A Facebook Business page can be a great way to stay connected to your customers.

DO NOT:  use a Personal Profile as a Busienss page. It is against Facebook’s terms of use and you will at some time in the future will be shut down and lose all your friends. If when you look down the left side and all you see is  “Friends” and do not see a window that says “People Like This” then you have broken the rules of this free service.

If you have a Facebook business page: even though it looks like people can see your personal page from your business page, they can not. It is only connected that way because YOU are the adminstrator. Make sure to build a personal profile then a business page and understand the “administrator” private info is protected from the busienss page.

An easy way to create a business page: Create a personal page with your real name. After signing in go to any Facebook business page, like mine: http://Facebook.com/MartinWBrossman and scroll down the page looking to the left. After all the images are going you will see the words “Create a Page” and create an appropriate page from here.

How to find your business page after you create it: Sign in to your personal profile. Click on the word in the upper right hand corner that says, “Accounts” then “Manage Pages” and you will see it there.

A few more things to keep in mind when you set up a business page on facebook:

• Choose the page name carefully. It cannot be changed once you have more than 25 ‘fans’
• Remember that facebook is still the internet. Choose words that would be relevant ‘search words’
• Choose a photo not just a logo. This is a social network. People want to connect with people.
• Don’t set up a page unless you are willing to go there and post at least once or twice a day
• Decide what you will offer before you start. Think about what topic(s) are relevant to your business, that people will find value in. (ie. a Real Estate Broker might choose investment info, community info, latest trends,etc)
• Commit to finding/posting an article or video each day on that relevant topic.
• Make sure that you have contact information on your page, and remember that a lot of people still prefer to use the phone.
• You won’t receive notifications when people comment like you do with a personal page, so you have to go to the page and check it often!

Above all, remember that most people avoid advertisements whenever possible (think of all the ways people avoid TV commercials!). Focus on how you can add value in a way that is relevant to your expertise. People buy from those that they know, like and trust. Be personable and use photos and video whenever possible.

Share your tips on Facebook or what was useful to you.

Created by Martin Brossman – NCSmallBusinessTraining.com and Heather O – FacebookandBeyond.com.