Using Facebook to Develop Your Business
Facebook offers many instruments to create business opportunities.
Because Facebook has turned into such a potent market force businesses should begin to think of their Facebook page as a "secondary home page". Using Facebook's "viral channels" (the news feeds, messages, and personal invitations) can help companies connect to people their friends are connected to - and, ideally, your page can become visible to a wide swath of Facebook's 500 million users.
Here are some practical steps you can take to improve your facebook presence and drive traffic to your business.
1. Take some time to choose a good name for your page. Once you decide commit to it. Changing your facebook name is not unlike changing your business phone number. It makes it harder on your friends to refer people to your page.
A good name for your Facebook page is the most important consideration. This is not a Search Engine Optimization strategy, it's about marketing. You don't want to use a name that's overtly stuffed with keywords. It won't work. Your name will be long, hard to remember, and spammy looking and even if you can get people to "like" you they'll be more likely to hide your all-important news feed.
A good name should be specific. Facebook hates being played. They can be mean. If they think your page is a liability they'll disable your ability to update your page making it a lot of work to contact your fans and killing any marketing benefit you were hoping to get from your page.
So be smart!
Use your company name in the page title and keep it authentic.
2. Use the Info tab to your advantage.
At this point I need to address a common misconception about Facebook. Don't expect a significant SEO, or "Search Engine Optimization", benefit from you're facebook profile. Facebook obfuscates external links so Google won't pass page rank to them or, in some cases, can't see them at all. This is one of the reasons you see almost no spam on the site. Besides, what really makes Facebook stand out as a marketing tool is the fact that it's so popular you can use it to network. Once you're comfortable using Facebook you can use it to drive actual business to your firm!
There are ways get some benefit to your website search presence, though, if you know what you're doing. Facebook has a lot of "domain authority", and anyone who's ever gotten listed in Wikipedia will tell you that links from a high domain authority site gets a search engine benefit, even if you don't get any page rank.
Include keywords and links on the "info" page. Include all your important information:
You should also include your phone number, links to "buy now" pages, etc. Remember... Optimize your facebook page to the facebook community, not to the search engines. If you do this well over time your facebook profile will bring you customers, and customers are infinitely more valuable than links! Make it easy for your Facebook visitors to contact you or, better yet, buy!
3. Use status updates to post links to your website and other relevant sites. When it comes to getting Google to notice your facebook presence this is the most powerful tool at your disposal. Your status posts are sent out as news updates to your fans and are posted on their pages, too.
There are two ways to post links into your page's stream:
Actual URL: If you enter an actual URL facebook will link directly to it with a "nofollow" tag. This is the best way to do it because the link goes straight to your site. Wherever possible use an actual URL.
Attach Link: Attach links seem really cool because they automatically pull down all kinds of cool information from the page you're linking to, including a thumbnail image. You might think it's better to have "keyword rich" anchor text, and usually you'd be right. In this case you should avoid using attach links. These links don't go straight to your website. Instead they pass through a facebook URL. This makes it hard for Google to figure out where the link is actually going.
4. Get fans to comment and like content in your stream to strengthen intra-Facebook linking.
Facebook links a fan's name back to their Facebook profile page when they comment or like content in your Facebook page's stream. When these comments and likes are indexed, Google will see more links between your page and your page's fans and will view this as a stronger bond.
Facebook can be a valuable ally to both your website and your firm. With a Facebook profile your firm is visible to an immense user base. OK, it will take a little time. You'll need to do some creative planning and you'll have to actually build and update it, but in the end your online visibility will increase.
About The Author
Brian O'Connell is the President and founder of CPA Site Solutions, one of the country's biggest web design companies dedicated solely to accounting website design. His firm at present provides websites for more than 4000 CPA, accounting, and tax preparation firms.