As of 2012, in the United States alone there were 313 million people. Of those 313 million, 245 million were on the internet, and 166 million on Facebook. That’s more than half of the United States on Facebook. Even more importantly, half of those Facebook users log in everyday.
I talk with many business owners that are unsure if they should have their business on Facebook. With numbers like I’ve listed above, it’s hard to believe you’d consider not having your business on Facebook.
Now for some Facebook education.
On Facebook, there are two types of accounts you can create: Personal Accounts and Business Pages. A Personal account is used to connect people, while a Business Page is used to promote a business or organization to people that are on Facebook (using a Personal account).
Get more information on these differences straight from the horse’s mouth: https://www.facebook.com/help/www/131976240210052
What a Facebook Business Page allows you to do is create a “minature website” within Facebook. You can communicate with your current and potential customers in a more relaxed environment. You can let them know about developments within your company, or even specials that you’re having this week. Either way, it opens up a direct channel for you to talk to your audience.
This also goes both ways: If your audience has a question or wants to congratulate your company for a job well done, they can do that directly on Facebook. If someone wants a quote for your services they can message you right in Facebook.
When you have a Facebook Business Page it will also show up in search results. For instance, if you search “Graticle Design” on Google, you’ll see our website listed first, our LinkedIn page second, and our Facebook Page listed third. This is important for two reasons: If your Facebook Business Page is ranking on Google, then another web page is not. And in this case our Facebook Business Page is in the perfect slot. Not a random Yellow Pages directory listing or a suggestion from what Google thinks you want to see. Secondly, people can find your Facebook Page and choose to look at it on Facebook. Some people will prefer to look at your Facebook Page, because they are more comfortable in Facebook and know exactly what they’ll get when they arrive.
So now that you’re convinced, I’ll let you know a couple of things. It’s fairly easy to setup a Facebook Business Page, although it will take time. If you’re just getting your business started, then it’s well worth your time to setup your Facebook Page. But for companies that would like someone to handle this for them, we can help out.
We offer a Facebook Business Page service where we will setup your Facebook Page, design it and then hand it off to you. We also offer a posting service, where you can email us what you’d like to post, and we take care of it for you. This is especially important for companies that don’t have the resources to commit to Facebook at the moment but know it’s important to be there.
If you’d like an example of our work, take a look at the BEEM Outdoors Facebook page that we setup and designed for them.
Overall, I hope this has gotten you to think seriously about a Facebook page for your business. If anything, start small and create one with your company information. Start adding a picture or two the following week, and when comfortable, start adding posts.
If you’d like to start now, you can create your Facebook Business Page by going here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/create/
And with that, have a great rest of your week!
– Shawn
