Businesses, both large and small, are turning to Facebook for free and easy online advertising. The thought of setting up a social site can be daunting. I've compiled set up instructions, and utilization hints and tips that will ease you into a top notch Facebook Business Page. Here we go... Sign up for a (Free) Facebook Personal Page. This is great for communicating with family and friends. Next, start your (Free) Facebook Business Page. 1. If you overlooked the Set Up Business Page button during your personal page set up, click this link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php 2. Select your business category. (Spend a couple of minutes on this as you can't change it easily). 3. Enter your business/product/brand name and click "Create Page". 4. Enter a short description of your business and a website address. This is in the "Add Information To This Page" area. I also advise uploading your logo as a photo/image. (Don't forget branding. Be consistent in the logo or photo that you use on all sites.) 5. Click on your business name in the top left corner (it's a hyperlink) and then click "publish this page" (until you do this, nobody but you will be able to see your new Facebook business profile). 6. Finally, and this is important, from your new profile page, click "Add to my products". This way, you become the first "fan" of your business. 7. Now comes the fun part. Once you've become a "fan" of your business, your friends on Facebook (some of which are likely customers) will see a message in their home page. Something like "Dharmesh Shah is a fan of HubSpot". Some of your Facebook friends will befriend your business. Then, their friends will see a message, and so it goes… Get More From Your Business Page 1) Configure your Facebook Business Page's "Settings" to allow more participation. The new Facebook Pages that launched in March 2009 were designed to inspire more action and participation by your fans. That's a good thing because in truth most Pages with the old design had very few wall posts or discussions. People became a "fan" and occasionally read "Updates" and that was about it. The new Pages have proven to be a much better tool in terms of inspiring online conversations around your organization's mission and programs. The ability to build community is essential in order to have a return on your investment (ROI) when using social networking sites, and you can't build community on Facebook if you don't allow your fans to participate on your Page. This will mean that you are going to have check your Page more regularly for rogue comments, but that is a small price to pay for increased community participation and ROI. To allow maximum participation on your Facebook Page, go to "Settings" on the home view under the "Share" button and: View Settings: 1) Default View for Wall :: Posts by Page and Fans 2) Default Landing Tab for Everyone Else :: Wall 3) Auto-Expand Comments :: Check Fan Permissions: Check :: Fans can write on the wall Check :: Allow fans to post photos Check :: Allow fans to post videos Check :: Allow fans to post links 2) Use your organization's logo as your Page picture. Your organization's logo a.k.a. avatar has never had more value than it does in the Era of Web 2.0. People will recognize your logo from Facebook on Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, Change.org, Flickr, etc. before they even they even see your profile name. Make sure the use of your logo/avatar is consistent on all your social networking profiles. 3) Put "http://" before all Web sites in "Updates". "Updates" are similar to e-mails that you can send to your fans inside of Facebook. Make sure that you have the "http://" in front of all Web site URLs [such as http://www.wildaid.org] that you list in your Update so that the link is automatically hyperlinked so that individuals can visit the website with one simple click. You'd be surprised how few Page Admins know this little trick. People will not copy and paste www.wildaid.org into their browser for example, thus you are losing a valuable opportunity to increase your Web site traffic via Facebook Updates. 4) Ask your pre-April 2009 fans to opt-in to receive your "What's on your mind?" Status Updates. People that became a "Fan" of your Page beginning in and after April 2009 do see your "What's on your mind?" Status Updates on their Facebook Home page under News Feed > Public Profiles. But those who became fans before April 2009 do not. You need to send them an "Update" asking them to opt-in to be able to view your Status Updates. They can do so by visiting their Facebook Home > Scrolling the bottom the News Feed > Clicking "Edit Options" > "Public Profiles" > Scrolling to your organization's Page > "Add to News Feed". Fans who joined your Page before March 2009 will also not see your "Links" in their primary News Feed until they have opted-in. This is covered in Best Practice #5. 5) Add and use the "Links" App to get your organization to show up in "News Feeds". For your organization to show up in the primary News Feeds of your Fans, you need to add the Links App to your Page and post links when updating/sharing "What's on your mind?". Once you add the App, you will notice the ability to add/post links (to your web site, blog, MySpace Page, Twitter profile, etc.) when communicating what's on your mind and these links will show up in the News Feeds of your fans. 6) Ask questions to spark conversation and activity on your Page. The new Facebook Pages were built to inspire more activity on the part of your fans. A good strategy is to use the "What's on your mind?" function to post questions. People will then reply answers on your Page giving it more dynamic, community-driven look and feel. Make sure you have configured your Page's Settings to allow more participation! 7) Add the "Causes" App for fundraising, but don't just limit your organization to using Causes for Facebook fundraising. The Causes App allows nonprofits to fundraise on Facebook. Your organization must be in GuideStar.org for you to be able to use Causes. Donations are processed by Network for Good and JustGive.org. The is a lot of potential with Causes for fundraising, but as of June 2009, the median gift through Causes is $25 and the vast majority of nonprofits have received no donations through Causes. In fact, on average you can expect 2 cents per Cause member. Also, keep in mind that Causes does not currently provide the e-mail address of donors to the nonprofit organization, so it will be tough to thank and further engage donors via Facebook Causes. Therefore, don’t just limit your fundraising on Facebook to using Causes. Make sure you add the Static FBML App and use it to add a "Donate Now" button to your Facebook Page as well. Updates are also an important tool for fundrasing on Facebook. Right now, most nonprofits that regularly use Facebook and/or Facebook Causes understand that the greatest value to Facebook currently is building a brand and online community around their mission and programs, not fundraising. 8) Add the "Notes" App and feature it as a Tab if your organization does not have a blog. This Notes App essentially allows you to run a blog on your Facebook Page. Like a blog, notes are listed chronologically and fans can comments and give thumbs up. I use "Notes" to announce the "Nonprofit of the Month" on the Nonprofit Organizations Facebook Page and feature Notes as a Tab. Just in case you haven't noticed, Tabs can be dragged and dropped. 9) Add the "Social RSS" App and featured it as a Tab if your organization does have a blog. In general, I am not a big fan of automation/robot tools on social networking sites, but I make an exception when using RSS for your organization's blog. The Social RSS App allows you to use RSS to automatically post your blog articles on your Facebook Page. Your latest blogs/articles are automatically posted to your wall and your friends/fans home pages, and can either be featured as a Tab, under Boxes, or on the home of your organization's Facebook Page. 10) Add the "Static FBML" App and learn basic HTML. The Static FBML App is one of the most important Apps on Facebook. It allows you to add new boxes to your page that can include text, links and images as long as you have a basic working knowledge of HTML (View Basic HTML Tutorial). 11) Using the "Static FBML" App, add Web 2.0 Icons to your Page. Thanks to Change.org, adding Web 2.0 icons to your Facebook Page has become as easy as copy and paste. 1. Login to your Nonprofit Account on Change.org, go to Admin Dashboard > Get HTML for Web 2.0 Icons. Insert the links to your various profiles on Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, etc. and then copy the code that Change.org automatically generates for you. 2. Then using the Static FMBL App, add a new box and then paste the Web 2.0 icons code and hit Save. The new Web 2.0 icons box will show up under your "Boxes" Tab. From there you can then "Move it Wall Tab" to have it show up on the home of your Facebook Page. See the Nonprofit Organizations Facebook Page as as an example. 12) Select a URL that matches your professional website. In June 2009, Facebook started allowing Page Admins to select vanity URLs for Facebook Pages, such as www.facebook.com/nonprofitorgs. At first there was a 1,000 minimum requirement, but no longer. Grab your vanity URL ASAP at www.facebook.com/username if you have not already. Ideally it should match your organization's website address or other social networking vanity URLs. 13) Add the Fan Box Widget to your website or blog. To grab a Fan Box Widget, login as an Admin to your Facebook Page and under the logo on your home view you will see the link "Add Fan Box to your site". On that page you can grab code for a widget that you can embed on your organization's website or blog that will display the status updates on your Facebook Page, thumbnails of your fans, as well as a "Become a Fan!" button. If your organization is investing time and energy into building your Facebook presence, then a Fan Box widget is a must. See the Sierra Club website and the Children's Defense Fund website for live examples of the widget. 14) Use the "Favorites" function to build partnerships on Facebook. Each Facebook Page has a link under the logo on the home view named "Add to my Page's Favorites". Use this functionality to build and foster partnerships on Facebook. If a foundation recently gave your organization a grant and they have a Facebook Page, then "Favorite" them on your page and post a comment on their wall letting them know that you made them a "Favorite." If your organization has numerous chapters throughout the country, then favorite each one on the Facebook Page for the national office. On the Nonprofit Organizations Facebook Page, I use the Favorites function to highlight the Nonprofits of the Month. 15) Have more than one administrator for your Page. Protect your organization by making sure that you have at least two staff as Admins for your Facebook Page. If a staff person or volunteer leaves, and there isn't a second person named as Page Admin, then you have essentially lost access to your Facebook Page and your hundreds/thousands of fans. 16) Add a Twitter Tab to your Page. Make sure you are logged into Facebook and designated as an Admin for your organization’s Facebook Page. Go to Involver's App Gallery [You can install two of the basic Apps for free]. Click the Facebook Install button for Twitter. It will ask you to choose which Facebook Page you want to install the App. Select your page and then click the “Add Twitter for Pages” button. You will then be prompted to enter your name, email address, phone number, and Twitter User Name. All four fields are required. Click “Save & Continue” and then “Continue to Fan Page”. The final step is to click “+ Add a new tab” on your Facebook Page, then Select “Twitter”. The Twitter Tab will automatically appear. You can then drag and drop your Tabs in the order you think it most important for your Facebook Strategy. Keep in mind that the default settings are that the “Wall” Tab is first, the “Info” Tab is second. [See the Involver Twitter App live] 17) Add a YouTube Tab to your Page. Simply repeat the steps above! You will not be prompted to enter your contact information again, however you will be asked to enter your YouTube User Name (www.youtube.com/username) and whether you want only your uploaded videos or your favorited video displayed, or both. That depends on how you use your YouTube channel. Most organizations would likely only want their uploaded videos displayed. [See the Involver YouTube App live] 18) Drag and Drop your most important Tabs. The default setting on facebook is that your Wall and Info Tabs must remain and be in the first and second position on your Page's Tabs, but the remaining four Tabs can be dragged and dropped to feature your most important Apps. For the Nonprofit Organizations Page, I currently feature Twitter, YouTube, Notes and Links in my Tabs. A month from now I may move them around again. Keep your Tabs fresh and change them around every once in awhile! 19) Limit your Status Updates to one per day. It's a good thing that there is no way to sync Tweets to Status Updates on Facebook Pages or nonprofit organizations would be losing a lot of fans on Facebook. The fans of the Nonprofit Organizations Facebook Page have made it quite clear that more than one Status Update a day from your organizations, and you're in the realm getting defanned, or at the very least "Hidden". View Poll. 20) Add the MyFlickr App. The MyFlickr App will post your most recent additions to your Flickr stream to your Facebook Wall and News Feed. It is not done automatically though. You do need to update the App in your Page's backend for the new photos to show up on your Facebook Page. This App is best for the Boxes Tab and simply for integrating your Flickr stream into your Facebook Wall and News Feed. Not recommend for a Tab itself. 21) Use TwtPoll to engage your fans. Every once in awhile create a poll on TwtPoll and post it as a link in a Status Update. Most everyone now understands that successfully using social media for your organization means engaging your fans, followers, and friends. In addition to asking your fans to take the poll, ask them to share their thoughts on the issue of the poll in the Status Update thread as well. TwtPolls work great on Twitter too!
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