Today’s post for small business websites focuses on maximising the benefit of Facebook Pages. A Facebook page for your business is a great way to interact with your clients and customers, and link back to your own website. The greatest benefit is in word of mouth exposure – when one person ‘likes’ or ‘becomes a fan’ of your Page, the rest of their friends can see your business name, and click the link to view it for themselves. In this article we’ll highlight some tip and tricks for new Facebook Page owners – and existing Facebook Page owners might also discover something new!
Creating your Facebook Page
If you haven’t already created a Facebook Page, here’s how:
- Visit: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php
- Follow the instructions to create a page
- Make sure you put a link to your website in your business details section
- Once your page is created, you’ll be able to access it via the ‘Account’ menu at the top right, then click ‘Use Facebook As A Page’
One of the most difficult concepts to grasp once you’ve made a page is switching back and forth from yourself to the Page. When you login to Facebook, you are ‘You’. When you switch to ‘Use Facebook As A Page’, you become the ‘Page’. Whilst you are the page, you can ‘like’ other Pages, post messages on other Pages, and post on your own Page. The messages you post will appear to come from ‘Your Business’. However, you can’t access your personal friends until you switch back to ‘You’.
Now, go out and get some fans – the first one should be you, of course! Make sure you are logged in as ‘You’, not the ‘Page’, and click the ‘Like’ button at the top of your Page. Get your friends involved by clicking ‘Invite friends’ on the far right, and ticking the box next to friends you think will like your Page. They’ll receive an invite and a link to your page. Below you’ll find some more advanced tips and tricks for becoming a master at Facebook Pages.
A Custom Facebook Address/URL
You can secure for your Fan Page a custom URL, such as facebook.com/TrystalTech, instead of having to send people to facebook.com/pages/Trystal-Tech/333705765841. It looks far more professional, and is a lot easier to remember.
Once you choose your Custom URL, you cannot change it, so think carefully about what you want your users to see.
Visit www.facebook.com/username to get your own custom address for your page!
UPDATE 15/09/2011: You no longer need to have a minimum of 25 followers to get a Facebook username for your page – anyone can do it!
Tagging other Pages
Linking to other fan pages is a great way to send some love to your fellow businesses! And hopefully, they will link back to you in their own update if they feel that their fans might benefit from what your page has to offer.
You can tag your ‘liked’ pages by typing the @ symbol in the status update box, and the first few letters of their name. The list should display Fan pages that match those letters, and you can click on the right page to select it. Then when you post your status update, the fan page you mentioned will get a notification from your Fan page.
Tagging your Fans in your Statuses
Tagging one of your fans from your Fan page is a great way to get their attention – but be careful, it’s also one of the fastest ways to lose followers if you tag too often, or your tags aren’t relevant. It’s a lot like email – if you keep getting emails that you aren’t interested in, you’re likely to unsubscribe, or send those emails straight to the bin.
You’ll notice if you are logged in as your Page, that when you type the magic @ symbol to link to another profile, you only get a list of the other pages you like – you can’t tag a personal profile, even if they’re a Fan of yours.
There is one way to get around this for status updates, as long as the fan is also your friend. You need to set your Personal profile to ‘Always post as your Page’.
Go to your page, and hit the grey ‘Edit page’ button at the top right of the screen. Then click ‘Your Settings’ at the top left. The first option should be “Posting Preferences: Always comment and post on your page as Your Page even when using Facebook as Your Profile.” Make sure the box is ticked, and click ‘Save Changes’.
Now go back to your Page (click the ‘View Page’ button at the top right). Click ‘Use Facebook as Your Profile’. Now you can type the status update in, use the @ to tag your friend, and when you hit Enter, the post will come up as being from Your Page, and they’ll get a notification that ‘Your Page tagged you in a status update’!
Tagging your Fans in your Photos
When you tag someone in a photo, all of their friends get to see that photo in their updates stream, and therefore link back to your page.
You’ll notice if you are logged in as your Page, that when you click the ‘Tag This Photo’ button, you only get a list of the other pages you like – you can’t tag a person, even if they’re a Fan of yours.
The answer is, they need to be a friend of your personal profile before you can tag them. Then, make sure you are using Facebook as Your Name, and you should get the option to tag the person in the photo. However, they’ll be notified that ‘Your Name’ has tagged them in a photo, not ‘Your Page’.
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