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6 Ways to Promote Your Facebook Page

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Creating a Facebook Page for your business is one of the more valuable exercises you can do as a small business owner. But once you have the page set up and you are providing valuable, relative content, how do you get people to like your page?

Invite your Facebook friends that fit your target market profile

To invite connections you think would be interested in your Facebook Page, use the Suggest to Friends link.

If you have connected with clients via Facebook, invite them first as your clients should already be supportive of you. Next invite other connections that fit your target market that may be interested in finding out more about what you offer. If you have done a good job of organizing your professional colleagues, customers and prospects into Friend Lists, you can invite these lists as groups to your Facebook fan page instead of sending individual invites.

Be selective in who you invite and as a courtesy, invite them once only. Don’t annoy people with Facebook Page invitations that aren’t interested in your business or know nothing about you. If a person rejects the request, be careful not to send them another invitation.

Invite your email newsletter subscribers

When you are ready to send out your next email newsletter, include an incentive to get your subscribers to visit your Facebook Page and become a fan. Put a free download on your landing page tab for non-fans that will appeal to your subscribers.

To set up your landing tab, use the Facebook Static FBML application. FBML is similar to HTML and can be used to enhance a user’s Facebook experience on your Page. Then edit the Wall settings for your page and select that tab as the landing page for “everyone else”.

Include your Facebook Page URL in your marketing materials

Once you reach 25 people who have liked your Page, create your vanity URL that makes it easy for you to promote the Page and for people to recognize your brand.

Now it will be easier to promote your Facebook Page by including your vanity URL in all your sales tools, such as business cards, brochures, email signature or other marketing and promotion tools you use to help you drive more visitors to your Business Page and connect with them. All of these tools can be used to cross connect you with your communities and make you more visible to those who are interested in what you have to say.

Place a Facebook Like Box Widget on your Website / Blog

The Facebook Like Box is a social plugin that helps you promote your Page to your website visitors. To create your Like Box, fill in the Facebook Page ID for your Page, the height and width of the box, whether you want your stream included and the number of fans to show.

Facebook Like Box Generator (Click to enlarge)

To get your Facebook Page ID, hover over the picture on your Page and the link contains the number. It should look like: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?profile=1&id=12345678912 (the 11 digit number is the id). When you are done, the form will generate the code you need to paste into your Website.

Use Facebook Social Ads

Depending on your business, Facebook Advertising can be beneficial to building your base of prospects because it enables you to tightly target your best prospect based on a number of variables, including geography, age, gender, education, relationship status, workplace and keywords. With this type of pinpoint targeting, you can create and deliver advertising to only those who you feel would benefit from what you have to offer.

A local retail business like a spa, hairdresser or restaurant could run an ad that has an incentive for fans to come in to your store and try your services or purchase your products.
A local service business like a plumber, landscaper or electrician could run an ad that contained an incentive only for new fans (and customers) such as a discount on a maintenance agreement.

Rather than placing ads in the local papers, Facebook advertising can be much more cost-effective in generating leads and growing your business.

Promote your Page on other Social Sites

Most social sites give you the opportunity to promote multiple websites. LinkedIn allows three links and Google profiles are unlimited. Use these opportunities to promote your Facebook Page as one of your key web properties. Don’t forget to use the “Other” feature when editing your additional information in LinkedIn to name the link appropriately.

In addition, integrate Twitter with your Facebook Page to communicate what you have posted to your Twitter followers.

So how will you promote your Facebook Business Page? Let us know what you have tried and how it works for you.

Debra Murphy – Masterful Marketing Recommends

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Posted in Facebook, April 26th, 2010 by Debra Murphy | Permalink | 45 Comments »
Tags: facebook advertising, facebook business page, facebook page promotion

http://www.facebook.com/visionadvertising Laura Briere

100% agree – as always!! I especially like the screen shots. Great blog Deb, keep up the fantastic work!

http://masterful-marketing.com Debra

Thanks – I hope this helps the folks with new Facebook Pages so they see the value of their effort!

Sonia

I was wondering I have a personal account and then set a business account at my new place of work not being aware of the face book violation of 2 accounts. I did this yesterday and would like to rectify the problem and delete the business account without deleting my personal accoumt.

WOULD YOU BE ABLE TO PROVIDE ME SOME INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO DO THIS

tHANKS Sonia

http://masterful-marketing.com Debra

Hi Sonia,

The business account is totally separate from the personal account. As long as the two accounts use different emails, you could keep both so you can set up your company’s Facebook page and not associate it with your personal profile, which is the ideal thing. If you used the same email, then I would delete the business account and start over, setting up a business account for the company with an email that is company related.

I don’t endorse breaking the rules, but because of all the controversy over not being able to change the originator of the Facebook Business page, I think using a business account to set up a company’s Facebook Page is within the realm of reason. The last thing I would want if I owned a company with a lot of employees is some employee creating the company’s page and then taking it hostage if they leave the company.

Hope this helps.

http://www.mitrastudios.com Bharathiraja

All the above tips really looks good. And i have implemented your points to promote my business page lets see how it works..

Bharathi
Moina Datta

There is a brilliant facebook app ‘lukup’ (go to http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=7359567029) that lets facebook page fans search fan page content, share content with contacts and lets page admins display content from other sites
(could be blogs, e-commerce shops, etc)
Pingback: Power of Three in Marketing | Masterful Marketing
http://this1that1whatever.com/ David

I recently created a facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/This1That1Whatevercom/156625884379306 for my website http://this1that1whatever.com/ and I am trying to learn how to utilize and promote it. I have been using my facebook account to join facebook groups where I am spreading the word on my website. Since my facebook account is for personal connections, I decided to create the facebook page to represent my website activities. In my search to learn, I came across your site which provides some additional tips and hints. I will be reading carefully through your article to help my efforts. Thanks.
http://sach365.com oceanle

thanks. It’ll help my page
http://www.dartleads.com/ Eric

I used the above features to try and get likes. Another way is to run a promotion. For example, I am going to run a raffle soon to anyone who likes my facebook page!

Facebook Page
website

http://masterful-marketing.com Debra

Eric – Promotions do work well but they need to be aligned with your brand. Understand what you area trying to accomplish with the promotion. Sometimes it’s easy to get people to like your page, however, getting them to interact on the page is more difficult. In that case, use a promotion to encourage interaction on the page and depending on the prize, you may encourage more likes as well. You can also create a landing page that requires people sign up to get some valuable content.

Thanks!

Leslie

Hi Debra.
I have a question, which nobody can answer.
I am the owner of a new bussiness FB page,
and I knew, that reaching 25 likes will give me my own URL.
BUT why is everybody hunting 500+ likes? What does it gives?
I’ve beein searching for it everywhere, but there’s no answer.
Hope there IS an answer.

Debra

Hi Leslie,

You are right – there is no specific answer to why some businesses are striving for hundreds and thousands of likes for their Facebook business page. However, the answer to the question of how many likes should YOUR business have is based on your marketing goals.

People tend to forget that Facebook and other social media tools are just that – tools. What you do with them is based on your marketing plan and the goals you are trying to achieve. Wanting 500+ fans for our page may make our egos feel good but what does it do for your business?

Your marketing plan should have goals as simple as “achieving x number of fans for our Facebook page by 9/1/11″ to “increasing our inbound lead through our website by 30%”. Goals help you achieve and they should be stated. But your overall objective of your marketing should be to increase revenue. If 500+ Facebook likes help you do that, then you should strive to achieve it. If not, then focus on those things that will.

I hope this answers your question!

http://www.moderngreetings.com SmOkeymOuntAin

One of the most visited websites is FACEBOOK. Since i am into FACEBOOK thing, i higly recommend this to others considering the 6 ways to promote your FACEBOOK page. It is a commendable one
http://www.facebook.com/EternalVitalityHRT Eternal Vitality

Great tips. I hope now I will able to drive more fans to my page.

Thanks for sharing.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Auto-Parts-Coupons-Car-Parts-Coupon-Codes-Vouchers/226378970707400 Ross Jacob

I have facebook page related to auto parts seance then i have been spending plenty of my time to rank. However i haven’t succeed so please help

Debra

Hi Ross, I visited your Facebook Page and noticed a couple of things – 1. you only created the page at the end of May and 2. you only have 2 fans.

First thing you need to do is expand your fan base so you can build a community. Also, when you get to 25 fans, you can then assign a username to your Page so you can more easily promote it.

Then you need to provide content other than the coupon codes – blog posts, questions, discussions, etc should all mix on the page. Include links to articles and information that people in your community would want. Make it easy for them to find “good stuff” rather than just promote your business.

Facebook Marketing is about building relationships, interacting with your community and providing valuable content. If you are not doing all of that, you won’t succeed.

Hope this helps.

http://www.lotsofgifts.co.uk Steve

Thanks for the article, we have built a facebook page for our website but have struggled to get likes, will try some of these ideas.
http://www.healthfoodgeeks.blogspot.com Shelly MacDonald

I love the information that has been provided here. We have hit the 25 mark for our website and was able to get our own username, etc. Now our goal is 100. It just feels going knowing that you can meet a goal and try and strive for the next one! We all have goals that we want to meet as we definitely should if we are trying to promote a business. We have offered a contest on our blog hoping that it will bring more visitors and have discovered that using Twitter and FB combined is helping to bring visitors. Hopefully, I can report back in a few weeks to discuss how this is going.. Thanks!

Debra

Shelly, Thank you! Yes, setting achievable goals that you can work towards is true in all of marketing, not just social media. Good for you to take each milestone as a success and then set a new one! Gaining visitors to your website is the goal because that is where you own the content. Think of Facebook and Twitter as a the tools to achieve that goal as well. Please do report back on how it’s going.

http://www.personalfoldersoftware.com Shakti Saran

Hi Debra, Thank You for sharing! You might also get value from http://www.facebook-fb.com to Submit and List Facebook Page URL, Products, Services, City, State, Country of Business and to Find Facebook Page URL of Business. Kindly share it with your friends! Best! Shakti Saran
http://www.sedonarealestate.com Michelle

Hi Debra,

I appreciate all of your tips here..I just created a fb page for our business, and I sent invites to all of our friends who would be a fit for the content of our page, and the invites did not go through. Are you aware of any bug with FB right now? Also, I imported our contacts from our Constant Contact program and my email account (converted them to csv files), and those functions did not work either. Our new fb page is https://www.facebook.com/help/?page=900#!/pages/Sedona-AZ-Real-Estate/261337227216288?sk=wall. Any insight you might have would be so appreciated. Thanks, Michelle

Debra

Hi Michelle,

What do you mean they did not go through? Did your friends just not see them in the stream or you got an error? They recently added back the “suggest to friends” feature (on the right side under the Admin list and below the “insights” link). It was recent so they may have been issues. Try that again.

I don’t believe you can import contacts directly to a Page as a fan has to have a personal profile before liking the Page. You can import them through your personal profile. Not sure about CSV files, but you could import the CSV file into gmail or Outlook and import from there and then invite to join Facebook. Or, turn the CSV file into a text file (comma delimited) and cut/paste the email addresses into the window they provide in the Invite Friends area.

Let me know how it goes

http://www.sedonarealestate.com Michelle

Hi Debra,
Thanks for your timely response! I did not get an error..when setting up the page and it asked me to invite my friends, the box opened up with all of my friends in it. I clicked on the ones I wanted to share our page with, (once I clicked them, they faded out on the page because I had selected them), I hit submit or send button at bottom of that box, it said my invite had been sent, however, no one received anything from me, as I checked with a number of these friends and they confirmed this. Plus, I didn’t get any “likes” on the page. Now when I try to go back in there, all my friends that I originally sent the invite to (that they didn’t receive) are all faded out and I can’t click on them because FB registers that I’ve already sent them an invite. This is frustrating!

When I have tried to use the csv files, that doesn’t work either. I have attempted to send an invite this way to a small test group and we are not getting any results.
I guess with FB you’re just kind of stuck with whatever is going on with them, correct?
I just want to get the word out about our page, but can’t figure out any way to do it. I like your 2nd suggestion in your article, about inviting our newsletter subscribers, we use Constant Contact, and this should be easy to incorporate, but honestly I’m afraid this won’t work either and I’m dang tired of trying to figure this all out! FB angels please assist!!

Thanks for all your help Debra…do you have a newsletter I can subscribe to??

Best,
Michelle Grimm

Debra

Hi Michelle,

That’s correct – once you invite someone to like your page, you can’t do it again. I’m afraid they did get the invite but didn’t know it. Have them check their messages – the invites go there, not the news feed.

When you say CSV files don’t work, did you upload it and try sending them invites? They would receive an email because they don’t have a Facebook profile. If they do have a profile, you need to message them directly.

Constant Contact should have social integration which would always point to your Page. However, in your next email newsletter, why not just invite your list to visit your page (include the link) and like it? That would work.

Do you have a “Like” box on your website? That also helps increase your fans.

Yes, I do have a newsletter. Subscribe via the box in the right sidebar! I use MailChimp and they are awesome!

Thanks

http://www.businesspage.so/ Karl

Also studies show visitors are more likely to ‘like’ the page if it looks nice. A decent ‘welcome’ page design which matches your company branding is a big help.

Debra

Hi Karl,

I totally agree – consistency in branding is so critically important to businesses! Quality, professional brands get more attention.

http://www.ex-tremes.com James

Thanks for these great tips, I just created my page couple weeks ago and want google to index my page. So far, no index on google search. Is there any way to promote on google search
James´s last post ..Brad Nailers Air-Powered Nailers

http://masterful-marketing.com Debra

Hi James,

There is no way that I know of to submit a Facebook business page to Google so that it will get indexed. I assume Google regularly indexes Facebook for new pages. Make your page active by posting quality content, get people to like your page, make sure you get to 25 fans and then you can get your Page user name (my page is http://www.facebook.com/MasterfulMarketing) which helps in your page being found when someone searches on your business name.

If the page is useful and popular, Google will no doubt find it.

Hope this helps.

http://www.ex-tremes.com/ James

Hi Debra,

Thank you very much for your response!
I have no fan for my page and good to start to get 25 fans as your suggest.
James´s last post ..Brad Nailers Air-Powered Nailers

Pingback: Business Page Promotion « elizabethromeril
http://www.facebook.com/bif.soft Steve Parker

its very nice i like this
http://yash1229.wordpress.com Yash Bhatia

Very useful! This is really going to help me in promoting my new blog!

Here’s the link for my FB page.. Do check it out.
http://www.facebook.com/TechOrganism
Yash Bhatia´s last post ..The Chinese Supercomputer
Pingback: 100 Great Web Development Blog Posts From 2010 | Affiliate Marketing
http://www.closetsandshelving.com Greg Wilson

Debra,
I am glad I stumbled upon your site. Information is very easy to understand. Yes I was confused with the “2 accounts illegal” part of FB. What started as an attempted business promotion on FB, ended up personal with a with my company under “pages.” Unused and not marketed. CONFUSED!

So, should I develop the “page,” or just create a new FB account for my business? If I do develop the page, will business invites see my personal side?

http://masterful-marketing.com Debra

Greg, develop out your Facebook page – keep in mind that even though you are the admin for your page, it has nothing to do with your personal profile. When you post on your page, you are posting as the business, not the person unless you switch your settings. Look at my Facebook page (although probably not the best example since I am visible on the page because I am the business!). All my posts are as the page, not my personal profile.

Thanks for your compliment – I’m glad you find my site helpful.

Cheers
Debra

http://www.closetsandshelving.com Greg Wilson

Thank you for the response. I should be more clear… I use the current FB “main” page for personal posts, but it has a “sub page” for my business. Should I develop this sub page (under “pages”), or create new? And, will this sub page, be completely separate from personal?

http://masterful-marketing.com Debra

Hi Greg,

The “main” page is your personal profile – the way to tell is if you “friend” people. A page can only get “likes” from people and cannot friend anyone. However, pages can like other pages.

If that is what you meant by main and sub page, then yes, you should develop the page for your business. It is not associated with your personal profile in any way except you are an admin. You could be removed as teh admin and the page will continue to exist. However, do not remove yourself from the page as an admin! If you do, you will not have any access to the page. In fact, get someone else (spouse, friend) that you can trust to also be an admin in case something happens.

Pages are separate entities – just because you are listed as an admin, it is not associated with you in any other way.

Hope this helps.

Mike Stewart

“Most social sites give you the opportunity to promote multiple websites. “- This is one way of helping your site to be known and be notice in search engines.
Mike Stewart´s last post ..Reason For Failure in Cake Making
http://www.queenofretreats.com Queen of Retreats

Thanks for this useful post – can you help me? How do i make my promotional page visible on my personal page? I would like it to be visible always so that new friends can see what I am doing.

http://masterful-marketing.com Debra

Hi Caroline,

Have you liked your own promotional page? If not, you should so that when you post to your page, the post appears on your news feed. Also, make sure that where you work (if it is your business) is linked to your page as well. When you go to enter your company name, the page should pop up so you can select it.

Another way is tagging the page in your personal posts. Don’t overdo it as people will think you are selling, but mentioning your page name preceded by a @ will provide a link to the page.

Be interesting and offer value to your fans and they will help spread the word as well.

Make sure you include a like box on your website and link to your page in your email signature.

Another way you can make your Facebook page visible in email is to use WiseStamp – if you use Gmail, Yahoo, AOL or MSN emails, you can add a signature to your email that contains your latest post from your Facebook page. Check that out too.

Hope this helps.

http://www.queenofretreats.com Queen of Retreats

Hi there… I wonder if you could help me, I have tried to do this myself for ages but keep going round in circles.

I want to link my Twitter account and my WordPress.com account to my PRomotional Page on Facebook only – ie, NOT My personal page. BUT I cannot seem to do this – everytime I link the accounts the notes go to both my personal and my promotional pages.

Can you possibly talk me through the process? I owe you one!

http://masterful-marketing.com Debra Murphy

Hi Caroline,

If you like your Facebook Page, the posts will appear in your personal profile’s news feed. It’s supposed to work that way. When I post on the Masterful Marketing Facebook Page, I get the post in my personal news feed, just like other fans.

Is this what you are referring to?

Libertyremoval

I have a Facebook Business Page Libertyremoval. I do not have a suggest to friends link and I am very frustrated. I use Google to search for like business and see a “Like” button, but when I search for friends there is no way to communicate with them. Am I doing something wrong? Or is there a setting I need to switch on or off? Thanks for any help you can offer….

http://masterful-marketing.com Debra Murphy

There may be a couple of things happening here. First, “suggest to friends” link is now the “Invite Friends” link and is located on the right side under the Admins. However, if you created this page through a fake profile or a business account, either of which has no friends, then you won’t be able to invite friends. Now once you invite friends, you can’t do it again. You get one chance to invite them to like your page.

Hope this helps.