Getting Social

Is your small business using Facebook yet? Do you even know where to start? Well don’t worry, because I am going to give you a concise guide to using Facebook for business. Sure, you have a personal Facebook account and you have 300+ friends with 300 farms. But when it comes to not knowing where to start using Facebook for your business, you are not alone. Small businesses are grappling for traction to get on their feet and while conventional methods of internet marketing are still required, social media adds a more compelling means to get noticed on the web.

First Step: Review Your Existing Profile

More likely than not, you already have a personal Facebook account and are familiar with some of the ins and outs. If you have not set up an account on Facebook, go to http://facebook.com and register.

There are two ways to go at this point in terms of how you will use your personal profile. You may want to have your profile set up so you are only connected with current friends and family members. On the other hand, you may want to unite your personal and professional realms.

Personally, I usually recommend keeping the two worlds apart – to a limit. I utilize my friends list on my personal account for my business page and adjust the privacy settings accordingly.

Here are some main areas to survey on your profile.

Go to the Edit Profile section of your profile to edit each of these areas:

You can get to the Edit Profile area by first clicking the Info tab, then the edit pencil in the top-right corner. Also, it may help to know that anytime you edit much of this information—such as changing your profile picture, your relationship status, your bio, etc.—a notice goes out to your friends in their News Feeds (unless you previously adjusted your privacy settings very tightly!).

Remember to click the blue Save Changes button on each section if you make changes!

You also want to hide your year of birth as this adds an extra layer of security.

Update Your Bio

Check to make sure your bio and contact information is the way you want it, ideally in a first-person, conversational tone. I also recommend filling out the “mini bio” section just under your profile picture (click the edit pencil)

Review Your Photo

If at all possible have a professional head shot taken or even a few. With a few head shots taken you can use them in your other social sites and web pages for a neat, consistent look. If you can’t go professional find a well lit area where you can hang a sheet in the background and have friend take some photos that you can embellish on later.

Being that our focus here is social media, you may want to stay from being over dressed. If you look at my photo on the about page, although I am wearing a tie, I chose not to wear a traditional blue blazer, red tie and white shirt. It also depends on your business. Most times a polo shirt or button down may be in order. Other times even a decorative t-shirt would not be out of line.

You will then want to crop your photo from the shoulders on up, so it fits nicely in your Facebook thumbnail. Remember too, you want a recent picture that is fresh. This builds integrity when others are getting to know your business.

Grow Your Network

Facebook allows you a maximum of 5,000 friends which gives you a lot of potential. Having key contacts as friends allows you to maintain a more personal connection with them.

For business networking purposes, actively seek new friends who may be knowledgeable in your industry, prospects, media contacts, people you admire, friends in other forums, and so on. Just be careful to not overdo the outgoing friend requests in any one session. Facebook views this as potentially spam behavior and you run the risk of your account being deactivated. Twenty requests at a time is a safe number.

To find new people to add, use the Friend Finder, Invite friends by email, and join relevant Groups and Facebook pages. When sending friend requests, always add a personal message.

Second Step: Set Up a Facebook Page

Once you’re content with the way you’ve chosen to use and configure your profile, it’s time to set up your Business Page, which used to be referred to as a “Fan Page.” Previously, we would join these pages by clicking the “Fan” button; however, Facebook changed this to their omnipresent “Like” button.

With Facebook’s 500 million active users—half of whom log on daily for an average session time of 55 minutes—having an active Facebook page helps gain tremendous visibility for your business and meets your prospects/community where they are. Contrary to popular belief, you do not need to “max out” your personal profile first. The time to start a Facebook page is right away!

What You Need to Know About Facebook Pages

You need to have an account on Facebook in order to create a Facebook page.
Your Facebook page will be tied to your personal profile as the admin of your Facebook page; however, only you and Facebook know the connection exists.
You can have an unlimited number of Facebook pages.
You can have an unlimited number of fans (Facebook users who “Like” your page).
Facebook Pages are public—anyone can find and view your page whether they are logged into Facebook or not.
All content posted on your Facebook page gets indexed on Google.
You can target your posts by location and language.
You can add applications to your page, including your own custom content—video, rich text, graphics, opt-in box and more.
You can add additional admins (highly recommended).
All admins have equal rights to administer your page, including adding and removing other admins (choose with care!).
You can’t post content on your Facebook page from your personal profile (unless you use an @ tag from your profile and have your settings for that post set to Everyone).
Select your page title and category carefully as they cannot be changed once set.

Study Other Facebook Pages, look at the information on your own website. and peruse the online forums of your industry. When adding the facet of social media to your already existing website, you are poised to set your small business online empire up for success!