There are a few different ways to get your business active online such as advertisements, social profiles, and blogs. One thing you cannot afford to ignore is Facebook. This social networking site has taken the Internet as well as personal relationships to a place we only imagined during the MySpace phase. The smart viral marketing techniques for people, businesses, musicians, television shows, brands, and others have brought millions of people together from all over the world. But why should your business get involved? And how should you do it?
For starters, DO get a Facebook Page; DON’T get a Facebook Profile. The water is already murky for businesses on Facebook, so it is best to keep your business on the professional side of things. You can have a personal profile or a professional profile for individuals, but when it comes to Facebook for your business, you want to create a Page. The biggest differences between the two are that profiles have “friends” while pages have “fans.” You can have an unlimited number of fans of your page, but only 5,000 friends on your profile.
DO post your company’s logo as the main picture; DON’T post personal pictures. If you have group shots of company gatherings, luncheons, and seminars, you can add them to your page, but do not use them as your main picture. The main picture should be your company’s logo. This increases brand recognition. Whether you are selling a service or a product, just having your logo visible to potential customers can increase your sales. If they happen to recognize your logo when they are searching for something in your industry, they are much more likely to trust you because your company already seems familiar.
DO take advantage of appropriate Facebook applications; DON’T install applications that are anything like Farmville or Mafia Wars. Luckily, when you create a page, you are unlikely to get invitations for some of these more ridiculous applications, but there are plenty of other ones out there. Take heed whenever installing applications because almost all of your actions are posted to your fans’ newsfeeds. While this can be very beneficial for your viral marketing, it can have negative effects if you do not keep it professional. There are plenty of appropriate applications for business pages on Facebook that you can use to stay connected.
DO publish articles, videos and links to your wall; DON’T post unprofessional or borderline inappropriate articles, videos and links to your wall. You can post news stories, how-to videos, and information about new products and services, but do not take it much further than that. Avoid anything that is humorous or interesting at the expense of others, and unless your business is adamantly liberal or conservative, you want to remain out of the political realm altogether.
There are plenty of businesses that have been able to take advantage of the various benefits of Facebook. Some companies’ Facebook pages have creative tricks, links, and games to promote new products, and whenever a fan takes part, they help the business through viral marketing. Even if you do not consider yourself Facebook savvy, be sure to create a page for your company and remain as active as you can. You may be surprised by the results.
This guest post was written by Ryan Frank, an avid blogger and Internet marketing enthusiast living in San Diego, CA. Ryan currently works for BestRank.com, a San Diego Web Design firm
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