Why your company needs a company Facebook Page
David Bruce Jr of Frederick Web Promotions
When you mention Facebook and Advertising in the same sentence the assumption most people make is that the purpose is to advertise a companies wares to the millions of Facebook users. By itself, that's a good idea, BUT... There is another very good reason why your company needs a presence on Facebook and it has little to do with Facebook itself. You see your personal Facebook contents are deliberately blocked from Google's index by the Facebook powers that be. They'd like you to log into Facebook and never leave. Company Facebook Pages however ARE search-able by Google because the feed from a Fan page is permitted by FB to be indexed.
Facts About Marketing on Facebook
If you are a company, you want to sell stuff, right? You want to offer your wares to people who actually have enough disposable income to buy what ever it is your hawking. If you're selling Cadillacs you don't want to waste time advertising to migrant farm workers (no disparaging of migrant farm workers intended, just a reality check). The 100 million people who joined Facebook in less than 9 months almost universally have:
- College degrees
- Mortgages
- Credit
- Disposable Income
While FB was set up by some Harvard students for Harvard students it has certainly out grown being a college student information sharing medium. Professional people, entrepreneurs, even CNN is into Facebook in a big way. Bottom line is, you want to sell stuff to people who are likely to be able to afford what ever it is your selling, and Facebook is just that.
What makes a Company Facebook Page different than a Personal Facebook Page?
For one thing Facebook doesn't want the commercial use of a personal Facebook Page, you can get kicked off of Facebook and have to grovel first, then promise to go forth and sin no more in order to get your personal FB page reinstated.
That's what the Fan pages are for.
When you search in Google and see a Facebook Profile all you really see is the outer shell. You wont see the contents of yours or any one else's personal FB page displayed in a Google search. You have to be a member of Facebook to see inside a FB profile, and you can even block non friends from seeing inside your account.
So if you're only using a personal FB to advertise (I know I just said we weren't supposed to but lots of people didn't bother to read the tos, still others bend the rules, I guess "rules were meant to be broken" is their motto?) ... if you are not using a company FB page you're limited to ONLY pitching to Facebook Members.
A Facebook Fan page on the other hand has it's RSS feed open so as to allow your postings to show up publicly in search engine results pages. So if you played your cards right (and hired an SEO consultant, or learned DIY SEO which is a series on my main website) you *could* end up with:
- One listing for your company website in Google
- Another listing for your company blog
- And one MORE for your Company Facebook Page
There are only 10 slots available in a Google search results page, if you took up 3 of the ten... doesn't leave much room for your competition does it? Some Facebook Tips for filling out your profile: Don't overdo your 'Interests' With your 'Interests' section, you really have two routes lying before you. Taking the first route would be to fill this space with some kind of witticism, since asking somebody to sum up what most interests him or her in life on a Facebook profile is slightly ridiculous. A decent example would be to respond, "Facebook," for instance. The snarkier, the better, really. The second route would be to list the interests that best differentiate you; it's understood that you enjoy "chillin' with friends" and "reading a good book," so get more descriptive. Instead of "chillin' with friends, say, for example, "eating fried chicken livers while watching football with the boys." Instead of "reading a good book," respond with, "Victorian British literature." http://www.switched.com/2008/11/13/facebook-101-25-tips-and-tricks-3/#comments
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