5 Ways to Use Facebook for Business - How Facebook Helps Your Business Be More Social162635

Facebook is undoubtedly the number one Social Media website. With hundreds of millions of members and growing fast, if Facebook isn't part of your business's online marketing strategy you're missing out on a big opportunity.

So what makes Facebook  so good?

From a business perspective, Facebook ticks all the boxes. Firstly it's a Social Media website where people choose to 'hang out' and more importantly, 'need' to hang out if they're to keep up with their friends and colleagues.

The advantage of this is that users WANT to be there, it's not just cool, it's a genuine online environment to share and receive things of interest, not just from friends but products, services and brands they're interested in.

Facebook is an up-to-the-minute Social site, what other medium provides this level of time relevancy? Twitter comes close but it's just not as personal. People want their friends and colleague's updates, not necessarily the latest celebrity breakup news.

Secondly, it's visually appealing. The design, colours, layout and content on Facebook appeals to 'most' people. It's not a 'salesy' environment, although there are many avenues for a business to promote and sell their products and services. People hate being sold to. They love to buy, they just don't like being sold to.

Facebook is great because of the many visual benefits listed above. It sets your business up for prime sales opportunities without being in their face about it.

That's why Facebook is perhaps the most powerful marketing platform available today.

Facebook Business Page

In addition to a Facebook 'profile' which is for personal use, Facebook also offers Facebook 'Pages' for businesses to promote themselves.

Think of it like a mini-website within Facebook that allows you to connect with prospects and customers. There are many elements to maximising your Facebook Page for business and this will be the focus of this article...

5 Ways to Use Facebook for Business... How Facebook Helps Your Business be More Social...

1. The LIKE button - at the top of a Facebook Business Page is a 'LIKE' button. When users click the Like button, from then on they will receive the 'updates' or 'posts' from that particular Facebook Page's 'Wall'. The Wall is the epicentre for engaging with 'fans' on a Facebook Page.

Once a user clicks the like button, any updates from that business's Page will appear in the users 'News Feed', which is the first page the user sees when they log into their Facebook account.

As a business tool, the like button helps you build your 'list' of fans that you can communicate with via your posts on your Wall.

2. The Wall - there are three 3 default menu items on a Facebook Page. They are 'Wall', 'Info' and 'Photos'. The Wall is where your 'conversations' with your fans occurs. You can post updates about your business, products, services, news, items of interest, anything you can think of!

Fans that read your post can then click 'like' in response to what you've written and may choose to 'comment', sharing their thoughts and opinion in relation to your post.

This is where you can really connect with prospects and customers to generate conversations that help to build trust, credibility and expand your relationship with your fans.

3. Sharing - when you post on your Wall fans also have the option to 'share' the post, meaning that they can tell their friends about the post which opens up further opportunities for new fans. This is where Social Media becomes 'viral'. If you consistently create posts that are shared, you can attract quite a number of new fans at zero cost to you.

The trigger to the sharing process is of course to post something to your Wall that is interesting or perhaps funny enough for fans to want to share it.

One of the easiest ways to trigger this is to ask people to share your post. Simply by asking, your fans will likely share your post, which becomes a post on their personal profile Wall, which their friends can see and either 'like', 'comment' or 'share'.

4. Network - as a business, it's important to always network with other businesses to create a relationship and perhaps a referral program that is mutually beneficial.

One way to network with other businesses on Facebook is to visit other businesses Facebook Pages, click the 'like' button and then post a comment or something of interest on their Wall. This will initiate the potential for a relationship if it's done correctly.

An additional avenue is to 'tag' the business' Facebook Page on your Wall, as a way to promote their Page to your fans. People naturally want to reciprocate positive gestures and the other business may choose to do the same on their Wall so that their fans see a link to your Facebook Page and can click through and 'like' your Facebook Page. Now you have more fans simply by networking with other businesses on Facebook.

5. Custom Facebook  Page - in addition to the three default menu items you also have the option to install a 'customised' page within your Facebook Page. This will create an additional menu item, which you can call whatever you wish.

This opens up your marketing opportunities simply by the fact you can place whatever content you wish on your custom Facebook Page. This could include links to your website, videos, testimonials, competitions etc.

In addition to these five ways to use Facebook for business you can also add your Facebook information to your website by installing an application to display your Wall posts and the 'like' button which allows people to join in by 'liking' your Facebook Page and perhaps commenting... all from your own website.

With these simple but powerful tools, with no doubt more to come, how can any business not afford to be making use of such an effective marketing tool?

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