Construct and optimize a Facebook Fan Page for your business

By Kobus Venter

I have blogged about issues of interest to me and related to my business for the last couple of years and thought it was about time to venture out into the world of Social Media Networking. The first thing I did was to create a Fan Page on Facebook, before I even owned a private Facebook account and in fact I only used Facebook for business in the first few years. Thereafter I learned how effective 140 characters can be to communicate (tweet) with your fans. Sometimes you don’t want to say much, just share a photo or a link, and for that, Twitter will suffice, but you also want to share it on Facebook, so why not link the two up? I have listed a few pointers below which will put you on a path to using Facebook for your business:

Follow this step by step guideline to set up your Facebook Fan Page:
http://mashable.com/2011/05/22/how-to-facebook-page/

According to Social media expert Mari Smith (http://www.marismith.com/) the ‘About’ section in your Facebook profile actually contains the meta description for your Page so make sure it has your keywords. Construct a nice little write-up about what your business does or how it came into being with a clickable website. Also see these useful guidelines: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/facebook-101-business-guide/

If you have a Blog such as WordPress, use Publicize to send posts to Facebook:

http://en.support.wordpress.com/publicize/#setting-up-publicize

Link up your Facebook with Twitter. Your tweets are posted as Facebook status updates and you can also install the Twitter application on Facebook to send the corresponding message as a tweet.

http://apps.facebook.com/twitter/

Post images along with links in your posts and change the cover photo of your Fan Page regularly as this will show up on the walls of those who have Liked your page. According to an informal study by MarketingSherpa (@marketingsherpa) professional image content generates 121% more Facebook shares.

If you write status updates in first person then you should sign off each post with your first name e.g. “I want to share this info with you, I believe it’s valuable. By Tom Smith (Example)”.

See Video Replay of #SMcrunchtime by @MariSmith bit.ly/MariPrt1 and bit.ly/MariPrt2

Use HootSuite to manage all your social media sites in one convenient dashboard page:

http://www.bridiestypingservices.com/why-you-should-be-using-hootsuite/

Update your Facebook status outside of business hours as most people won’t have time to read them immediately. Time the post to correspond with the Time Zone of the users you want to connect with first.

See Video Replay of #SMcrunchtime by @MariSmith bit.ly/MariPrt1 and bit.ly/MariPrt2

Write out your Facebook and Twitter address on your contact page or blog posts and emails along with the social media icon
e.g.

www.facebook.com/vuthisa

https://twitter.com/vuthisa (@vuthisa)

Once you have had more than 1000 Facebook Likes or Twitter followers and to truly grow your business you may need some more personnel to help manage content and do follow-ups. Appoint a content curator, full-time employee, personal- or virtual assistant to help, but still reviewing each message before they are sent out.

See Video Replay of #SMcrunchtime by @MariSmith bit.ly/MariPrt1 and bit.ly/MariPrt2

Draw up an Editorial Calendar and plan ahead for the week what you want to tweet or share on your Fan Page: http://www.hannonhill.com/news/blog/2012/how-to-set-up-your-editorial-calendar-free-template.html

Create a mailing list and spread the word about your online presence. It helps you to directly engage with your users and promote your products. You may need to offer something in return for people joining your email list, like a free Ebook.

http://www.incomediary.com/outstanding-email-list-building-success-in-6-easy-steps

Additional resources

Much of what I listed above I learned from watching the playback of the LIVE Webinar I attended recently hosted by renowned Social Media Expert Mari Smith: Social Media Crunch Time!

Part 1 Video Replay of #SMcrunchtime @MariSmith bit.ly/MariPrt1 ~ Note 37 min mark on @Anne_McKevitt #socialmedia http://t.co/77SYz18N [pic]

Part 2 Video Replay of #SMcrunchtime @MariSmith bit.ly/MariPrt2 ~ Note 10min 15sec mark on @SOULinstitute #socialmedia pic.twitter.com/hbxZhNzA [pic]