5 Tips on using Facebook for your business

Posted on Sep 20 2012 - 10:46pm by Peter Millikin

Having a Facebook page is becoming essential for any business owner. With the double benefits of being free and attracting 900 million users, Facebook is a phenomenal marketing tool.

Facebook now allows users to have pages that are separate from their personal accounts. Now you can keep your personal life separate from your business but still interact with all of those potential customers on Facebook.

Follow these five tips to get the most out of your Facebook fan page.

1. Don’t use the page only to promote your business

This is a mistake that a lot of business owners make. They jump onto Facebook, create their page and then post ten times a day on how great their products are. Facebook is a form of social media, which means it is a place where people want to be social. They do not want to be spammed by advertisements.

Go ahead and mix a bit of personal and professional on your fan page. Post funny things your kids have said, or the latest joke you heard at work or some interesting titbit you just learned. The key is to engage your audience and get them talking.

2. Spend time maintaining your page

Your Facebook page does no good if you look at it once a month. Post on the page regularly but not too often. At least once a day is a good idea, as long as you are adding relevant and useful information and not just an ad for your product. Always be quick to respond back to your fans with comments and additional information. Keep the conversations going and you will retain your fans.

3. Have contests

Everyone loves winning a prize, and Facebook is wonderful for running contests. Encourage your fans to tell their friends to enter. You can choose to have contestants ‘Like’ your page for an entry. The more ‘Likes’ you have, the higher your page is ranked, so it is important to seek out fans who will press that ‘Like’ button.

4. Capture leads

Facebook allows you to capture your fans’ email addresses and gain access to their own Facebook pages. Make sure you have something set up on your page to capture leads. There are so many users on Facebook that this is a faster way to get leads than your own website.

5. Make it worth their time

Again, you don’t want to fill your page, and other people’s feeds, with spam. Include interesting and relevant information, pictures and videos. Provide links to other websites that may be useful to your readers. Make your page as engaging as possible and you are more likely to retain all of your followers.

There are a lot of things you can do with a Facebook fan page, but these five tips will help you clean up your page and increase traffic. How have you increased traffic to your page?

Read about the Author

Peter has received many accreditation's including many from the Times Online. As founder of You Could Save (2005) and What Stationers (2007) Peter regularly helps consumers and national organisation ‘save money’. He believes that the only successful way to bring people together online is to provide an open marketplace where people can all work together in a friendly, unbiased environment.

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