Sorry for the Extra Length Post
Here is everything you need to know as a Professional about Facebook's Vanity URLs, Profiles, Groups, and Pages.
First a little info on Facebook. What started as a way for College Kids to stay connected has evolved into one of the fastest growing sites on the internet. It's not for Kids either.
Did you know...
- 30 million users update their statuses at least once each day (13 million did per month at the beginning of the year)
- 8 million users become fans of Pages each day (up from 2.5 million per day at the beginning of the year)
- 10 million videos are uploaded each month (up from 4 million)
- 900 million photos are uploaded to the site each month (up from 700 million)
- 1 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared each week (up from 15 million per month)
- 35 million active groups exist on the site (up from 19 million)
- 2.5 million notes created each month
- 30 million users access Facebook each month through a mobile device
(source: Inside Facebook)
This is why Facebook has become very important. If your past, present and future clients are all there - shouldn't you be too? It's the "HOW" of your being there that's important to understand. Let's start with the fundamentals.
The Profile
Join Facebook and the first thing you do is create a Profile. This is you (personally).
People who connect to you become "FRIENDS" of you. A Friend of yours can also see who your other friends are. This also means that when your friends upload and tag pictures, videos, etc of you that picture is usually also shown to all your other Friends as well. That's great if it's the Church BBQ and all your friends are part of the same church. That's not so great if one of your friends from 20 years ago posts embarassing pictures of you. (Yes you can try to control who posts what and who sees what in the privacy settings but it's aa losing battle). When a potential client becomes your "friend" they are subjected to all your pictures, your friends pictures, and so on. We know professionally to stay away from Politics, Sex and Religion in our daily business but when we accept a potential client as a "friend" we've opened that door wide open!
Vanity URLs or Vanity Usernames
June 12th, 9 PM Pacific time, Facebook opened up the ability to create a Vanity Username for your profile. During that landrush Facebook reported 500,000 usernames in the first 15 minutes! Most people claimed their name. I went from
to 
You can see why. MikeMueller is a whole lot easier to remember than a string of numbers. If you did not get a Vanity URL for your profile yet you still can - just go to http://www.facebook.com/username. Here's one word of caution. You cannot change your username later. Think of it as a lower back tattoo. Chose wisely - your going to have it for a very long time.
Another thing to remember is that this is a Vanity URL for your PROFILE. (I'll explain more later)
Groups
This is going to be easy. You can setup a group in Facebook for anything you want but even Facebook is pondering the viability of groups. They are walled off from the rest of the community. What happens in a group, stays in the group. Google does not see groups. They are not indexed by search engines and have NO SEO value. Updates in groups stay in the group, they do not show on your members walls. Simply put, Groups are a dead end. Let's move on.
Pages
Facebook allows for custom creation of fabulous pages. They (Facebook) call them Fan Pages but really they are Business Pages. Instead of "Friends" your Page collects "Fans". Hey, I'm not a big Fan of the term either.
What can a Facebook Business Page do? Almost anything. The best analogy is that a Facebook Business Page is a website/blog within Facebook. One of the most important things about a Page is that it separates your Personal (family, friends, church, and old girlfriends from 20 years ago) from your Professional Persona of today. Fans of your page do not see the Church BBQ pictures. The only Politics, Sex and Religion they'll see is what you chose to share with them. You still can have personality (and should).
Yes you can get a Custom Vanity URL for your Page if you have 100 Fans. You do not need to have 100 fans to create a page.
Here’s 7 reasons why your business needs a FB page.
- Pages allow a business to "Publish to the Stream" (this shows up on your fans homepage)
- Pages allow a business to engage fans with Rich Media (video, pictures, events)
- Pages let a business analyze how fans are interacting with the Insights Dashboard (FB has deep analytics)
- Pages let a business increase SEO (pages show up in higher Google keyword searches)
- Pages allow you to run highly targeted demographic ads to attract only those that are relevant to your business.
- Pages allow you to arrange Tabs in the order you like (with the exception of the Wall and Info)
- Pages allow you to force a particular tab to open first for new visitors. Example: You can have a tab that introduces your team, your area, or you.
Do I have a Page?
It's easy to tell. Pull up your URL. If under your picture (top left) it says "Edit Page" - then it's a PAGE!
Here's http://facebook.com/MikeMuellerConsulting
If under your picture you see"View Photos of Me" - that's a Profile!
That's almost everything you need to know about Pages.
There's just one more thing...
It's easy to create a Page on Facebook. It's easy to draw people to the page. What isn't easy is to keep them there. You need to have compelling content.
If your page has just the "Wall", "Info" and other stock tabs - your new found Fans will be out of there before the page loads! It's easy to automate new inflow of content. You can bring in blog posts, Tweets, Flickr, most anything and do so automatically.
As an example of what a Page can do - here's a few of he Custom Pages I've helped others with...
Remember, these pages are works in process, Check them out, become a fan and see how they are being used.
Want a Facebook Business Page?
Just go to http://AreWeConnected.com/facebook to start.
;)
;)
Mike nice job with your explanation of how to use the Facebook pages.