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Facebook is one of the best Social Networking sites for website promotion. A lot

of website promotion can come from the effective use of Facebook. This tool will

help you develop your Facebook account to start sending more traffic to your site

and producing high quality links that raise your page rank and generate

awareness among potential visitors.

Many people go to Facebook to connect to family and friends and people they

have not seen in a long time. There are games to play, silly gifts to give and all

kinds of other “Fun” things to do. However, there are many ways that Facebook

can be used to promote your business as well. First, although Facebook has the

option of creating a business account, it is better for you to set up a Personal

Profile for yourself that will be solely used for the purpose of promoting your

business. The reason for this is that a Business account on Facebook is limited

in functionality. According to its description of Business Accounts, Facebook

states:

Business accounts are designed for individuals who only want to

use the site to administer Pages and their ad campaigns. For this

reason, business accounts do not have the same functionality as

personal accounts. Business accounts have limited access to

information on the site. An individual with a business account can

view all the Pages and Social Ads that they have created, however

they will not be able to view the profiles of users on the site or other

content on the site that does not live on the Pages they administer.

In addition, business accounts cannot be found in search and

cannot send or receive friend requests.

Facebook’s Terms of Rightsand Responsibilities 

in order to make sure you are following their rules. Forexample, Facebook has a policy that does not allow people to maintain multiple

accounts. Therefore, if you already have a personal account, you will either need

to set up the company profile under the name of someone else in your company

that does not already have an account with Facebook or forgo using your

personal account for anything other than to promote your business.

Once you have created an account for your business, fill out your profile as

completely as you can. This is your best advertisement and will help you start to

establish your brand. Be sure and include your contact information along with

your personal web site or blog URL. You can upload a professional or business

casual head shot of yourself as your main profile photo in order to add to your

professional image and put a personal touch on your page. If you wear a

uniform all of the time, you may want to wear your uniform for your profile

photograph. Remember you are your brand so you want to pay attention to all of

the details that will help build your brand.

As soon as you get your profile started, you need to go into the settings in your

Facebook account and set your preferences that allows you to keep parts of your

profile private. For example, you may want to have personal pictures there for

your friends and family to see that you may not want clients to see. You have the

ability to set your preferences so that only those you allow will see this personal

information. You also have the ability to prevent others from posting to your

page, or to keep updates from others’ pages from showing up as a post on yours.

You don’t want to take the chance of something inappropriate appearing on your

Facebook page if someone in your network were to post something like that on

theirs. Believe me, I’ve seen it happen.

Next, when setting up your page, Facebook offers 20 + pages of Applications

such as the Blog RSS Feed Reader Ap, which you can customize to look like a

mini version of your actual blog or web page, that allows you to integrate feeds

from your company’s blog if you have one as well as to other social networking

accounts that you have set up. Use the information tab of your profile to provide

links to specific pages on your website such as your contact form or products and

services page, along with information on how your readers can subscribe to your

blog or newsletter. According to Allison Driscoll, author of 8 Essential Apps for

Your Brand’s Facebook Page, that may help to give you a better understanding

of the Applications she has chosen for her list and may be appropriate for your

business.

Following are 15 key steps that are relatively simple but will allow you to have

maximize your success with using Facebook to promote your website:

Vanity URL: Now that you’ve gotten your Facebook up and running youcan reach out and connect with potential customers and business affiliates. In

June of 2009, Facebook added the Vanity URL feature not previously available

on the site. This is a URL that you can create which is specific to your page, is

static and can be used to help others find your profile easier.

You can include your Social Networking URLs in the signature line on allof your emails as well as posted on your website. In addition, you can feature

this unique URL on all of your business supplies such as business cards and

letter head.

Search Feature: Use the Search feature at the top of your Facebookpages, using key terms such as Business Networking, Business Marketing,

Intellectual Property and so on to look for people and businesses in your industry

that you can connect with. A list will generate featuring People, Pages, Groups,

Applications, Events, Web Results, Posts by Friends and Posts by Everyone

found as a result of your key term search. Try multiple search terms, including

pluralities of words to make the most out of your searches. Search often as new

profiles are added to Facebook each and every day.

4. Start sending Friend Requests: Click on the link for People and scroll

through the list looking for potential leads and contacts. Send friend invites to

anyone who you feel would be a good contact for you and your business. As

your list grows, you will also see that every time you refresh your home page,

Facebook gives suggestions of others who you may potentially want to connect

with based on those already in your friends list. Check there every time you

fresh your homepage to see if there are others who may be of potential interest

that you can also connect with.

Join Networking Groups: From your original search list, click on the link forGroups. Search for groups and fan pages that you feel are relevant to your

business and industry that may be of interest to you or who’s fans you feel would

benefit from your products and services.

Click the link to become a fan and then post a quick hello in the WriteSomething box to introduce yourself to others in the group. Go back often to the

groups you join and post things that you feel will of interest to the group.

7. Create a Group(s) of Your Own: Go to your home page and click on the

Groups link on the left hand side of the page. A list of the groups you are a fan of

will pop up. There you can create a group or groups of your own that is pertinent

to your industry and will be searchable based on the terms you feature in the title

and within the posts that you and your “fans” post to the group. Make sure it is

set so that your group members can invite their “friends” to join the group as

well. Be sure and mention your Facebook group on your main Facebook page,

in your blog and on your website. As more people come to your group, they will

invite others to the join the group and the group will continue to grow.

8. Create a Discussion Board: Facebook features a Discussion Board

Application that you can use in conjunction with your Facebook page. Featuring

a Discussion Board allows you the opportunity to post interesting topics pertinent

to your business and in turn enables your customers and potential prospects to

tell you what they think, feel and desire. It will help you get to know your

customers better putting you in a better position to customize your products and

services to your customers needs.

Keep a Calendar of Events: If you are planning to attend or host abusiness function that will be open to the public or perhaps you will be traveling

to a specific part of the country, post a calendar on your Facebook page (they

have one in the 20+ pages of available applications) letting your readers know.

Post upcoming events including webinars, conferences and any other upcoming

events you will or someone from you business will attend or host.

Stay Active and Current: And post regularly on your Facebook ProfilePage, Group(s), Fan Pages and on your Discussion Boards in order to keep your

group members interested and coming back for more. Post interesting tidbits

that are relevant to your field. Remember as each person connects with you, you

have the potential to connect with everyone they are connected with.

advertising options that can be laser-targeted to the city you do business in. You

only pay per click, so costs are minimal. Also, a Facebook page or group can be

created to help get the word out about your organization.

12. Distribute Information: Local businesses need to affordably communicate

events, news, products and services. Facebook allows you to leverage your

personal and professional contacts to share information-- for free.

13. Create Community: Social networking serves to bring people together.

Your local business can brand, build, and boost business by creating a Facebook

page or group so your local contacts can converse with each other. Let your

community become your best sales people and free focus group. Listen to the

conversations and allow raving fans to share and get in on the conversation.

14. Offer Additional Customer Service: Through Facebook, you can answer

questions, receive free feedback, promote events, and provide news to be of

additional service to your locally-based audience. Facebook gives your

prospective and current customers an additional web option to find and connect

with you.

15. Boost Sales: Local businesses have to fight harder than ever to survive in

this tough economy, but your business can have a competitive edge with

Facebook. Tapping free social networking tools like Facebook to build

awareness, share information, educate, build community, increase connection,

and enhance customer service will all work in unison to make sales.