subject: Drive Visitors to Your Free Website with Facebook [print this page] Drive Visitors to Your Free Website with Facebook
Creating a Facebook Business Page (also called a Facebook Fan Page) is one important step in your website marketing plan.
Unless you live under a rock, you probably know that Facebook is one of today's most popular social networks. Having a presence on Facebook is almost a necessity in today's web world. One important reason for creating a Facebook business page is search engine optimization or SEO. Google regularly searches Facebook.
How to Create a Facebook Fan Page
Before you can create your business page on Facebook, you must have a personal page. Don't worryif you'd rather not display a bunch of personal information or photos, you don't have to. You can keep your personal information to bare bones. If you do include your personal information, be careful to protect yourself by leaving out your birth year.
Once you have your personal page set up, click on "create a page." You then choose between a Community Page and an Official Page.
A Community Page generates support for a cause such as a political candidate or environmental topic. If the page becomes popular enough to attract thousands of visitors, the Facebook community will adopt and maintain the page.
An Official page allows you to communicate (and attract) customers and fans. You'll have to click on one of three choices:
local business
brand, product or organization
artist, band or public figure.
Then enter the name of your business, product, etc. and click on Create Page. Choose your Facebook fan page name carefully, as Google search for keywords in your title.
Build Your Page
Now you have a Facebook fan page that you can link to your free website.
You can start building your Facebook page by adding your logo or photo and some basic information on your business or topic. Add some interest to your page by sharing your latest news (click on "post status updates") and uploading photos. Add photos related to your business or photos of your products.
You might want to generate interest in your page by starting a forum under the Discussions tab. Do you have any events planned, such as a grand opening, new product release or a sale? Add an Events tab and let your readers know about it.
You can also upload videos or record a video with your webcam and post it on your page. Whether your video is used for entertainment, education or sales, it will boost interest in your page.
Most importantly, be sure to add a Links tab, with the link to your free website at the very top.
A great advantage of your Facebook page is the ability to make updates with your mobile phone. You can send mobile e-mail messages, text messages, photos and videos straight to your page. The e-mail subject becomes a caption for the photo or video.
Generate Interest in Your Facebook Page and Your Website
Now that you've built an awesome Facebook page for your business, how do you put it to work?
First, if you already have friends on Facebook, invite them to your new page by clicking on "Suggest to Friends." Then click on "Find Friends" to invite those who might be interested in your page or customers you particularly want to attract.
You can also add your Facebook link to your free website. As people link from your website to your Facebook page and become friends, they'll connect with other friends. Connections between your website and Facebook page help your network to expand exponentially.
Link your Facebook page to Twitter for even more exposure. With the Twitter link, you can share everything you publish or choose to send only your status updates, events, links, photos, or notes.
Just a warning: it's easy to get hooked on Facebook and other social media and spend a lot of time working and playing on these sites. If you're using Facebook to boost your business, you might want to limit the amount of time you spend socializing. You can still have fun building your page, and start attracting more visitors to your website.
