32 Ways to Use Facebook for Business
July 21st, 2009 (2:53pm) Meryl Evans 95 CommentsTweet This (650)
Facebook’s not just for keeping tabs on friends and filling out quizzes — it can also be used as a highly effective business tool. It’s great for marketing your products, landing gigs and connecting with your customers.
Here are 32 ways to use Facebook in your business.
- Manage Your Profile
- Fill out your profile completely to earn trust.
- Establish a business account if you don’t already have one.
- Stay out of trouble by reading the Facebook rules regarding business accounts.
- Install appropriate applications to integrate feeds from your blog and other social media accounts into your Facebook profile. (Although you should be careful before integrating your Twitter feed into your Faceboook profile, as a stream of tweets can seem overwhelming to your contacts.)
- Keep any personal parts of your profile private through Settings.
- Create friends lists such as “Work,” “Family” and “Limited Profile” for finer-grained control over your profile privacy.
- Post a professional or business casual photos of yourself to reinforce your brand.
- Limit business contacts’ access to personal photos.
- Post your newsletter subscription information and archives somewhere in your profile.
- Obtain a Facebook vanity URL so that people can find you easily.
- Add your Facebok URL to your email signature and any marketing collateral (business cards, etc.) so prospects can learn more about you.
- Post business updates on your wall. Focus on business activities, such as “Working with ABC Company on web site redesign.”
- Share useful articles and links to presentation and valuable resources that interest customers and prospects on your wall, to establish credibility.
- Combine Facebook with other social media tools like Twitter. For example, when someone asks question on Twitter, you can respond in detail in a blog post and link to it from Facebook.
- Before traveling, check contacts locations so you can meet with those in the city where you’re heading.
- Research prospects before meeting or contacting them.
- Upload your contacts from your email client to find more connections.
- Use Find Friends for suggestions of other people you may know to expand your network even further.
- Look for mutual contacts on your contacts’ friends lists.
- Find experts in your field and invite them as a guest blogger on your blog or speaker at your event.
- Market your products by posting discounts and package deals.
- Share survey or research data to gain credibility.
- Use Facebook Connect to add social networking features to your web site.
- Suggest Friends to clients and colleagues — by helping them, you establish trust.
- Buy Facebook ads to target your exact audience.
- Read up on Facebook Beacon to see if it might be useful for you.
- Start a group or fan page for product, brand or business. Unless you or your business is already a household name, a group is usually the better choice.
- Add basic information to the group or fan page such as links to company site, newsletter subscription information and newsletter archives.
- Post upcoming events including webinars, conferences and other programs where you or someone from your company will be present.
- Update your group or fan page on a regular basis with helpful information and answers to questions.
- Join network, industry and alumni groups related to your business.
- Use search to find groups and fan pages related to your business by industry, location and career.
Connect and share with others
Use Network, Group and Fan Pages
How do you use Facebook for business?
Tags: Facebook, social media, social networking
Web Work 101: How To Escape The Cubicle
Great post! All simple tools are combined in just one article.
Great Post – lots of ideas. I still haven’t taken the plunge to do a Facebook business page because Facebook indicates that no one will be able to search for you page… which means.. what real good is it ?
Fantastic article!Am going to implement these steps right away
Great article – thanks for the tips, I’ve passed the first 10 along to my group.
very informative and good that FB can be used for business also apart from just social networking. Good tips, have to admit.
Great all-encompassing information that will be used and passed along to clients as well! We are an advertising agency that has been in business for over 36 years specializing in promoting Christian Ministries world-wide.
Nice job! I’d just like to point out one thing in particular. Regarding point #2 – If you have a profile, you’re not supposed to create a business account as well – it’s supposed to be one or the other, not both. If you click on the link in point #3, you’ll see the following: “If I already have a user profile, can I create a business account?”
Maintaining multiple accounts, regardless of the purpose, is a violation of Facebook’s Terms of Use. If you already have a personal account, then we cannot allow you to create business accounts for any reason. You can manage all the Pages and Socials Ads that you create on your personal account.
Lisa, absolutely correct. That’s why I linked to it in #3.
Hi,
As a French marketer, I was actually working on a post like that ATM. Would you mind if I translate your post to French ?
Of course you’ll be noted as source for the info.
Thanks!
Meryl, why are groups better than pages for products brands or businesses that aren’t well known?
This is a great list. We should all try to slowly implement each of the applicable tips to our businesses.
Great list, but I disagree with #27. What I tell clients is that groups are better for events/seasons (“spring softball league”, “kenya mission trip”) and pages are better for long-term things (businesses, departments, etc).
The advantage to Pages is that:
– You can get a vanity URL (like in #10) for your page.
– Items posted to the wall of the page show up in the stream for all “fans”.
– You can install the new “box” right on your site, where people can see updates, etc.
Agree?
@Kawika, Facebook intended fan pages to be used for “known” brands and people. @Mickmel is right that fan pages have more features than group (vanity URL and unregistered users can view). Like the rule about not having a business account if you already have a user account, we thought it best to follow Facebook’s definition of fan pages.
Great post that is very useful. Certainly will pass this along to those not using facebook to its fullest.
Thanks!
um…duh!x32
My hope is that this post was written for either the Amish or the moronic in your readership.
I didn’t delay after reading this article and have created a page on facebook.
I really should of done this sooner!
Cheers for the great article.
wow, I loved this article! I did yet some of those tricks, but I never thought about many of them… thanks a lot.
So, if I have a personal account, I cannot establish a business account? If my business establishes an account, can I be the administrator for that account?
Great post, it really encapsulates the power of facebook and the importance of having a public and personal face to your business.
Thanks for putting this together!
@Kathy, best thing to do is review the rules (http://www.facebook.com/help.php?page=721).
All — remember social media will have value to businesses for a long time to come… the sites might change in popularity — so keep an eye out and your industry may have its own social media site.
Interesting read. Although not quite sure exactly how sophisticated Facebook’s ACL is towards users ability to restrict access to different people.
Great article. I have shared it and the Linkedin article with my readers. It is incredible how many tools there are to help with job search, career advancement and business growth.
As a “boomer” I am intrigued by all the advancements and have to run to stay within shouting distance of all the new innovations.
I love your website and will be following you regularly since most of my work as a career coach is done remotely, either on the phone or on the web.
When utilizing web 2.0 tools I find that our clients are very happy with the speed and versatility of social networks and applications!
Great article and thanks for the tips.
Thanks a lot for sharing these great tips. I use Facebook but I never thought Facebook van be used so many ways for business purpose.
Nice Blog…
Whenever I’ve tried to click through a Facebook link posted by a business, I’m connected to a log-in page. Why must you log into something just to read an advertisement? How many potential buyers are lost because you include that requirement? Personally, I tried facebook and only got inundated with spam. And what about ID thieves or those who love to dump viruses on you – once they get your email and some personal data, you are in trouble. How can people dump all that personal stuff out there for others to read? Perhaps I’m too private but I’m also quite safe from predators.
SusanL,
You’ve apparently see some businesses that aren’t doing it right. If you build a proper “Page” on Facebook, anyone can view it even if they’re not logged in.
Not sure about the spam/viruses. If I have overactive friends that post too much junk, I either hide them or stop being my friends.
The privacy controls on Facebook are really quite nice. I can share everything with my close friends, hide information from those that I don’t know as well, and keep everything completely hidden from those that I don’t know at all. Not sure what the problem is.
Mickey
I have a personal facebook account but is it allowed to create a business account by deactivating the personal one?
I have to disagree with the person who said that you should either have a business or personal account on facebook and not both. I think if you happen to run or represent a business, you can and probably should keep it separate in the interest of not bombarding your friends with your business information! :) And to the person who wrote this post: very nice. I would definitely build on the facebook apps point, and advise page admins of apps that request access to their personal facebook profile.
Great tips …just wishing to implement them properly!
Hi, I have no idea what facebook is? Is it on the google thing?
Thanks
James
Great article,who knows the best way to begin,i have a personal fb acct,should i close that and open just a business acct? a bit confused,any help would be great,thnks!
fabulous article. clear and sensible!
now if we can get all the business owners to truly understand the importance of getting on the viral marketing wagon sooner than later.
I was looking for information on how to “effectively” use Facebook and found your article. Absolutely fabulous!!!! I’ll be talking about it on the air!!!!!
I love your post. More post please.
There are many interesting uses for Facebook Apps & groups. Came across these that show some range. Thought it might spark some ideas. http://bit.ly/oFRz9
Great post! I just got a promotion at my job at a marketing agency, where we are going to start offering consulting services to clients who need help setting up Facebook and Twitter accounts. I think Facebook can be a good business tool, but it has be used the right way.
Thanks for this list! I am in the process of getting a fan page set-up and this will definitely assist in the process.
Great article – quite inspiring
Great facebook business tips i love the new fan pages. They make it easy for people to become a fan of your business, but the key is to have engaging content on your facebook profiles and fan pages or people will get bored or wont go to your main website.