquette handbook on what it means to do things wrong. 🙂
i find that encouraging participation on normal facebook pages is very difficult. it has a bit to do with privacy concerns in my opinion. we can often see what our friends are commenting on in other profiles, so we know for ourselves to not bother participating.
Elliott, interesting observation. I personally never see this. If someone is an ardent supporter of a brand, I know that he’d be proud to show that on his Facebook profile. If you were posting to something like this, I kind of understand why you wouldn’t want the world to know.
I really do not see engagement being at a minimum if you have the right followers and they use Facebook actively. If you’re having difficulty with participation, you likely aren’t engaging them with nuggets that resonate or you’re not doing it often enough for them to care or want to remember you.
well that brings me to another point – there is a lot of groundwork that needs to be done before you can just open up a facebook page and let the world in. engagement has to be built into your products or your message.
as for not seeing engagement at a minimum – you can even see this in effect with some really major brands. i feel like many of them had 5x the amount of friends on myspace than they do on facebook.
bottom line – facebook wasnt designed for brands. its for people to chat with their friends, so this integration of pages will be awkward for a long time to come. look how much tweaking it is taking to make it work on their part: are you my fan – do you like me, what info has to show up in the news feed etc.
Tamar, what’s your take on Fan Pages VS Groups if the organization has the need for a more focused dialogue. For example, running a store that sells both books and video games and I’d like to run a conversation on books, and one on video games.
Tove, I still would never recommend groups. Way too oldschool. People don’t even talk about them anymore. There are discussions on Facebook Pages and I’d recommend to bring the ongoing dialogue there.
This is what I say the Surefire Ways to maximize Facebook pontential. FB is a powerful social media channel that when used in the most proper way can give you the results you’ve been desiring. Thanks for this informative post!
Edited: You’re welcome, but your name isn’t Tampa Internet Marketing so I’m calling you Tim. Again, please do not violate my blog policy. I’m not going to help you rank for that term and do not appreciate being exploited.
Facebook business pages are so much more fun than regular profile pages. I can see several ways where you don’t have to just “talk business” but can start discussions about trends, ideas, inspirations, etc. This is also a great way to see what people are interested in, thus providing some feedback for you to use for developing future products/services.
I love the idea of having customers post photographs of them interacting with products and having casual surveys or quizzes to increase involvement.
Thanks Faith – there’s so much you can do with them and it’s great!
Thank you for the informative post. Once you have signed up for a Facebook fan page, is there an easy way to get that page to be the default for making posts? When I want to ‘like’ a post and have it linked to my fan page, my personal account comes up instead. Am I missing something?
Thanks again for the great info and screen shots. I’ll forward the info to my business clients.
Hi Natalie,
I’m not sure I understand the question. When you click on “view my profile,” your personal page will show up. There’s no way to change this.
Is that what you’re trying to do, or did I misunderstand what you’re aiming to achieve?
Thanks for the prompt response! Sorry for not being too clear.
You have a Share link at the top of your post that I would love to use to share your info on my business/fan page. But when I click the Share button, it takes me to my personal page to share the info there. Is there a way to change a setting with Facebook so it shares to my fan page instead?
Thanks for your help!
Nope 🙁 That’s yet another shortcoming of Facebook. You’d have to manually add the URL and your commentary to the Fan page(s) of your choosing.
I appreciate you finally verifying that for me! I couldn’t find an answer anywhere and I thought that maybe I was missing something. I look forward to more of your informative posts.
Hello Tamar! It’s me Marco from American Home Guides! I found this post linked from a Fan Page that I helped design (a New Jersey design and development firm) and said, way to go Tamar!. I wanted to mention that the size for profile pictures is actually 200 x 600 pixels… Take a look at the mdo studio Fan Page, we created (Tito & I) a Microsite which we’re going to start promoting soon… http://www.facebook.com/mdostudio
HA! Hi Marco! So good to see you here 🙂 It’s been 11 years!
The reason why I said 180×540 is because some people have said in the comments here that 200×600 is not working anymore. I should probably just say in the article that it’s a difference of opinion and some sizes work while others don’t. When did you create your page? I can’t figure out why some people can get 200×600 whereas others cannot, but I’ll make the change in the article. Thanks!
Fantastic post, read some but addedyou to 'favorites' so that i canread your post at leisure.
There is a lot to digest - that's not a complaint!
Thank you Annie!
Hi, I am interested in marketing my small business. I see we can only have one facebook account? Can I transition everything in to a business account and change all my settings? Thank you!
Hi Lisa – yes you should, but it’s a completely manual process. And you can have multiple Facebook pages – you just can’t have multiple Facebook profiles. See this post for more.
Hi Tamar, perfect article, as always. I’d like to tell you that i love your work and winsdow and here in Brazil we have an universe of opportunities in social media field that i have proud to see this change in course from the begining. I’ve just finished the techinical revision of your book, the new comunnity rules, for Alta Books Brasil and it’s a pleasure and a honor for me to do this job. thank you for the guindance. I’m alredy do the techinical revision from Inbound Marketing Book ( Halligan e Shah) . You know about the potencial of brazilian market. Second position in social media acess ( in hours) worldwide.
Nice to meet you.
Luiz
Thanks so much Luiz! Glad you found this all valuable. 🙂
Hi Tamar,
I have created a page for my business on my personal facebook profile but it is not visible for any one else to see. Can you maybe tell me where I can edit the visibility of my business page?
Thank you,
Sanya
Sanya, did you create a Facebook Page or a Facebook Profile? Please see this guide to tell the difference.
To answer your question, I JUST created a BRAND new page and it’s already live. It sounds like you made a profile page, in which case you used the wrong option.
You may want to consider updating this article. Just recently, Facebook made the switch from “Become a Fan” to “Like” to make the site more universal. Also, the “Like” button is clicked almost double the amount that “Become a fan” is. This further assisted in making the switch. For more info search “Facebook like replaces become a fan” on google.
Jordan, how would I change it? I wrote this article AFTER “Become a Fan” was changed to “Like” and my article doesn’t say anything about either. Seriously, is this comment spam? You forgot your URL.
Comment spam? I’m sorry it may have been a miscommunication among some that haven’t realized the switch. Especially because on pages now they do not refer to people that “like” the page as fans besides to the admin to my knowledge. It’s okay, just a simple misunderstanding.
Sorry, yeah, as per our email dialogue, I’m not really sure I can call it anything but a Fan Page as these are specifically written for official Facebook Pages (there really is no other option; this type of customization is not available for Community Pages). And as mentioned, I explain the difference here. But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with how this post was written. Most people still call them Fan Pages rather than Official Pages (it’s also got a lot fewer syllables!)
Im trying to figure out how to have a new graphic show up once the FB user clicks the “Like” button on the fan/business page.
Do you know how to do this?
California Pizza Kitchens FB page does this…
Any help would be great!
You might want to ask on this thread since it’s more applicable to Facebook FBML design.
I assume you can display different code whether they’re a fan or not. It would help you to read the FBML documents.
Hello… Someone knows which polls app use Ben & Jerry’s?
I like it a lot of: it dont ask about permissions and it works in tha same page…
All the polls app I ve used ask permissions and show me my vote and results in a new page.
Thanks!
I actually have no idea. Hopefully someone can help you with this! And worst case scenario – maybe you can ask on their wall.
This is a magnificent post, full of super-useful info: it must’ve taken you ages! But it’s really appreciated by me as it’s already a big help. Made the dizzying subject of Facebook Pages a lot clearer: I am, right now, beginning to experiment!
I will keep coming back to this post for more advice: top stuff!
Richard.
Good stuff, thanks Richard 🙂
Fantastic and intriguing reading….
Like some of the other posts I am hesitant to create a fan page and simply add my friends as fans knowing that most might not be interested in my services.
I plan to provide travel services and while many will find my articles and posts interesting most will probably not use my services.
However, is there a way that I can encourage groups to join my fan page? i.e. I am offering exciting student travel destinations so reaching out to a Study Abroad groups o FB would be of interest. Is this possible?
Thanks,
John
If you can find a hook, sure. Usually that hook should be an incentive that would encourage them to join your page.
Hi,
Great post with lots of useful information! I’m still getting the hang of my facebook business page and this definitely helps. I’m hoping you or another reader can answer a facebook business page related question for me. Right now, when I post to my business page, there is an option to “like” and to “comment” under the post. I’d also like to have the option to “share”. Is that possible on the business page?
Thanks!
Christine
Nope. See this open letter. You can’t comment on it as your own self, just as the page. However, you can Like it.
Hi there,
great detailed article.
I find building fans on a business page on facebook a bit of a struggle for a small business. We probably have to do more work on regular posts and presentation itself but once you have asked your customers to follow you, have a link from your site and contacted your friend, where do you go to get more people that would find what you post of interest, is there some kind of internal FB directory or other ways to let people know you are there?
Thank you for the post and all the example, great work!
Nope — no directory. The best thing you need to do is market your page, much like you’d be marketing your company’s website to the rest of the world via SEO or other tactics. Make sure there’s a link to your Facebook page on your company page to encourage more people to follow you!
Excellent post. One of the informative I’ve read to date. Still trying to wade through all that is involved in setting up and maintaining a Facebook Business page and your post really brought to light some issues I had not considered. Thanks Tamar.
Sweet — best of luck, Jon.
I have been asked by a small business owner to develop a page on Facebook. I came across your article which I found great help! The question I have is how often should you update your page? The business is a salon/spa. Thanks
At least once a day is recommended. Others say twice a day — once in the morning, once in the afternoon.
Thanks for this. I am currently looking in to the use of Facebook in relation to Local Government services (which is slightly different to marketing a commercial business I guess) but I think many of the same considerations will apply so this is really useful food for thought. I stumbled on this through Google but will be bookmarking the site and reading through your other posts for further inspiration. This seems to be an excellent free resource – really appreciate the considerable effort you must put in to it.
Thank you, Rebecca.
Tamar,
I came across your name searching for businesses and Facebook. And I was wondering if I could send you a potential article idea that has something to do with this whole concept? If you don’t mind, is there some way that I could get a hold of you, Email, website, facebook page, etc… You can get back to me through my email above. Thanks a ton.
Geoff –
You mean a guest post? The details are outlined in my blog policy.
As far as getting ahold of me, my contact form is prominently displayed in the header and there are a zillion social networks displayed on the right hand sidebar of the site. 🙂
Hi
I set up a group page for my tennis club. We have about 90 fans. I want to switch it to a Fan page. Is there a way to do this switch and not lose all the current fans and info that has been posted the last six months?
Thanks
Nope. 🙁
Bummer….
This post has been extremely helpful. Our student-run PR/Ad agency has been struggling with finding our niche on Facebook. Looks like a fanpage is definitely the way to go-time to start revamping our online presence!
Cool – thanks Megan 🙂
Tamar,
Do you recommend an upper limit for daily posting? Unless we have breaking news, I tend to recommend that my company post no more than once per day to avoid message over-saturation. Your thoughts?
Depends on your audience, really. Some people say two is the sweet spot, but others say one is fine. On one of the accounts I maintain, I’m doing 3-4.
Facebook is the new frontier for marketing.
Just think about it. You can reach millions of people across the world for FREE.
Social networking is allowing unprecedented levels of marketing for business owners.
However you need to know how to use sites like Twitter and Facebook to your advantage.
1. Make a Facebook fan page or Twitter account for your business
2. Load it up with content about your business .ie what you do, your products etc.
**3. Then get fans and followers and advertise to them via facebook status updates and twitter tweets.
My best advice would be to use a social networking marketing site. They help you get thousands of fans/ twitter followers for your business.
I know of two that I hear do a great job.
http://www.WantFans.com
http://www.Growyourfans.com
Wow what a comprehensive post, some very good insights and points raised on Facebook business pages which is a topic I am currently researching on behalf of clients.
I had never heard of the Facebook edgerank algorithm before so I have learned something new.
Thank you.
Editor’s note: Thank you, but your name and URL has been edited since you have not complied with my blog policy. Thank you for playing.
This is a good one!! I just came across it today doing a little light research and I love all the screen shots you posted. Makes it really easy to see what you’re talking about!!
Have a good one,
Laura
Thanks Laura!
I’m new to the business side of Facebook and your information is excellent. Thank you. I’ve been nominated to create a business Facebook for our company and after investigating, I’ve found out there was one already created for our company, by a user who no longer works for us. Here’s the message I get when I go to our Facebook page:
Our goal is to make this Community Page the best collection of shared knowledge on this topic. If you have a passion for Otak, Inc., sign up and we’ll let you know when we’re ready for your help. You can also get us started by suggesting a relevant Wikipedia article or the Official Site.
How can I get into this page and change it to a ‘fan page’?
That’s a Community Page. It’s the Wikipedia of Facebook and is not controlled by any single entity. It’s not created by you – it’s created likely because that former employee member had Otak Inc. under his Employment history in Facebook.
You need to create a Fan Page, Johnny. It’s not overlapping since they are two different types of pages. Here’s a good writeup on the difference between the Facebook pages.
Hi. I am so glad to find your blog. I am a novice. Our company recently had a SEO company start our fb page. We have been updating it but not generating a lot of interest so far. We wanted to host a drawing on the fb page but I do not have any idea how to go about it. Do we need to create a new tab? How do we have fb friends register for this drawing and how do we keep the drawing on our wall during the time period of the drawing? This fb page is linked to my personal fb page — should it be? I know I have asked a lot here and you may not be able to respond but I certainly would appreciate it if you could. Thanks. Jeanne Welch
Jeanne – check out wildfireapp.com so you can run the promotion within Facebook’s TOS.
Great article and now I’m a lot more clued up, but I’m still kind of struggling to see how a fan page is better than a business page with likes. I already have a business page, is it possible to create a fan page a what would be the best way to attach it etc.
Thanks again.
Mark
Aha… I figured it out… they’ve changed the name (or the common parlance has shifted) since the article was written. Thanks for the help 🙂
Dear Tamar
I need some help in finding some tutorials in using html and fbml to be able to customize tabs etc. Where would I find them? I have searched and searched but ended up with getting bombarded with courses to buy etc.Even checked youtube but didn’t find anything specific…it basically mentiones:add fbml tab-copy code blablabla but exactly that is what I don’t know how to do…..what code, from where etc. Can you point me into the right direction please.
Hi Rita, have you seen this post? I don’t have any other specific resources but hopefully this will help.
This is good & useful information to develop a fan page to use it for the marketing of your profession.
Thanks Imran.
Thank you for a really concise and informative post. I have been wrestling with the complexities of developing my Facebook pages and how to apply them to my marketing. You have helped a lot. Thanks again.
Casey
Great, I’m happy to hear. Good luck, Casey!
it is a great idea, i am looking for one way to use facebook to improve my business, but really i dont’ know how to use it well. thanks for your sharing, i will learn to use.
Hope it helps, Bill.
If you already have a personal account and want to set up a business “fan” page, is it best to logout of your personal account and create an entirely new account with different email address for the business? I don’t want to violate the “one account” rule.
Any suggestions to consider? Thanks!
Nope – you can create a page without requiring an account first. 🙂
thanks very much, it was very useful
Hi… great article. I am sure this has been addressed before, but I can’t quite find a succinct answer to the question: How does a business page post on another business page or personal profile on Facebook and have it show up as from the business? (and not the personal page of either the administrator or the person who created the business page?)
Thanks Much!
Jayden, that option does not exist. 🙁 I know, right?
Great post and filled with useful content.
Do you think you should spend more time trying to grow your fanbase internally or externally from Facebook?
I actually am not keen on people friendadding me in my personal profile for instance when I dont know them but as a company do you feel its important to communicate with everyone contacts you or be selective?
Ive found that you can get huge amounts of interaction that is often off subject and questionable as time relevant communication? thanks
I think you should engage everyone as a small business, but that’s not as easy as a larger business. Of course, ignore the off-topic communication and keep it focused to the business. 🙂
If you’re looking for a cool widget to customize your Facebook Profile picture without having to know Photoshop and spend hours doing it…http://fanpagepicture.com
Thanks for the self-promotion. Normally I don’t approve comments like this.
Great advice! Thanks!
Thank you!
I’m curious to understand the purpose of a facebook page in a business to business setting. We’re thinking about it and trying to get info to see if it makes sense for us. thanks.
I see it used all the time. Empower other businesses – highlight them in your feed. Build relationships with businesses. Businesses are comprised of people too.
Hi Tamar. I’m new to the FB world and quite confused with respect to its usage for business purposes. I have seen an example where company “A” (which has a Fan Page on FB) posts on company “B” wall (which only exists on FB as a group). How is this possible? How can an FB entity – company “A” page – become a member of a group? Thanks.
Hi Francois, by any chance, did this happen last week? Facebook rolled out some new settings and then reverted to the previous version because of some bugs. I hope they roll it back out soon!
Actually no. It seems that it has been like that for a while. The posting was from December 2nd!
Here’s the other scenario: the person who created the account created a regular Profile for a business when s/he should have created a page. I’d need to see the specifics but I’m fairly certain that they would benefit from reading this post.
So if I understand, the reason why company “A” is a member of company “B” group and thus is able to post on company “B” wall is because company “A” is actually using a FB personnal profile and not a FB (business) page, like it should? Thanks.
Francois, without seeing both accounts in question, the answer would be “probably.” There’s no other way to explain that phenomenon though. Can you link me to that company’s page?
Sorry, the first posting was with the wrong return email.
Hi Tamar. I’m new to the FB world and quite confused with respect to its usage for business purposes. I have seen an example where company “A” (which has a Fan Page on FB) posts on company “B” wall (which only exists on FB as a group). How is this possible? How can an FB entity – company “A” page – become a member of a group? Thanks.
I’m fast – I already replied 🙂
Company “A” page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tourisme-Pole-des-Rapides/107541675955502
Company “B” group: http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=16649067481
If you look on its wall on Dec 2nd, 1:37pm, there is a post from Company “A” (with an unknown logo right to its name). Furthermore, I cannot find company “A” in the group member list!!!
Thanks.
Aha, you mean this link. Yes, you can use the @ indication to tag a page — but you can’t really write ON the wall as that entity. All they did there was use the @ which lets Facebook pre-populate data with a username or Pages Liked.
Hope that makes sense.
Ah! Finally, I see the light!!! Many thanks and have the best holidays ever.
I’am stating a new business (Picture Frame Store) in Querétaro – Mexico, so i really need learn more about community web’s and believe me i’ll be an expert. However i’m so glad to find a Guru of Social Media Consultant!!
Good work Tamar! i’ll follow u.
Best regard from Mexico
Thanks 🙂
I established a personal fb page long ago but recently started a business so created a “local business” page attached with my personal page according to the instructions. Now I am wanting to add the fb “like” to my business website which I created using weebly. Unfortunately after I follow all the instructions for adding it when I past the code I get back into my website and republish my site I realize it has pulled my personal fb page info and not my “Local business” fb page. What to do what to do what to do???? Searched through all the help comments on fb and I am TOTALLY not getting the information I need to deal with this challenge :-/!
If you’re doing it with Weebly, you might have to ask their support or start anew. I’m sorry I can’t offer support for this issue.
I’m looking for ways to use my company’s Facebook page as a sink for ongoing feedback data relative to future product demand. I like the ideal of using a “Polls” tab. Is there an application out there that allows you to design your survey form as an excel spreadsheet? My survey would cover a rather large set of products, and and spreadsheet format might look more inviting than several pages of text.
Great post!
I don’t know one offhand, Lori. Maybe someone else can chime in but you might want to just refer to surveymonkey.com and point users to that via a wall post or similar.
Hi-thanks for the great info. I made a fb business page. The people who selected LIKE IT, their photos don’t show. Do you know why and how I can change it? It will say the number of people who like it, but does not show their faces. When I log in I can see them, but now from the page itself.
Thanks
Hi Lauren,
Everyone’s profile is like that? Sounds like they might have privacy settings unless it is everyone. If the latter, sounds like a bug report might need to be filed.
I work for a small local marketing agency. We have clients that want a Facebook presence. What I would like to do is set up the page, do some administration but also allow the clients themselves the ability to go into the page and add content themselves. Can pages have multiple account admins? Should I set up the page, then setup a generic FB account (required by FB)?
Hi John, yes, you can have multiple page admins. Set up the page under your Facebook account and allocate it to the admins if you have a Facebook page. It’s not required by FB to set up a generic Facebook account.
Thanks for the quick response! I just saw where I can add multiple admins. Brilliant! Excellent posts here too, btw.
One of the best Facebook business marketing articles I’ve seen with Excellent examples. 🙂
I’ve finally decided to take the plunge and set up a Facebook account, and I found your comments really great. But I seem to be confused. First, I signed up for a personal page, then I went to create a fan page (as an artist) and was told I couldn’t have two pages with the same email address (I only have one email address). Furthermore, I’ve read that I can’t have multiple accounts, but also read that I need a personal account before I can have a fan page. Help!
Hi John, don’t be upset by the title of this post. You must not be creating a page properly. You have to be logged in and then you can go to this page to create one.
Thanks Tamar, I don’t know what I did wrong, but I’m on my way now!
Hi Tamar,
This is a great post. I have a website (of course) and I’ve had a FB business page for months now, but not sure what to do with it. You are very insightful, and I look forward to implementing much of your insights to my FB page in the coming weeks.
Thank you!
Great, thanks Alfonso! Enjoy!
Wow. this article is one of the most complete I’ve read on this subject matter. You have to write a book on social media marketing. Oh, that’s right, you already have! 🙂
Thanks “Joe.” 😉
Tamar, thanks, this post is most useful in clearing up the confusion of all the various forms of FB pages.
For example, I really want to use FBML, so good to know does not work on Group page.
Do you have any guidelines of which of the 6 types of fan pages to create?
http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php
Local, Company, Brand, Artist, Entertainment, or Cause?
seems some of those overlap and one could become another later
Also, I’m an individual artist. Many of my facebook friends are artists, so far we all just talk about openings, shows, opportunities and latest art we are working on with normal facebook personal pages.
but eventually I’d like to start asking patrons to join
what would be the pros/cons of just continuing to do that (personal page) vs one of the fan pages? for example, i’ve heard can get booted off facebook if any selling starts to happen? is that true? what about on the fan pages?
or is it OK as long as selling happens elsewhere in link vs actually ON the page?
also, I’m trying to understand not only the rules and functions but also the harder to quantify “feeling”. for example, if I’m Ford Motors, obviously should have a company fan page. but for an artist, would that be too pompous? would it be better to just be another regular person? where to draw the line?
OK, enough ?, thanks
matthew
Sounds like “artist” works for me. I have one here (and that’s not an “artist” page, but it is a Facebook Page!)
Facebook Pages are all about selling, so you won’t get booted. My recommendation is to read their Terms of Service to ensure that you’re following the rules.
thank you for response and this blog
Whew, you are speaking my kind of code, an English with sources, explanation and follow up. Thank you Tamara. You are the best example for your teachings.
I still find it difficult to understand how Facebook can expand opportunities for showing and selling my Fine Art. I see I have made one mistake, I set up the business site, but I still have my personal Fb site with over 800 Friends. I’m attentive to this site and others, I’m understanding there is no way to transfer those names to the business page. I found “all” does not work to invite the Friends to see my images posted on business page.
Have you suggestions for promoting my work as an artist?
Suggestion for getting “all” to work?
I’m recommending your blog to my buddies, you are an excellent teacher for those who speak your language, those who don’t look forward to more.
Please see may art work and offer your comments, I love feedback clairehyman.com
Are you suggesting that your friends like your business page? Of course, they should be interested in it though!
I think you need to share galleries on your Facebook page beyond just your web presence. Perhaps you can tell stories behind the inspiration. Perhaps you can use your page to get other people to share their favorite art pieces and contribute ideas for your next project. How about leveraging your community to build your next piece?
@claire hyman, I don’t think you need to concern about getting all 800 to go over and see your art business site, this will all sort of happen organically. just keep posting art to your personal page, and mention occasionally that you also have a business page & those that want will see it and visit. although with 800, perhaps you could just stay on the personal page. this is the tricky thing about artists. I understand the point that Tamar makes about not walking up and saying, “hello, I’m Mr. Gas Station” but with artists, we are in a funny middle category, since the person and the art sort of goes together. We don’t call gas station Jackson Pollock Gas – but we do use personal name to identify the art. Except for the ones who do not (banksy and such)
In order to make your Facebook page sell for you, make sure your customers can find you! Add a store locator to your Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/storefinder
Hi
Read your piece, loved it BUT.. I am a bit confused. I am thinking of opening a FB Fan Page as you suggested for my small business promoting a product. I want to create a website and link it. BIG QUESTION! How is this going to make me money? You suggest answering questions and blogging twice a day. OK who runs the business? We are in the UK- we only service the UK, have 2 staff-no budget to hire a PR firm to maintain this FB network. How is answering a question from a guy in Texas going to make me money in the UK? I can’t be the only local business thinking about jumping on board this craze, but to invest time and money what is the real return? You talk about a fan base- so what? How many will actually benefit you. In my case you will not make any money off me, you will invest time answering my question (although it is very very welcomed) -what do you stand to gain for all your effort?
I have read all the comments praising you but few asking-SHOW ME THE MONEY! interesting to see if you publish this one.
Thank you for sharing your experience. My Facebook page is now efficiently created !
Editor’s note: Thanks for your comments. However, as stated in my blog policy, I have asked you to use your real name. I do not think your name is “Free KPI” and have edited your comment and URL as explained in the blog policy. Oh, and I stole your link.
Thank you Tamar. I was looking for a “How to use FaceBook for Business” Type of guide. You layout quite a bit. I can see to really get down into all the aspects of FaceBook might take 20 or 30 pages.
I’ve had my successes with SEO and it is my understanding the FaceBook will become increasingly part of SEO.
Lots to learn! Thank you for your help!
Editor’s note: It pains me to do this, but policies are policies. Thanks for your comments. However, as stated in my blog policy, I have asked you to use your real name. I do not think your name is “php developer” and have edited your comment and URL as explained in the blog policy. Oh, and I stole your link.
hi i m doing a research on relationship marketing using social networking sites. can u pls suggest me some problems or objectives of research in this contextThanks for the great info. Navigating this social media feels a bit like floating in the middle of the ocean without a compass. I think I’m on the right track but was wondering how you can tell the difference between a fan, group or business page? I have 2 pages for my business, 1 was created years ago and I think it might be a group page? We created another more recently but I want to make sure I’m on the right path and not creating a fan page. I would like something that people can like but also that posts promotions, pic, etc.
I am running a group buying company and not on face book personally. How do I get more people to “facebook” like my site
Tim, are you using Facebook at all for your company? If so, these tips will work, as will this guide. If not, that’s a larger marketing question. Feel free to buy my book on general social media marketing.
This is the first article on the net that i have found that explains facebook in great detail recently set up business page for company i work for its struggling along but hopefully it will get there keep up the good work first time reading one of your articles but it wont be my last
Hi Tamar
Q – can I create a fan page under my main business profile for a different business model but still keep the 2 separate. Basically running another avenue of business under this second page and feeding my main business with likes when cross marketing opportunities arise.
Or / and can I use the likes from this second business for my main business or is this unethical
Lastly, can I use an RSS feed to show content from my company website which promotes a new product everyday to fans?
I am still very new to Facebook, please excuse some ignorance
Tim, the answer is yes for everything. 🙂
Amazing article, thanks for the great info
Hi, would like to say this is the best article on using facebook for your business i have found (and i have been looking for a while!) Very thorough, and some great ideas.
Also i have a question. You mention with the usernames to make sure you apply the username to your Facebook Page, not your personal profile. Unfortunately, having found this article too late, i had already created a username for the personal profile and NOT the page. Is there anyway around this, as getting a username that links someone directly to our page is part of the reason we decided to get facebook for our business in the first place.
Thank you Tamar, i will definitely be keeping an eye on your blog as i attempt to bring our business to social media.
Hi Kali, thanks so much. Unfortunately for the username, you may be out of luck. The only way to get it back is to file a copyright claim against yourself to my understanding. If you have a trademark or something like that, you can definitely try to move forward with it.
Ok great thank you for your help 🙂
Hi, Karl, Tamar,
Actually Facebook now provides a way for business owners to convers their personal profile pages into business pages:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php?migrate
Read more details about it here:
http://www.m-travel.com/news/2011/05/how-to-change-your-facebook-profile-page-to-a-business-page.html
Hi Daniel, note that I wrote this post in 2010. Things change in a year.
That said, a LOT of businesses have issues with the migration, so I don’t know if I’m ready to recommend it just yet. 🙂
What a great stuff! My new bookmark!
Great write-up. I have just started really looking into FB for business cause a client of mine asked me to put their business on it.
I have looked everywhere but have not found a way to create a page for my customers without violating Facebook’s TOS. I know that companies do set up Facebook pages for their customers, so I’m sure I’m missing something.
Joe, I’m not sure I understand the question. Many people build Facebook pages for their clients. There’s no violation of TOS here.
If I am an authorized agent for the company (they are my client). I imagine that I would create a business account as if I were the client. However that would be multiple accounts so would be in violation of Facebook TOS.. I hope this explains it well, as I have been trying for a week to get a answer somewhere. If not I can take this to email if you like.
Joe – why don’t you create a Facebook Page and not a profile? That’s the distinction. It’s against Facebook’s policies to create a personal profile for a company. That’s the type of account that violates TOS when you possess two of them (even if not for a company). You need only go to https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php
Creating a Page is just what I wanted to do, I just never until now got a answer to the question you just fully explained!! Thank you so much you are defiantly my new hero!!
woohoo, happy to help 🙂
I wish I had read this article before I made a profile account for my site instead of a Page. Now I’m trying to “migrate” the profile into a Page and I’m getting this error: “Our automated system has detected that the name “yyyyy” is not same or similar to your profile name “xxxxx”. Please keep it same or similar and retry.”. What should I do???
I wish I had a positive answer for this one, but I haven’t heard many success stories with the page migration wizard, Johnny. Sorry about the issue!
This is one of the best Facebook marketing guides I’ve read so great job!
I have one really simple question though. How do you create a business page without FB grabbing all your personal FB profile info and filling it up with your friends, family etc ? As soon as you use your real name (which they insist on) they look up for personal profile and assume you want all the same friends on your business page. I DON’T. It drives me crazy. I want 1 page for personal and another for business, and NO connection between the 2.
Hi, Thank You for sharing! You might also get value from http://www.facebook-fb.com to Submit and List Facebook Page URL, Products, Services, City, State, Country of Business and to Find Facebook Page URL of Business. Kindly share it with your friends! Best! Shakti Saran
Great post Tamar. You seem to know what you’re talking about, and I’ve been having a lot of trouble finding the answer to this FB biz vs personal page issue.
Maybe I’m just dim, but the FB TOS are extremely confusing to me, making it seem like you can’t have a personal profile and a biz profile at the same time. But the confusion comes in when I go to create a biz “Page,” FB asks me for my “Personal” profile login (?!). Doesn’t this directly conflict with their TOS?
So, here’s my situation, if you’d be so kind 🙂
I have a personal profile page, and my biz partner has a personal profile page too. He created our biz profile page (at least what he/we *think* is a FB “Page”). We are both admins of that page.
However, when we click the FB logo while logged into that biz Page, we see *his* name and profile info. While in that profile, we can click the “Pages” link in the left nav and see our biz Page listed under the “Pages” section.
Ok, so that seems fine, right(?) It *seems* as though our biz Page is indeed a “Page” and not a “Profile.”
However #2: The FB TOS say that we shouldn’t be able to see our fans’ profiles when we click on them from a biz page… and we can. When logged in as the biz Page, I can click on any fan and see their basic profile pic, etc, but not their wall, etc.
So, this *seems* to say to me that this isn’t a “Page” after all.
Does this make any sense? I don’t want to get shut off by FB for having multiple accounts. Is there any way to verify if my page is set up correctly as not to violate FB TOS?
Thanks so much for your insight
Hi Josh, seems you’re confused between personal profiles and pages. This article may help clarify.
I can’t really diagnose your issue without being logged into this account, so if you’d like to hire me for consulting, I’d be happy to investigate for you.
Thanks for the fast reply Tamar. I guess the whole cause of anxiety for me is the conflicting language FB uses:
“If I already have a user profile, can I create a business account?
Maintaining multiple accounts, regardless of the purpose, is a violation of Facebook’s Terms of Use. If you already have a personal account, then we cannot allow you to create business accounts for ANY reason. You can manage all the Pages and Socials Ads that you create on your personal account.”
http://www.facebook.com/help/?topic=business_accounts
This seems very conflicting. I must be reading it wrong, or it’s just poorly written. The page then goes on to say how it’s ok to manage multiple “Pages,” etc. Very confusing for a FB newbie like me.
The only reason I’m a little freaked out is I’ve heard horror stories of people building up thousands of “Likes” then getting shut off in an instant by FB because of TOS violations. I just want to avoid that 🙂
Thanks again,
Josh
Josh — a business account is a Facebook Page, and in 99.998% of cases, is never a standalone account. If you read that article I quoted, the differences should be clear.
You set up an account to create Pages. Pages are business destinations. Accounts are for personal use only.
You won’t avoid that if you understand that difference. 🙂
Hi Tamar,
I created a personal Facebook account. Then I created a Page for my business, which I administer through the personal account. I’d like to pretty much ignore the personal account, and do all my communication and posting through my business Page, but am not sure how. For example, if I go to someone else’s page and Like it, then make a comment, it does so with my personal account. How can I Like someone, and post comments through my business page only?
John – go to your business page and click on “Use Facebook as [business name]” – use that regularly. You’d have to switch back to be John (it takes some getting used to) but that should be what you’re looking for.
Excellent! And easy too.
Thanks much
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is exactly what I was looking for! Thank you for taking the time to do this and most importantly for sharing this for free.
I recently graduated from college (non-business related degree) and have resorted to working for the family business.
Thanks a million!
Great post. One error that you can see very often (or, really, a constellation of errors) can be summarized in very general terms as “trying to use Facebook for things that should be done (or could be done much better/easier/with fewer constraints, etc.) on a website”. I’d like to see a post on this topic. Where businesses are concerned, your website must always be the hub of your web presence. Facebook, YouTube, etc should be thought of as enhancements to your website functionality, not the other way around.
when i open my facebook profile with username it does not land for facebook page. can u please advice how to apply username for facebook pages. also please advice how to link my facebook profile username with facebook page
Wow, way more in depth than the average facebook marketing post. Quick question – what’s the value of facebook to smaller websites that only profit when someone fills out one of their three forms? I have this problem with a client. The niche is as boring as it gets. Should we still use Facebook, or just forget it?
Excellent blog post!! I am eager to learn more about social media marketing. I enjoyed the layout of the blog featuring screen shots integrated within the text. I plan to apply some of this advice to my own page and also plan to take pieces of what I’ve learned here in what I teach other businesses. Keep up the good work!
I never thought it would be that effective to use Facebook for my business. First I decided to create a minimized version of my site and add a custom tab on Facebook for it. That’s the first time I used pre-made app – iFrame Tab Plus – https://apps.facebook.com/buildiframetab/. Then I discovered that I can also display different types of content for my fans and non-fans to convince them to become fans. Now Facebooking is the favorite part of my business activity.
I have noticed lately as you may have individuals business facebook pages showing up on the first pages of google search results for some highly competitive search phrases.
Clearly some business owners are in the know on how to utilise Facebook for google. Finding such results lead me to search for using facebook for business which in turn lead me to your informative tutorial.
Thank for the info Tamar – Great step by step instructions I am a bit old school just starting to into the whole social media marketing so thanks.
Hi Tamar,
Your information was very thorough, and I learned a lot about what I should do to promote my interests in helping people start working on their individual areas using self-improvement. Thanks for saving me hours of extra research. It looks like I should create a Fan Page as you suggested, but I’m not sure what category I should choose. Any suggestions? Since I’m just getting started, everything is a bit in the information overload bucket right now.
Keep up the good work, and make yourself a prosperous day.
Best wishes,
Bill
I’m not sure what category you should choose either, Bill. It’s really what you feel best suits your needs. That’s one of the hardest questions to answer, to be honest!
Hi Tamar,
Fantastic work, lots to come away with and think about. However, I’m going crazy with something I hope you may be able to shed some light on. I have taken over the FB page for the department I work for. The person who set it up has it linked to her own personal account and these both share the same log-in details. When I log in I know to switch accounts so that I always post from the business account. However, because the personal account is the primary account, I seem to be restricted from being as fully functional with the business page. For example, when trying to link the business Twitter account to the business FB account tweets will post only on the personal account and not the business FB account it is intended for. Is it possible to completely divorce these accounts from one another so the business FB page is not linked with my colleague’s personal FB account? I had considered removing her as an admin for the business account but i suspect this won’t achieve anything and that her persoanl page would still just be linked to the business account.
Any thoughts would be gratefully received.
Hi David, you can add additional admins to a page. That seems to be needed here. Without seeing the specifics, it appears that your suggest removal would work, though.
Hi Tamar,
Many thanks for your prompt reply. I had added myself as an admin which allowed me to post basic updates etc. However, because the business account was created by my colleague via her own personal page, this means when i try to link the business twitter account to the business FB account it only goes to the personal account. I have since removed the personal account holder but all this has done is totally remove all access to the business account. All that I can access now is the personal page – it’s just bizarre. The business page still exists, the log-ins were the same but since I removed her as an admin for the business it seemd to have revomed me as an admin too and now I can’t access the business account at all. Freaking out now!
Nicely written tips and practical know how…
Thanks for this wonderful blog.
I like it.
Hi Tamar,
Just when things seem to start working out, it looks like more changes are coming. How will the new Timeline that Facebook has started affect all the business Fan Pages that are out there right now? The new idea from Facebook looks like it will require more technical skill and ingenuity for businesses to use their Fan Pages to market with. Or, am I just confused and don’t understand the implications of Timeline?
Thanks for your take on this.
Best regards,
Bill
Hi Bill,
I don’t necessarily think so. The additions really are just the actual timeline (e.g. when your company was founded) and new resized images and apps. I will have a post on this soon. 🙂
The creativity still needs to be there, but I don’t think Timeline changes anything in the way of that.
What if there were an app that allows you to do everyting with your Facebook account that the timeline doesn’t?
https://www.facebook.com/socialgimme/app_232846633487007
Let me know your thoughts okay?
Best Richard.
I am into liquid detergent production in Nigeria, please is there a way you can help me with Marketing my product on Facebook. My page on Facebok is Tolulope Fatuase Ajose, while my product group is Xtra Sparklean.
Thank you
Thank you very much for the wonderful information.
I really appreciate your good intention & helping mind.
Thank you once again
Hi Tamara, Just came across your post. Its a great and highly informative read. Am having drama trying to create a good Facebook Fan page. Any ideas??
You should check out Tim Ware’s “how to create a great Facebook page” articles for 2012 and 2011. 🙂