The Benefits of Setting up a Facebook Business Page

by Scott Reynolds
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Facebook is the single biggest social networking site, in terms of number of users. It’s easy to use; you can easily separate business and personal ‘friends’ and it’s a wonderfully simple way to connect with your target audience on a regular basis and in a meaningful way. However, in order to take advantage of all that Facebook offers, you may want to consider setting up a page for your business.

What Is a Facebook Business Page?

A Facebook business page enables you to drive traffic to a unique place separate from your profile page. It enables you to post all of the information about your business including updates, promotions and events, links to your website or blog and even content.

In fact, some people are foregoing a website all together and using a Facebook business page as their primary business tool to represent them online. This isn’t necessarily a good idea because Facebook changes their rules often and if your business page is your only online page then you may run into challenges in the future. However, as a supplemental marketing tool a Facebook fan page is an excellent way to build and grow your audience.

It allows you to customize it however you choose. You can add photos, discussion forums, micro-blogging, videos, events and a whole host of features and tools.

It provides you with the ability to instantly update your page.

You have access to the more than 300 million Facebook members. The “Business” page allows you to gather fans rather than friends and this separation means you can send messages to your fans without updating your personal profile. It enables you the unique ability to separate personal and professional on Facebook – a feature many business owners are finding is very necessary.

A business page enables you as a business owner to hold serious business discussions with interested, and qualified, prospects. It helps you build a community around your business, a vital tool to growing an online business.

Facebook business pages also provide business owners with analytics and data so you can test and track responses and make educated decisions about your business and your social networking strategies.

And because Facebook has an API they’ve released to developers, there are a large number of people working on ways to expand the features, tools and usability of a business page.

Facebook business pages offer business owners a unique opportunity to create a web presence on a social networking website – a social networking website that’s presently the biggest in the world in terms of subscribers. It just makes good sense to tap into this market to build and grow your online business.


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  • http://www.faceitpages.com/ FaceItPages

    Hello Scott,

    This is a nice and simple explanation of a Facebook business page, and a great place to start for those who have heard the buzz but are unsure about what to do next. We offer do-it-yourself landing tab designs for business pages, and have found that more businesses and freelancers are using this medium to market their brand than ever before. I also agree with your advice not to rely solely on Facebook for marketing, since they make changes that businesses have no control over. However, it is a great tool for people to add to their overall marketing plan.

    Best,

    Candis Hidalgo
    FaceItPages.com

  • http://www.faceitpages.com/ FaceItPages

    Hello Scott,

    This is a nice and simple explanation of a Facebook business page, and a great place to start for those who have heard the buzz but are unsure about what to do next. We offer do-it-yourself landing tab designs for business pages, and have found that more businesses and freelancers are using this medium to market their brand than ever before. I also agree with your advice not to rely solely on Facebook for marketing, since they make changes that businesses have no control over. However, it is a great tool for people to add to their overall marketing plan.

    Best,

    Candis Hidalgo
    FaceItPages.com

  • http://www.inkatechnology.co.uk Facebook Developer

    I am still working hard at optimizing my Facebook fan page. You have given me a ton of good ideas thanks.

  • Len

    Hey Scott,

    I was asked to give a talk to my networking group and was searching for some ideas when I came across your article. Half the 50 members in the group aren’t familiar with using facebook for their businesses and I thought this is the perfect introduction for them. Do you mind if I quote from your article and print it as a handout at our next meeting?

  • http://goodplum.com Elliott

    You can print out any article on Good Plum or quote from it. Good luck at your presentation, Len!

  • http://www.nixonvs.com Nixon Virtual Strategies

    It absolutely drives me crazy when people try to convince me that they have a Facebook business page and really don’t. For both clients and friends I break it down this way; if you can LIKE it, it’s a page. If you can FRIEND, it’s personal.

    Many believe that the simple fact that they’re using Facebook is business enough. It’s not. Your article makes it very clear, so for those that don’t get it after reading, scroll up and read once more.

    You need a business page on Facebook. Mine is http://www.facebook.com/NixonVS.

  • Len

    Will do, thanks

  • http://www.nixonvs.com Nixon Virtual Strategies

    LOL! You’re JUST NOW returning, Len, to comment? You haven’t used the info yet since your last post in January??

  • http://www.facebook.com/kuan.yinwan Kuan Yin-wan

    Facebook is certainly a very powerful tool, not to mention a great way to keep in touch with family and friends….

    social media calendar

  • http://reversecalllookupx.com reverse call lookup

    Besides as a tool to connect with friend and family, more and more people realize that using facebook is a great way to promote online.

    Ericko
    reverse call lookup

  • Bookmauitravel

    Facebook has become one of the primary sources for many people at this point – email is dying as the primary “stay in touch media”

    http://bookmauitravel.com

  • http://twitter.com/EyeAerobics Adam Déjamour

    So are you saying that you can create a business page AND a personal page? Are there any costs involved in setting up a biz page? I already have my own site, so this would be a supplement to that…

    EyeAerobics.com

  • JoeH

    Everyone is on facebook. So chances are your customers are on facebook, and social proof is a big deciding factor in getting people to buy what you have. That’s all the reason why everyone business needs a facebook page.

    http://rainbowvacuumcleaner.net

  • http://lindenmethodreviewpros.com Rickie

    I find Facebook options for business promotion very confusing. Facebook groups, fan pages, business pages, it makes my head spin. I’m a little more clear now – thanks for this information.

  • Richard

    Is FaceItPages using a private Facebook api or is it one readily available to developers?  We wish to build a specialized Facebook business page template and allow all the Advertisers on our site to build their Facebook business pages.

  • Noah

    Facebook has been great for many of my small businesses; both online and off. I’m also curious to see how the new google social thing pans out.

    Flag Football Playbook

  • http://lastlonginbed.com Andy Carlson

    I’ve heard that a Facebook Fan Page is the way to go, but I’ve never really understood just what they are. After reading this explanation about them I definitely feel that I’m missing out on something big and better get a Facebook page….so I catch up with the rest of the world. Like it says it should be a great addition to my website for my marketing arsenal.

  • http://backpain-treatment.net/ Jack Woo

    Agree, but we have to be careful not to leave too much of personal information, like the company you are working for, as this may create a lot of unwanted troubles later on.