in: Facebook
by: Katie Hellmuth Martin
Facebook is always undergoing new changes, both visually and functionally (things you can do). These days, you could log into Facebook every day and notice one tiny difference in your experience. For the most part, Facebook business pages have stayed the same once they went through a major overhaul in 2009. Here is the gist of what you can do with a business page, and some best practices:
What's new and different to help businesses
Business pages now behave like personal profile pages, which is how people used to promote their businesses, but is against Facebook's terms. Facebook recognized this, and adapted their Business Page tool to let you build your business profile so that it can behave like a person. It can:
- show up in people's news streams where they read updates about their friends
- "tag" other businesses in updates or photos in order to link pages and show up on another business page (a great form of supportive promotion)
- show support of other business pages
How Such Pages are Built
Super easy - click and go. And then, you can go with a fancier branded page that looks more like a website home page. Hardest part may be *finding* the original start button in Facebook's navigation. Once you do that though, you tell Facebook what kind of business you are (local store, a person/expert, a website, etc). Depending on what type of business you select, Facebook presents you with different options. For example, if you are a store with a physical location, Facebook will ask you for store hours and an address to help people who are tapped into local searches.
Best Practices for What You Write on Your Facebook Business Page
- Be inspiring
- Be useful and helpful
- Don't tag other business pages with a lame message. This is like litter on their page, and doesn't bode well for your brand.
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Hook up your Facebook business page with your business Twitter account, but don't do the other way around.
