Five reasons why your business should make a Facebook Page

Since Facebook introduced “Facebook Pages” in 2007, a wide array of organizations, businesses, celebrities, and brands have been using them to broadcast information to those “followers” or “fans” who choose to connect with them.

Having a Facebook Page has garnered considerable buzz in the marketing world, but it does require some effort to have a successful Page.

One of the cornerstones of our online marketing philosophy is that your reputation is built through all interactions you have with customers and potential clients. Facebook offers more opportunities to interact with them and expand your visibility.

While negative interactions can harm your reputation, quality ones help create goodwill towards your brand. We think the potential to create more ecstatic customers outweighs the risks, and that interactions that properly and professionally field criticism can help create even more goodwill.

Making a Facebook Page can take just a few minutes, and be as simple as providing some company information and website URL, and uploading your logo.

In this post we offer five reasons why you should create a Facebook Page, and make it a priority for your business.

1. A Page is better than a Facebook Group or personal Profile — If you want a presence on Facebook, a Page is better than Facebook Groups, which are typically based around a common cause, issue or activity.

A Facebook Page is also a better choice for your business than a Profile, which is only meant to be used by an individual. Unlike a Profile, a Page is open to the general public by default, and is not limited to 5,000 contacts. Also, according to ReadWriteWeb, converting a Profile to a Page is a nightmare, and could cause you to loose many followers.

2. Play a greater role in online discussions about your company — It’s becoming increasingly rare for your company not to be discussed online. Whether it’s on forums, social networks, newsgroups or anywhere else, there are online discussions going on. A Facebook Page provides a venue, controlled by you, where you can discuss your products and/or services, and respond to comments and questions.

Fan input is also a great way to get constructive feedback because fans oftentimes want your company to succeed and offer the products or services they want.

TIP: You have the ability to delete posts, but you should think twice about exercising that power. Instead of deleting negative posts, you can show your corporate values by respectfully responding to criticism. If some comments are inflammatory or offensive, you can, as a last resort, delete them. Having a comment policy in place helps to legitimize getting rid of posts. If someone has a problem with you deleting their post, you can simply direct them to the comment policy.

3. Keep fans up-to-date on your company — When users sign into Facebook they get updates about their friends and organizations they’re following in their newsfeed. This means posting news and updates is a great way to keep your fans (those who are already interested in your business) informed on what’s happening at your company. These updates also remind followers about your business, keeping you fresh in their minds.

4. Maintain your connection with fans through posts — A quality relationship with customers involves providing them something worthwhile — but this doesn’t have to end when the sales process ends.

Your Facebook Page can provide fans useful information on an ongoing basis that they might miss out on otherwise. Giving fans something worthwhile to follow will help create more dedicated fans. Depending on what your fans find useful, these posts could include links to how-to videos, customer profiles, new product announcements, and anything else you think they might enjoy.

5. A Facebook Page can draw attention to your website — It’s usually a good idea to build your online presence around your corporate website, and a Facebook Page is a good way to draw people to it. Not only can you direct fans to pages and posts on your website, but inbound Facebook Page links help search engines determine the relevancy of your content, so that your website is more likely to come up in Web searches.

Having and maintaining a Facebook Page gives your fans a way to stay up-to-date with your company and gain useful information. This form of contact between you and your customers essentially helps remind them why they like your company. Facebook Pages help your conversation with customers continue after the service is provided or the product is sold.

It requires some work, but a good Facebook Page can make fans into bigger fans who may continue that conversation by recommending your company to their Facebook friends and real-world colleagues.

We think that a Facebook Page can be a useful tool for many organizations. Kobayashi Online and our preferred social media vendor Spark Boutik like setting up, maintaining, and designing Facebook Pages. Let us know if you need help!