Facebook is well known to many, but its usefulness may not be as familiar. What may be a waste of time for most can bring a great return on investment of time to others. Below is an overview of steps that should be taken to promote your business using Facebook.

What Can Facebook do for My Business?

Facebook has a LOT of users. Those users may be your business’ potential clients. If you are trying to promote a website, spread product awareness, or target consumers, then you should be on Facebook.

• Facebook is one more place to put a link to your website.
• A Facebook Page can be a relevant, positive search result that comes up in Google when someone researches your company.
• Facebook can target consumers based on their interests.
• Facebook can spread awareness of your company/product.

Getting Started

1. Create an account at Facebook.com. The person who will control all Facebook affairs for your company should be the person to create or use their current account on behalf of the business.
2. That person’s profile should be filled with information about himself or herself. They should be active participants in the Facebook community, and should not be on Facebook for the sole purpose of promoting the company.
3. For SEO-friendliness, the user should probably put a link to the company website on their personal profile.
4. Do NOT create an account for your business. That is what Facebook Pages are for.

Pages

Facebook found that users wanted a place to promote their products and businesses, but it made no sense to use the same fields (like About Me, Interests, etc.) for a business. This is why Pages was created. Users can create a Page about a business, store, or product, and fill in relevant information (like parking information and hours of operation). How to get established with Pages:

1. While logged in, create a Page for you business/product.
2. Choose your business type. Be logical. (Example: For Poetic Systems, we chose “Local: Other Business”, because we didn’t quite fit in the other categories).
3. Edit your Page. Fill in as much information as possible through the backend of your page. Be sure to add a link to sites where you would like to drive traffic (like your company website).
4. Upload a main picture. If you have a central location, maybe use a picture of the storefront/signage. Otherwise, a logo is a good idea.
5. If your company website has a blog or news section that has RSS, do the following: From your Page, go to Edit Page >Notes > Edit > Import a blog. From there, import your blog using the RSS address you have. From now on, when your company website has a new post, so will your Facebook Page.
6. PUBLISH YOUR PAGE. At the top of your Page, there should be a red link that reads, “publish this Page.” Now others can find the Page.
7. To invite your friends on Facebook to check out the Page and become “Fans”, use the “Share +” button located in the upper right section of the Page. This tool will give them a link to immediately become a Fan.

When a person becomes a Fan of your Page, all of their friends will see what they are up to, and may go to see what your Page is all about. So, the more people who are Fans of your Page, the more likely more people will become Fans.

Now, all you have left to do is keep your Page up-to-date. Add events, pictures, and videos relevant to your business. Send messages to all of your Fans at once. You can also encourage any clients on Facebook to become Fans and write reviews on the Page as well. Finally, your Facebook Page can be the landing page for Facebook Ads.

Advertising on Facebook

Facebook offers a truly unique approach to advertising. Because of the way the site is built, advertisers can target users based on their sex, education level, interests, age, region, and even workplace. This prevents you, the advertiser, from wasting money on showing your ad to irrelevant targets.

Facebook also provides advanced tracking methods, helping you chart which ads and techniques give you the best results. To advertise on Facebook, visit this page.

Pay per click (CPC) vs. impressions (CPM)

If you pay per click, you only pay when a target actually clicks on your ad. If you pay for impressions, you pay for how many people see your ad. A good way to decide which is better for your business is to consider what your goal is. If you are Coca-Cola, you probably just want face-time, reminding people that you are out there. You would be better off paying for impressions. On the other hand, if you are trying to get people to purchase something off of your site, you would likely want to pay only for those who click on your advertisement and go to your landing page.

Designing Your Ad

Facebook explains that it is best to be as specific as possible. Keep this in mind, and develop multiple types of ads targeted at different people for different reasons. More than likely, you will see better results. Facebook does an excellent job of explaining their advertising process, so please visit their info.

This is the first of many glances into several social media sites.