Sign Up For A Facebook Account

To sign up for a Facebook account follow these steps.

1.  Go to www.facebook.com

2.  Fill out the form to complete your registration

3.  Create your profile

4.  Setup your page

Use Facebook as Pages:

Allows you to use Facebook as your page name and not as you personally.  It is not recommended because it presents an impersonal approach rather than a personalized one.  To do this do the following:

1.  On the top right side of the page look for the “HOME” link and click the down arrow next to it.

2.  Select “Use Facebook As A Page”, and follow the prompts to complete the process.

  See video on how to signup for Facebook

  See video on how to setup your business page

  See video on how to use Facebook

How To Use Facebook To Market Your Business

When it comes to using Facebook as a marketing tool for your business you have two choices.  You can chose to perform this function “in-house” by yourself or a member of your staff or you can “outsource” it to a different organization that specialize in this function.

In-House:

To perform this function in-house follow these steps:

1.  Sign-up for a Facebook account and create profile.

2.  Gather Friends/Fans:  Identify communities/groups that you want to be members of

3.  Start providing content by sending messages about your topic.  You can include link to news articles and information on that topic that are listed elsewhere (for example, your website)

4.  Monitor conversations about your company.  Use Facebook search engines that let you do this.

Oursourcing:

To outsource this function consider the following:

PROS:

1.  You don’t have to learn new technology

2.  You can spend time on taking care of more important tasks

CONS:

1.  The outsource company may not have the inside knowledge to accurately convey the company’s message

2. The outsourcing company could end up working for a competitor

There are companies that will perform this function for you for a fee.  The fee depends on the level of service you want.  They will charge you based on the number of fans you want to have.  You can outsource this function to the following companies.

ViralSO
This company will design your page, run campaigns, provide the updates for you and increase your fan base for a price.

eLance
This is a an online expert resource where you can place your outsourcing project up for bids and let experts from all over the world compete to manage your social media for you.

The Outsourcing Company
This company provides personalized outsourcing services.

Web.com
Web.com will create your Facebook account and setup your Facebook page for a low monthly fee.  They will even do a certain number of post to your site each month.

Advertising On Facebook

Another way to market on Facebook is to use paid advertising.  Facebook advertising allow you to create your own ad or get help from the staff.  You can also determine your daily spending limits, pick your target audience, demographics and area of interest.

The fees are based on a Cost per Click (CPC) or Cost per one thousand impression (CPM) basis.  You get to set your monthly budget and your daily spending limits.  You determine what the price per click at the time you place the ad.  This is based on the price levels being set by the bidding process.  You set your price based on the bidding range.  There is a minimum of $0.01 per CPC and $0.02 per CPM.

Process:

1.  Logon to your Facebook page or create an account if you don’t have one.

2.  Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the Advertising link

3.  At the top right of the page click on “Create an Ad” or “Contact our Sales Team” to start the process

4.  Follow the prompts to complete the required information and post your ad.

Sponsorship Advertising on Facebook:

Sponsorship advertising gives you the opportunity to take someone’s message to you out of News Feed and have it appear as an ad in the right column of your Facebook page.  It will also appear in the right column of the Facebook page of anyone who liked your page.

The cost is the same as a regular Facebook ad.  See above.

Process:

1.   Logon to your Facebook page or create an account if you don’t have one.

2.   Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the Advertising link

3.   At the top right of the page click on “Create an Ad” or “Contact our Sales Team” to start the process

4.   Follow the prompts to select the page, place, App or Domain and type of Sponsored Story you would like to run and complete the required information and post your ad.

Facebook Tools

Data analysisTool:

Insights:  Facebook offers in-depth user data about your page, called Insights. You can access this by going to “edit page” in the top right corner, then clicking on “Insights” on the menu on the left-hand side. Insights includes information on the gender, age and location of who is looking at your page, as well as which types of status updates are the most popular.

Customize page:

Page modo:  create custom business Facebook page or fan pages.

Like Button – The Like button lets users share pages from your site back to their Facebook profile with one click.

Comments – The Comments plugin lets users comment on any piece of content on your site.

Measure performance:

Wildfire: Measure performance, track competitors and receive alerts.  Manage multiple accounts.

Coupons & Sweepstakes

Coupons, sweepstakes, pools, trivia & contests:

Wildfire:  use this to run promotions on your page such as coupons, contests, sweepstakes, group deals and Trivia & Quizzes.

NorthSocial:  provides a apps that you can use to run sweepstakes and coupon deals on your page.

Offerpop:  provides a apps that you can use to run sweepstakes and coupon deals on your page.

Woobox:  use this to run promotions on your page such as coupons, contests, sweepstakes, group deals and polls.

Short Stack:    Customize your Facebook Page with contests, sweepstakes, videos, custom forms and more.

Your own eCommerce site:  if you already have an eCommerce site, you can create special promotional codes that are recognized by your shopping cart and post those to Facebook.

Poll Function:  Facebook now offers a poll function in the new Questions option, which Page owners can access via the Wall.

Blog Interaction

dlvr.it:  This is a content syndication app that takes the RSS feed from a blog and routes it to Facebook as a Wall post. It includes a link back to the post on the merchant’s site.

NetworkedBlogs:  Users are required to register their blogs with NetworkedBlogs. Then, the app creates a tab for the blog that is added to the Page navigation menu. In essence, it creates a replica of the blog’s index page within Facebook. When a new blog entry is published, NetworkedBlogs posts it to the Wall, along with a link to the full entry. NetworkedBlogs can be used on both Pages and Profiles.

1.  Logon to your Facebook account

2.  Click the "Edit Page" link on the left sidebar and then choose "Send an Update to Fans" – this link will be available under the "Promote your Page" section.

Facebook Marketing Strategy

Follow these steps to create an effective Facebook marketing strategy:

1.  Self v. Brand:  Representing your business as a brand in Facebook gives you the advantage to gain a greater following.  However, using yourself to represent your brand does allow you to offer a personal touch.

2.  Maximize your fan base:  Once you reach 5,000 you’ll simply be unable to accept new friend request. However, Facebook pages allow an unlimited number of “likes or fans”. This is one of the many reasons you want to use a page and not a personal profile to promote your small business on Facebook.

3.  Get a customized URL:  You can get a customized URL after 25 or more people “like” your Facebook page.  This allows you to create an easy to remember Facebook URL. For example, Facebook.com/mybiz.  You can find this option by clicking on “Edit Page” in the top right corner of your Facebook page then choose your username in the “Basic Information” section.

4.  Build a community:   Create a community of like-minded people on the subject that is of interest to your business and encourage them to share stories and give each other support and advice.  Use Facebook Search to discover relevant pages, groups, events, people and even messages

5.  Provide Content:  Provide content that educates, entertains and empowers your fans to keep them engaged and coming back for more.   Consistently create new content and use different media such as text and video to deliver them.  Encourage your fans to post  pictures of how they use your product.

6.  Engage in conversation:  Stay on line for a few minutes and engage in the conversation whenever you post a message. 

7.  Call to action:   ---“click this” or “watch this.”  Ask your audience to perform a specific act.

8.  Make them an Offer they can’t refuse:  Consider offering discounts and specials or ask your fans to sign up for your newsletter.  using Facebook-only coupons and special offers is one of the best ways to stimulate Fan page growth.

9.  Create buzz:  Create a contest or promotion that rewards fans for spreading the word.  Recognize “Fan of the week”.  Recognize top contributors.  Link to your fans’ websites to give them free exposure.

10. Branding:  Create custom tabs that showcase your programs, products and services and tie in the look and feel of your brand.  Use short videos that tell your fans about your business, and mission statements.

11.  Monitor:  Monitor what others are saying about your business. 

12.  Promote your Facebook externally:  Place a link of your Facebook page on your website.  Use Like and Share buttons (Like button, Like Box, Live Stream).

13.  Build Partnerships:  Ask others to add you to their favorite in return for you adding them to yours.  Notice that each page on Facebook has an "Add to my Page's Favorites" button. When you do this, the logo of this page appears in a special "Favorite Pages" box on your own page. People see it and they might click the link to find out more about this page. 

14.  Ask for Help:   Post  status updates asking your fans to help build the community by suggesting your page to their friends.  Just refer them to "Suggest to Friends" and "Share" links on your page and measure their response.

15.  Use people you know:  ---Ask people you know, fellow staff & your team members to post "likes" and comments on each of your status updates to boost its rankings.

16.  Keep it Fresh:   Don't post too many updates; don't automate your content; don't be a duplicate of your website and don't be boring.