Make a Facebook Page for Your Small Business

BY MERYL K EVANS

Facebook has two types of pages. The first is Facebook Pages, which allow public figures, businesses, or brands a space to share information, interact with their fans and create an interactive forum on Facebook. The other, Groups, focus less on a person, brand or business and more on a shared interest. Unlike Pages, Groups have a 5000-member limit. Pages can tie in with your account or brand, while Groups stand alone. Facebook Pages tend to work better for businesses while Groups do well for non-profits, interests and causes.

While Pages would seem to be the better option for most businesses, they’re really geared toward well-known brands. In this post, I’m going to explain how a small or one-person business can create an effective Facebook Page.

Setting Up Your Page

If you’re a one-person business, rather than creating Facebook pages for your name, consider setting up a Facebook page for the company, product or service name and add keywords to it. People may be more likely to subscrbe to your Page (become a “fan”) when they see the topic that follows the company name. For example, I’m a one-person business, so instead of creating my Page using my name, I used my official company name of “meryl.net.” I then expanded it to show “meryl.net: writing and editing.” Using this approach shows what kind of valuable information people will get if they subscribe to my Page. Not all of us have well-known brands like Coca Cola, Twitter or IBM.

Creating a new Facebook page requires picking a category for your Page. There are three main choices: “Local,” “Brand, Product or Organization” or “Artist, Band or Public Figure.” For my Page, I decided that “Local” was out, as all except one of my clients is located outside of Texas. I could have selected “Artist, Band, or Public Figure.” Not because I think I’m a rock star, but because it has a “Writer” subcategory. However, I decided to go with “Brand, Product or Organization” as it has “Communications” and “Professional Service” subcategories, which are a good fit for me. Take a look at the categories and their subcategories to see where you best fit.

Before Opening for Business

Prior to broadcasting that your Facebook Page is open for business, add some valuable content so people will see the benefits of subscribing:

Share tips on how to do things faster or more effectively with your product or service.
Post how-to videos or screencasts.
Announce free upcoming events or webinars.
Mention if you or someone from your company will be attendin an event for a potential meet up.
Import your blog entries.

If you’re not ready for a page or want to become familiar with Facebook Pages, subscribe to some other pages and visit them regularly. See which ones work, and what makes them better than those that don’t work well. As long as you don’t come across as overly promotional, you’ll do fine.

How does your business or brand use Facebook?