Web Marketing: Face the Facts about Facebook

Add your location to your company name. You are likely not the only Joe’s Print Shop in the world. To avoid confusion and make your page easy to find, consider adding the city and state where your company is located in your business name and/or tagline.

Really think about the image you select for your profile. It should be interesting and eye-catching, but not so abstract that people won’t recognize it as your business. Please don’t use a scan of your business card. And if you have the time and ability, consider something a little more than your logo. Also remember to review what your image will look like as a thumbnail when you post to your page. Check out Firespring’s Facebook page for an example.

Be sure to take advantage of the “write something about your business” box. This is extremely important not only for visitors to your page, but to help increase search volume for your page. Focus on words people might use to find you such as business cards, color printer, digital printing, etc. Include your city and state once more and your website address. Be sure to use the “http://” at the beginning of your URL so that the link is clickable. If you use email marketing, be sure to include a link to sign up for your email list as well.

Take a look at your wall settings and the security level you’d like to maintain. My advice is to keep this as open as possible, allowing fans of your page to interact freely. Allow them to post comments, photos, video, and tag existing photos. The more you allow them to interact, the more likely they are to visit your page time and time again. Coca Cola has amazing fan interaction on its page; you can review it for a great example.

Upload photos of your staff, your products and, ideally, your customers. Next time you deliver a job to a happy customer, snap a photo and upload it to your Facebook page. You can associate that photo to the customer’s personal Facebook page by tagging them. Tagging is as easy as clicking on “tag this photo” under the image and following the instructions. When you tag a photo of a customer, they will get an email that you tagged a photo of them and that photo will be posted on their wall, meaning all of their friends (could be 50, could be 300) will see your company’s page.

Create a username (a username is www.facebook.com/yourcompanyname). Use it to direct people to your Facebook page. Once 25 people “like” your page, which could be as easy as asking your staff and a few friends to “like” you, be sure to sign up for a username by going to www.facebook.com/username.

Consider a landing page. This is an additional tab on your page that can welcome visitors, include more information about your company, provide a promotion, or just be a fun interactive game. This will require a programmer’s help, but can be very useful in driving traffic to your page as well as adding value to the visitor. More to come on this topic in the next article, but for now you can see a nice example of a B2B landing page by visiting Dell’s consumer Facebook page.

Step Three: Get Fans!

Now that your page is up, start sharing! Invite all of your personal friends to “like” your page, and encourage your fans, friends, family, and customers to do the same. Be sure to begin adding “find us on Facebook” to every other piece of marketing you do—including your website. You’ll be surprised how quickly you can gain fans simply by completing these steps. But there’s so much more to talk about—the marketing side of the page, how to get visitors and fans, how to engage them, and encourage them to interact and to come back often. We’ll delve into that next time. For now, get started on creating an amazing Facebook page and we’ll talk again in November.

Tawnya Starr is a former successful print shop owner who is now president of FireSpring’s PrinterPresence. She has dedicated her career to educating the printing industry on proven website and marketing strategies. In 2005, she received the Industry Award of Distinction from NAQP for her service as a consultant and educator to the industry. Contact her at Tawnya.Starr@Firespring.com. This article is available as a podcast at www.quickprinting.com/podcast and from iTunes.