Facebook is a great instrument for companies to use in their marketing and promotional efforts. Here is a road map with do's and don'ts that may help you avoid pitfalls.
Facebook is a supremely useful instrument for companies to use in their marketing and promotional efforts. When you set it up right, it can go a long way towards helping you stay in touch with existing customers and acquire new ones. The problem is that setting it up right is no plain sailing. Here is a road map with do's and don'ts that may help you avoid pitfalls.
1. Don't use your private e-mail and Facebook profile to create the FB page for business
There is no way around having a unique personal profile on Facebook if you want to build a company page. The former is a precondition for the latter in the service regulations. However, if you tie your own e-mail and Facebook account with the business page you are creating, it is going to be incredibly difficult to untie them in case something changes in your relationship with the company and you no longer admin their property.
2. Do create a special e-mail you can use for the Facebook business page
This is a simple and effective way to go around the first pitfall. It will make it possible for you create a new profile, create a business page and ensure a level of separation between your own Facebook property and the business property you are building so that you are flexible.
3. Don't use an email address that gets forwarded to others in a company
Facebook can be a hive of activity as your customers learn to take advantage of the Wall and other features in connection with your business. This is bound to generate a torrent of notifications with all sorts of transactions (from trivial to very serious) and unless you turn it off (which is a little silly since you chose to be on FB in the first place), you have to deal with it somehow. Make sure this information reaches only a group of people who want to have access to it and is not sent around the entire organization.
4. Do go to Facebook Pages to start the process
You can start the set-up at http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php where you have to define some basic characteristics of your business and choose the page name. The name should be SEO friendly, corresponding well to your business intentions online.
5. Do be economical with the truth
To achieve a degree of separation from your private use of Facebook, it is better not to reveal your previous user activity so that the service allows you to associate the business page with a new email address.
6. Do configure your Facebook page and get it going
When your page is in place, you can delve deeper into settings and try to give it a more original feel by uploading the logo or editing content sections so that it represents you business better. Facebook is committed to uniformity in terms of visual presentation, but you can find applications and plugins that can grant you a larger degree of customization (e.g. welcome tabs).
7. Do spread the word
It is time to let others know you are on Facebook with your business. Why not place a badge on your website that encourages everyone to become a fan? How about promoting your new property in the paid advertising program within the service? And remember to add the link to your Facebook page in your email footer.