Facebook – A Shining Star in the Social Media World
Did you know that Facebook has over 350 million active users? Did you know that over 700,000 local businesses have active Business pages on Facebook? Did you know that it’s against Facebook terms of use to use your personal profile page to do business there?
Facebook is not only for kids! The fastest growing demographic on Facebook is ages 35-49!
With the explosion of Facebook profiles and business pages, what are you doing to make your page stand out? As a Social Media Specialist, I help my clients impress and stay top of mind in the Facebook and Social Media space. Here are 3 tips on things you can do to make your Facebook Business Page sing.
1. Enlarge the photo
Facebook allows you a 200×600 pixel space for your graphic or photo. Why not make good use of it? Make sure that your graphic or photo is high resolution so that when you re-size it, the quality doesn’t degrade. Include some extra information like your website address or your physical address if you are a storefront.
When choosing your font type, choose one like Verdana or Arial that will display well in a jpeg for e.g., when you upload it. Legibility is important.
2. Permit tagging
One of the ways to be viral in this space is to allow your fans to tag photos. (Thanks Kathy Colaiacovo for helping find where you can do this for pages…it’s buried!) By default, this option is turned off on Facebook Fan pages. To permit tagging, follow these instructions:
a) Go to Edit Page
b) Locate the photo section
c) Click edit
d) Click edit settings, and ‘Allow Fans to Tag Photos’.
Note to my clients if you are reading this…I have already enabled this for you!
This is a great way to be seen in the news feed. One word of caution. Check your privacy settings with respect to people being able to post photos to your wall. Also be judicious when posting unflattering photos of others and be sensitive to how these photos might be syndicated. This applies to your personal profile as well.
3. Welcome Page
Consider designing or getting someone to design a Welcome Page for you. This is a great landing page for those who are new to your business page. On this page you can provide an overview of your business and use graphics, audio and video to really make your page stand out. You can also set it so that anyone new visiting your page will land on this page first. Once they have ‘fanned’ your page, upon returning to your page in the future, they will then be directed to your wall. This will also be a Tab that you can situate on your navigation bar so that even your existing fans can visit it.
It’s tough to land in the middle of conversation, so these Welcome Pages are a great intro. You will need FBML to create this page. If you are not skilled in this area, a Social Media Specialist who has the training, like myself, can help you.
Above all, the most important thing on your business page is your content. You want people to return to your page again and again, so provide some real value here. Share some great industry news, provide great links and engage people in conversation on a regular basis. That’s what it’s all about.
Facebook will likely be at a half billion users by the 2011. Businesses are recognizing the power of this application and the opportunities it presents to move your business forward. Isn’t it time for you to investigate it a little further?
What do you think? Do you have a Facebook Business Page? Does it sing? I love getting feedback. Here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv. That’s a plugin that allows bloggers to leave a link back to their own blog. How great is that? But you don’t have to be a blogger to leave a comment. I’d love to hear from everyone.
While physically located in Newmarket, ON where Joanne lives with her family, she is virtually yours, anywhere.
Until next time,
Joanne
Hi Terry, yes the Commentluv plugin is a great little tool for backlinks. All my clients have it installed on their sites. In answer to your question regarding Facebook business pages, it is extremely important that your brand be consistent across on all sites. This includes your logo, your picture, etc. I create custom landing pages for my clients who have a Facebook Business Pages. These pages are also branded and optimized. I also create customized Twitter and YouTube backgrounds to ensure consistent branding. Hope that helps.
Joanne
Nice bit of information. Nice plugin for allowing backlink to commenter blog.
I am wondering how important it is to have your facebook business page look and feel to match the look and feel of your web site?
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