As the third most trafficked site on the World Wide Web, Facebook has quickly become THE online community to be part of as both a person and a business. With over 200 million active users and 600,000 new users joining every day, there are many ways for you to connect, promote and expand your business on the free social networking site. The trick is to understand what Facebook can offer your company and how to correctly and efficiently utilize the tools to build and maintain relationships; as well as how to effectively communicate with your consumers.

To start, there are two ways to be an active user on Facebook. The first and most common way is to create a Personal Profile. This is simply becoming part of the community as a person and not an organization. Unfortunately, many businesses mistakenly use a profile instead of the second and more business-specific option. This alternative is called the Business Page and it offers options to promote your company that the Personal Profile does not. Compared side-by-side the Personal Profile and Business Page look almost identical, but knowing which one to use important.

Creating a popular and engaging Business Page is easily done by following the guidelines that E-Power recommends for Web sites - the content has to be appealing to the target audience and engaging to keep them interested today and tomorrow. Content on your Business Page starts with your company's description and can include any of the following:

• Company and product news - New team members, revamped product packaging, industry awards and more are all things that can and should be shared with your fans.

• Videos and photos - Multimedia is a great way to entertain and keep fans coming back, create some fun videos for amusement and instructional clips for education and post photos of your facility, company outings or current projects.

• Resourceful links - Not just links to your company website, but to sites like Twitter, LinkedIn and other locations where you are interacting with audiences.

• Blog posts - Your writing should be shared and the Business Page wall is a great place to post blurbs of your recent posts with links back to your Blog.

• Facebook applications - There are hundreds, maybe thousands of fun, interactive applications available for you to place in your Business Page. Find some that relate to your business and industry or create your own.

• Thoughts and Discussions - Word of mouth is a strong influencer and Facebook is all about creating that two-way communication. Take advantage of being able to speak with your fans and find out what they are thinking, it's invaluable.

Taking your company to Facebook to effectively connect, promote and expand your business can be easily done when the correct guidelines are followed. Your Business Page should be an online location where customers can interact with and discuss your brand and products. The key is to keep it fresh and interesting so your fans and their friends are drawn in.

Labels: Social Marketing