12 Reasons You Need a Facebook Fan Page and 5 Easy Steps for Creating One

By | February 25, 2010 | Web Pro Business

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Facebook fan pages aren’t just for large corporations interested in getting involved in social media. Small businesses, entrepreneurs, freelancers and other professionals can benefit from having a fan page on Facebook.

Separate from your personal profile, a Facebook fan page is a public profile that lets you share your products, services and related information with other Facebook users. Here are some of the biggest reasons you should create a fan page today.

12 Reasons You Need a Facebook Fan Page

  1. There isn’t a limit to the number of fans you can have. This makes fan pages especially valuable for Facebook users who reach, or are approaching, the 5,000 friend limit.
  2. It’s free.
  3. It gives you a way to talk to and get feedback from your target audience, because like a user profile, you can update your fans with statuses that will appear in the news feed.
  4. You can promote events.
  5. It’s an SEO boost. Facebook is currently the second most popular site on the Web according to Alexa.
  6. You can customize the design using FBML, Facebook’s version of HTML. Check out the Static FBML app for more.
  7. You can create brand advocates.
  8. You can easily promote it with tools provided by Facebook.
  9. The Facebook Pages Insights analytics tool gives you useful information about your fans and their interactions.
  10. You can build a community for your clients and prospects.
  11. It’s another funnel to your website.
  12. You can add unlimited photos and videos.

5 Easy Steps for Creating a Facebook Fan Page

Step 1: Go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

Step 2: Select a category and enter the name for your page (you can set your fan page to be private until you’re ready to go live).
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Step 3: Add a picture and become a fan.
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Step 4: Edit your page settings. This is where you customize your page, including country and age restrictions, wall settings, tabs, fan permissions, and applications.
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Step 5: Publish and promote your page. You can promote with a fan box, a Facebook ad, by suggesting to friends, on your personal profile and in your other networks.
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Bonus: Once you hit 25 fans, go to http://www.facebook.com/username/ to create a vanity URL for your page.

How have you used Facebook fan pages for promotion?

Written By:

Alyssa Gregory

Alyssa Gregory is a small business collaborator and the founder of the Small Business Bonfire, a social, educational and collaborative community for entrepreneurs.

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Tagged as: facebook, social media

{ 4 comments }

Facebook Pulse September 29, 2011 at 10:37 pm

Alyssa, Short and to the point. You have taken a subject that many people think is hard and made it seem easy. All though there is a lot more to know about facebook fan pages, the way you write makes me think you should write a whole series on Facebook Fan Pages and you could include group pages as well. Thank for your article and I will look forward to reading more.
Ross

Nicola Connolly March 2, 2010 at 1:58 am

So true. Facebook (along with Twitter and the like) are extremely useful marketing tools for all types of business (everything from web design companies through to fancy dress shops…) – it’s an easy way for people to connect with you on an informal level which slips into their online time without being too intrusive. Once you’ve got ‘fans’ it’s key to make sure you pop up on their newsfeed with relevant and intriguing content – being careful all the time to avoid being ‘spammy’. Over time this is sure to increase your website visitor count and consequently the amount of business you are able to gain online.

MusicAdvocate February 28, 2010 at 8:37 am

Facebook Now has BandPages!

Check out the Video: http://bit.ly/byI778

Here are a few bands using it: http://bit.ly/9HZjTX / http://bit.ly/dkgZEF / http://bit.ly/bOFCad / http://bit.ly/dkfzLZ

You can make a BandPage for free in ten minutes at http://www.rootmusic.com/

Its in the news! http://88b26.th8.us/

Daniel Woods February 28, 2010 at 3:35 am

This is a very quick and to the point blog post. I started a Facebook fan page for my company Social Box Media because of the natural way Facebook page ranks. You can see my site here http://www.socialboxmedia.com and check out my Facebook fan page here http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=social+box+media&init=quick#!/pages/Social-Box-Media/243738408051

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