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Hey guys, this is a great article from my friend Extreme John. I suggest you read, and implement it.

Why Every Business Needs a Facebook Page

1. Customer Support

I’m going to use examples for every single reason that your small business needs a Facebook Page, except for customer service. If you can’t figure out the benefits of using social media sites like Facebook to connect, interact and resolve with your customers just move on to the next website or blog… or… wait.

Scroll down and keep reading, maybe by the end of it you’ll understand the importance of using social media to connect with your customers.

2. Support from Existing Connections – Pet Safari

In the very early stages of having a Facebook Fan Page for each of my businesses I learned how quickly it could benefit my business, especially from local businesses that were also on Facebook like Pet Safari. Dave from Pet Safari not only comments here, but he is always showing support for my Extreme Tan and Smoothies Facebook Page. You never know who’s on Facebook, better yet by now just assume that everyone is but you and get on it.

Thank you Dave, and thank you Pet Safari for being a great support and business neighbor.

3. Increase Your Social Network with New Friends – Sunset Appliance

Before Facebook I never heard of Sunset Appliance, a local business that also uses Facebook to connect with existing customers and potential new social network connections. This was until someone at Sunset Appliance was nice enough to mention and tag Extreme Tan and Smoothies in one of their status updates, as a matter of fact they were nice enough to mention our Wednesday BOGO free smoothie special. How’s that for aggressive Facebook game?

I instantly requested Sunset Appliance to be a friend on Facebook, I want to connect with local business owners that use social networks as a daily business tool.

4. Expand on Stagnant Relationships – Jesse’s Playhouse

I can only imagine how bent some of my daily readers might get about this one, but the bottom line is that business is business and you’re either doing it, or you’re not. Being “Extreme John” it’s safe to say that I’ve spent a few hours in a gentleman’s club once or twice. Jesse’s Playhouse is a local kick ass spot that’s always taken very good care of me any time I’ve ever been there, I’m not in my youth anymore so I don’t spend as much time as I would like at Emperor’s as I would like. Not to mention lacking the self control I lack, it can get costly pretty quick.

Anyway, It’s been a while since I’ve been to Jesse’s Playhouse or Emperor’s Gentleman’s Club as I know it. I know, sad but true. A few days ago Jesse was nice enough to invite me out for a few free drinks, I wasn’t able to make it out that night but hopefully I can get through there again in the near future. Always the best service for EJ at Emperor’s. OK, anyway I had no idea that Jesse was even on Facebook (bad assumption), until Jesse’s Playhouse started interacting heavily on the Extreme Tan and Smoothies Facebook Page.

Gotta love a small business that goes after it from every angle. Happy to connect with Jesse and Emperor’s again online, I’ll be there real soon.

5. Impact Other Businesses – Mark “The Balloon Guy”, Shane’s Fit Club

When it comes to doing events that help your local community or individuals in need you need as much support from your customers as you can get. In the case of Mark “The Balloon Guy” Byrne and Shane the founder of Shane’s Fit Club in Dunedin they are not only customers that support great causes, but local small business owners that get involved to support great causes.

I would never directly ask any of my customers to have their business support a cause that we are supporting, It’s just not my style. In the case of Mark “The Ballon Guy” and Shane from Shane’s Fit Club no one ever needed to ask them to do anything, they heard that we were having a Gulf Coast Cleanup event at our tanning salons and instantly used Facebook to connect with us and get involved. Mark and Shane both donated their services to the Balloon event helping us to raise money for merchandise needed by the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary, another local business.

6. Build on Mutual Business Support – DJ Chris Craze, Dj Knowbody and DJ FBI

In a perfect world everyone would run around kissing our ass and make their personal and business Facebook Page status updates about our business… When you wake up from that pipe dream realize the importance of being a working part of a MUTUAL relationship that supports both parties in the network, or in this case social network.

When we hire local entertainment providers and entrepreneurs, DJ Chris Craze, DJ Knowbody, and DJ FBI to create excitement at our tanning salon events they always take it to the next level. They always promote hard using status updates, event invites and more. Always tagging Extreme Tan and Smoothies along the way.

In return we mention any service provider that provides entertainment services on our Facebook Fan Page mutliple times leading up to the event, and show appreciation by mentioning them on the best indoor tanning blog.

7. Help a Business Grow Their New Social Media Identity – Car Tunes

Helping other business owners is what I do, probably even when I’m not asked to or when a young entrepreneur doesn’t event want to hear my two cents. Either way I do it because I enjoy it, not to be a wise ass but simply for the sake of enjoying everything about helping others. Anytime I find out that a new local business owner reads my blog and starts a new social media adventure I feel the need to help out, this was the case with Car Tunes when they first got involved on Facebook.

8. Opportunity – My Body and Fitness

If it weren’t for Facebook I wouldn’t have had the chance to meet Joe D’Angelo. Joe is the founder of My Body and Fitness, a local fitness based website that will be opening early in 2011. My connection with Joe, made possible by Facebook and Joe’s outgoing nature seems to be opening doors for both of us as we get ready to move into the new year.

I can’t really get into the details of my business with Joe and My Body and Fitness, but I can tell you that it’s already opened the doors to some very good opportunities. Opportunity doesn’t knock every two seconds, when it rears it’s head you should pay attention to it, social media or not.

9. Save Money – Bill Cason

Maybe not every connection made through social media or specifically will result in instant results, nor will every connection turn out to be a money saver or helper. However there are those rare few, the few connections that offer potential in business or more importantly a chance to save money in your business. Bill Cason is a social media Facebook connection that i’ve met in the last few months that offers tremendous money saving potential to my small business.

Once our credit card machine contracts run out we will make the decision to change to a new merchant services company because as of right now my hatred for Sun Trust can’t even be explained. I can throw RBS WorldPay in that mix too, but I won’t. Thanks to Bill the Promoter using Facebook as a business tool I had a chance to meet with Bill and see tremendous money savings opportunities by switching to his companies merchant services, in the event we don’t switch to a mobile based processor there’s a very good chance I’ll be saving money with Bill in 2011.

10. Inspiration – All American Dog Training

Every once in a while you meet someone that works hard and believes in what they are doing, you can see it in their focus, in their eyes when they talk about business. In my time of being a young business monster at Home Depot and clawing my way through being a successful entrepreneur I’ve seen plenty of fakes come through. We all know them, they are the pretenders, they want the benefits of success without the risk and blood that it takes to get it.

Dave from All American Dog Training Academy is the complete opposite of that. The real deal.

Dave is the real deal when it comes to business, talking business, action in business and he’s even managed to pick up social media and run away with it. Now, when I log on to Facebook I instantly look for status updates posted on the All American Dog Training Facebook Page. Dave puts his heart into what he does and the information, tutorials and additional information he provides to his customers and potential customers is top notch.

Now I get fresh ideas on different information that I can share.

11. Increase Exposure

Rich the founder of People, Places and Things Photography opened my eyes to the power of using Facebook to increase your business exposure. Sometimes the very basic things that you would think would be a no-brainer don’t come to you as you think they would, thanks to Rich I got the point and now use it constantly in my Facebook marketing strategies.

I wrote a People, Places and Things Review a while back and we continue to use Rich’s services for professional pictures of our indoor tanning products, we are private label now and we need those high quality photos. Anyway, after Rich completed shooting our private label tanning products he tagged our photos on Facebook, those photos show up at the top of my Facebook page. Every time someone looks at any of those photos they see Rich’s name/business with the tag. Exposure.

Fight it all you want kiddies, but the way I see it free Facebook marketing through my social network sounds pretty sweet to me.

12. Your Business Isn’t THAT Good

Listen, I could probably go on all night about why you need to get a Facebook Page for your small business. Honestly, this started out as a post that was going to list 3 reasons, I’m at 12… if you don’t get it by now I don’t know what to tell you. In all seriousness, social media and social networking on the internet are here to stay, it’s the real deal, not some quick fad that will be gone in two minutes. Sure, maybe Facebook isn’t the eternal answer (and I don’t believe it is), but it sure does give you access to 500,000,000 people.

Think about it.

13. Mentor

OK, one more.

You can either get mentored or be a mentor. I understand fully that regardless of my knowledge of the situation, I’m a mentor to plenty of small business people, entrepreneurs, my kids, young people and associates. In the same way I understand my mentorship responsibilities I also appreciate finding a good mentor or in some cases great mentors.

Joe Swantack from Spirit Pen fits right into the mentor role because of his sheer energy and aggression in developing the next big thing. I’ve only known Joe for a short time and in that short period of tiem I’ve watched him launch and market two products he created, and do a sick ass job doing it on Facebook. John Paul Aguiar the creative blogger behind Money Dummy is another good example of mentoring. As of late I find myself watching everything that John Paul Aguiar does in social media, much of which is done on Facebook.

Best part about what John uses Facebook for? He uses it to market his personal brand and his Money Dummy brand, and does it VERY well with consistency and excellent social media marketing skills. Oh yeah, wait… the best part? He’s marketing how to market your brand on Twitter. If you wanna get in the game, watch John for two weeks.

Parting Shots

I know there’s a lot of tanning salon owners that read this blog and never comment, many of which are local and consider themselves competitors of mine. There’s a good chance at one point in time I considered you competition too, but seriously do yourself a favor and get on Facebook with your small business and keep it moving. Let the others that want to be difficult sit on the sidelines, get involved now and build your social presence while everything is still in the premie stage.

You Go

Don’t just sit there, get your ass involved and leave a comment, share a success that you’ve had in your small business by using Facebook daily to connect with other business owners and customers.

P.s. I hate doing posts where I name friends and businesses because I’m always afraid of forgetting someone and pissing them off. If you’re reading this and I constantly talk with you on Facebook and failed to mention you or your business please don’t take it personal. I’m working this relaxed schedule and may have had a few drinks as I put this together.