This information is valuable to me as I have been expanding and have been studying cost efficient ways to expand on marketing. Thank You for this info.

Great post...we're looking forward to doing more with Facebook. Even bringing more of a utility app to manage your finances right within Facebook. Groups on FB have been great but having a more formal presence is going to be a nice complement to extending the reach of Geezeo to the college market. Pete Glyman http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=8379140812

Convince me with a reference that the 53 million are qualified and present.

Love to chat about ways to promote my Talk Fusion Business

Why are numbers displayed in different colors on: http://www.websitegrader.com/? Some are red, and some green? Is there a meaning? Also the Google PageRank of some of my pages has changed, and I still see reported old page rank figure - after I retest that site (URL). Check http://www.employireland.ie - your tool shows PR 5 while google toobar displays 6? Different datacenters perhaps?
Ohh, and BTW - great tools! :) Andthe design (visual) is really easy on the eye! Well done!

Businesses on facebook, sounds familiar why i don't use myspace anymore. I can not be the only one who likes to keep social and business life separate ..... Why don't they invent a site purely for business networking?

Emily... a site purely for business networking has been invented. Check out www.xing.com for example. A lot huge companies encourage their employees to sign up there and use it for networking (me too ^^) Have a great day, Jens

Right now im trying to create an institutional image of Buyandwalk.com. Im trying to introduce the company to the social media, including Squidoo , Facebook, Myspace, Newsvine, Furl , Digg , del.icio.us, etc. Thanks for the tips and Dharmesh and great site Jens.

Great article, I have just posted my new website www.sportingconnections.com on facebook as I am looking for free ways to promote the site at the moment. If anyone has any other ideas or articles for me to read that would be great

Thanks. I had no idea facebook could be a valuable tool for my business. I had heard about it but thought it was just another my space.

I'm still quite a bit peeved by Facebook's reasoning as to why businesses should setup Pages when they've already established a Group. I feel they should allow Group's to have the chance to convert to Pages, so I could take the 200 some-odd members of my group over to my page. More on this here: http://tetromino.com/2007/11/8/why-i-won-t-adopt-facebook-s-pages-model I'm a developer, of databases and applications, so I know it's not impossible. My question to Facebook: would it really be such a difficult feature to offer?

Thanks for that - I added a page as per your instructions (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=6087998330 if anyone is interested). Am I right in thinking though that these pages are still only visible as links via current friends, and not as part of the general search? Cheers.

Chuck: I agree with you totally. They should provide a way to convert a "group" to a business page. I have a group with 500+ members as well that I'd love to switch to a page. Paul: The business pages do seem to show up as part of a search (on the company name at least). I tried searching on "HubSpot" and now there's a special tab in the results for "Pages" and the first hit I get is the new HubSpot product page.

Hi, Great article thanks alot. For some reason I cant add my company information just the website parking and public transit info. Its extremely frustrating as I cant add my company info LOL Any ideas??? Sincerely Virgil

Ahh, yes - thanks for the clarification on the search. Seems as if the simple search only looks at the name, not any of the related details so a number of keywords didn't show the page: searching just on the name did. Cheers.

I hope the execs at Facebook realize that they achieved a $15B market value for their company WITHOUT using businesses while myspace sold out for less than 1/50th that value. I stated using Facebook because I wasn't inundated with ads and porn. I hope they have a way to filter accounts and black overactive users like they already do with spam.

This is great news to know that Facebook allows individual businesses to promote themselves on the platform. How is it different from the groups/communities feature that currently exists.I am currently looking at ways to promote www.Qiu-inc.com on social media sites. Any tips and advice will be very much appreciated.

This looks like it could be very useful, many thanks for the tip. However I do have one question: after creating my page, the only information I am able to enter into the "Information" panel is an address/phone number/hours on the Basic Info tab, and Website, Parking and Public Transit on the Detailed Info tab. Yet I can see on the HubSpot page that you have entries for Company Overview, Mission and Products. How can I get these last three items to appear on my page? Many thanks!

I, too, would like to know more about the 34% of the 53 million Facebook subscribers that are said to be professionals (not kids). How receptive are they to interacting with a brand? Leave me a comment here or on my blog, purethinking.typepad.com THANKS --Ken

Very nice, thank you. And when building a business facebook page, have purpose, passion, don't be boring and mediocre, be remarkable. Do something that'll get people talking about you. I once paid a publicist $7k/month to do this.

Following on from my question above about how to select which fields appear in the information panel... I now have the information I want. It appears that the "create page" page doesn't work properly in Firefox. When I eventually tried in IE7, I found that selecting the "brand" radiobutton caused a new drop-down-list to appear, allowing me to select my brand type. In Firefox, no such list appears, and so the page wasn't created as I expected. Just thought I'd post a warning in case it affects anyone else.

Very good.I'll try it right now.Thanks.Tommy

Thanks for the guide. It's not always obvious what can be done in facebook or what certain feature do. A lot of the time half the stuff seems like guess work!

Great article - I'm already on there but have 100 direct sales staff who could do so much on there too. www.tishtashtoys.com

Great tips, I just don't see this..."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." Where is "add to my products"?

I'm not seeing the "Add to my products" either. Can anyone help explain why I need to set up a profile with a full name to complete my Business page. I like the concept here, but it seems Facebook has made it more complicated than it has to be. Maybe that's just me though.

Tara: If you picked the "services" category when you built the business page, the text of the link is actually "become a fan". This is usually in the right column. I just checked, and the link is indeed their for your page (I tested this by becoming your first fan).

Great article and extreemly heloful to those of us that know so little. I will be watching for more great ideas from you. Thank you for being helpful.

Thanks for the tip, I did it for my website, check it out: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=6152802290

This is a great tip, thank you. I am fairly new to blogging and marketing, but I am teachable and I will look into this. Kudus to you, and I wish you much success in all of your endeavors.

popo - what planet are you on or are you on? seriously its 2007!

I've played around a lot with the pages option in facebook - but I'm having a lot of difficulty with my logo appearing. It seems if you select "Communications" your logo will appear on your "page" but if you select "Technology product / Service" the logo doesn't appear. Same jpeg, same size. Also, the mission, philosophy etc seems to be in some pre configured categories and not others. Any idea if this is a bug or a feature?

Great information. Thanks!

Thanks Dharmash. I just became a fan of HubSpot on Facebook. One tip you forgot to add is that organizations with a Facebook presence need to continually keep their information. For example, you should add blog posts and other information from your website on a regular basis to keep your page fresh! Tom

FaceBook will go down in history as the second BlueMountain. http://smartstartup.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/10/its-deja-vu-all.html People using Facebook will come to rue the day that they went open kimono on it.

I do wish that facebook stayed as a college social networking site. It is ashame that things become to commercialized, but that is the world we live in. We live in a world of ads thrown at us a mile a minute, facebook was nice, it was simple, now it is quite confusing and a hassle, if you ask me.

OK. I created a Facebook profile. . . I think. I am an entrepreneur and have designed a Dorm Room Privacy Screen for college students.
Now what? How will people see it?
Sorry to sound not so smart, but I've been reading this post and just followed the directions.
So, if anybody sees this, let me know.
Also, I sell this product on Ebay, and do not have a website - so I just posted the Ebay link.
Is that OK???

A really nice compilation!

So, how will people see my dorm room privacy screen??!!!
Peggy in Memphis - yes, Graceland!

i want a help from googles that is computer

Can i get Link back from websitegrader

I have a facebook social page and mention my business once in awhile on it. So Ken, I'm one of those 34%. But what I don't see in the article or these posts is that anyone has actually received business from using facebook. That's a statistic I'd like to hear. But I do agree that social media is growing in a huge way and to ignore it is akin to ignoring how expotentially the internet has grown since developed in 1989 -- not even 20 years ago.

I've been evaluating Facebook's marketing potential from a distance (for us little guys). It seems to me that the social marketing experiment has yet to demonstrate effectiveness. Time will tell I guess. Based on this discussion, I have a feeling the abandon rate for these Company pages may follow the same pattern as blogs did a few years ago.

Great post. I've been thinking about doing this for my sites and business, but I've only just got into Facebook on a personal level, so I want to get to grips with that first. This article helps for my expansion though. Check me out on Facebook if you're looking to expand your network of friends.

I'm also trying to promote www.centromarenostrum.org so definetly I'm following this advance
Tx!

Looking forward to see Facebook evolving

I can't do Instruction #6... I don't see an "Add to my Products" link... and the only way to add Fans that I see is to buy advertising.
Am I missing something here?

Thanks for free tips.

I get great tips here. comments are very helpful too. thanks guys!

Good info. No wonder FB is getting investment dollars every way they can now.

thanks dharmesh. somehow I could post jobs details here

contact me 9884262305

Does it matter that I have to create my page with my personal account? What if I don't want my business page to be associated with my personal account?

What is better for branding - a Group or a Page? it seems to me that a Page is better . . . can you convert a Group into a page?

Santiago: Currently, a Facebook page has more features/functionality than a group.
As it stands, there's no way that I know of to convert a group to a page (which is unfortunate).

Thank you! I immediately made a Facebook account for my wiki, www.wikiecho.com!

other sites: www.fineartstudio111.com, www.wwwebsitenhance.com and more ... Hi fellow entrepreneurs! I'm 67, have graphic/fine art, and language talents and a successful "past" career. But I'm not making it with my business. Would someone please adopt me and walk me through the SEO and social marketing avenues to help me. I'm still cyber-challenged. H E L P ..before I'm too old to be successful. Thank you!

Main website here. It "dropped off" my post. Please check it out - comments welcome. Thanks!

Darn! The site won't 'stick'. Here it is: www.lorenabowser-proseandcons.com

Persistent, aren't I ....

I don't see #6 either - add to my products??

got to step 6 but did not see "Add to my products"

new shop need load and loads of people to look and buy from our Waterford, Southern Ireland shop for all Celtic Jewellry and alternative clothing

I've just created a fan page and its really doing well. Thanks for the tip.

any luck in getting that page to index under "hubspot" ... I didn't see on page #1

I'll definitely be listing my interactive advertising company - http://influenzamedia.com on Facebook.
It would be a perfect way to demonstrate how young consumers like to interact with ads!

Appreciate the free tips

Thanks Dharmesh Shah. We just added www.redappleapartments.com to Facebook and told all our friends about it. Within the first hour we got 10 fans already! I bet they are searching for short-term apartments on our site already!

Awesome tips. Thanks

I have tried this technique. It works. 
Many many Thanks

We now have both a Facebook page for our website www.MyStudioSpace.com, http://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Studio-Space-Web-Design/28514500319?ref=s 
 
Thanks for the great info.!

Thanks for the free tips

Probably half those 53 million are kids under 18.... try going more business specific for a better target. www.octopuscity.com is a site purely for business networking. it's free.

I gave this a whirl and it seemed to work okay, I don't know how many folk will click through though, we'll hav to wait and see how many referrals my site gets from Facebook, but that said, if you put it in isolation all need is calls off people.

I've just set up a profile but I suspect the under 25 population is growing on Facebook. 
 
My 14 year old daughter and all her friends have moved from IM's and now use Facebook exclusively for chat...

Talk about actionable. This is easy and effective!

Emily Check into www.merchantcircle.com

Ahhh I tried creating a normal group for this purpose. Thanks for the tip! Will definitely free this one. Facebook is indeed THE marketing tool to use to target specific demographics.  
 

Great post man. This way facebook is giving little guy a chance to be seen out there. I am glad you shared this with everyone. 
 
 
 
Very useful info, thank you.

Great information! You guys are doing a phenomenal job. Looking forward to getting started on this.

I found this gem some time ago... an excellent idea from the facebook crew...

Thanks for all the info on this site. 
 
I set up my Facebook Page today and would like to know do people come across it by surfing like the internet, or do I have to post an ad to be seen? 
 
I'm looking for like minded people who don't see recovery from illness as a battle, but learn from it and get back to healthy basics.

Yeah, just gave it a go too. Thanks! 

Great information! I coudln't have said this better myself. I specialize in internet marketing and social media and this article was very well put together.  
 
 
 
 
 
Serena Carcasole 
 
Virtual Assistant/internet Marketing Specialist 
 
www.vbsondemand.com 
 
Your 1STOP Business Service Shop 
 
Outsource your way to success!

In reply to Reena's post I will have to disagree with you on that. Facebook used correctly can generate business successfully. I have several clients that I met through facebook and clients that were referred to me through networks on facebook. You can join groups, create your own groups, events and business pages etc etc. I have trained several clients on how to use Facebook and have been very happy with the results. Social Media is the way to success for 2008 and 2009. 
 
 
 
 
 
Serena Carcasole  
 
 
 
Virtual Assistant/internet Marketing Specialist  
 
www.vbsondemand.com  
 
Your 1STOP Business Service Shop  
 
Outsource your way to success!

Awesome! Thank you. I've been meaning to build a fan page but this article gave me the inspiration to finally get it done with these easy to follow step-by-step instructions. 
 
Dawn, Virtual Assistant 
At Your Service 
www.freelanceadminsupport.com

Hi, hope someone can help with this. I've been trying to create an ad for a Facebook page. The page is http://www.facebook.com/pages/?browse&s=350&hash=72bfcf50363610d44c4acc7f5f0bdcc5#/group.php?gid=18680860127 
if it is helpful. Is there something that I need to disable on my computer to make this page load? I have disabled pop-ups, but it had no effect. The little timer icon just keeps running and eventually stops, but nothing loads.  
 
So do you think this is this a problem on my end or is it a common problem on Facebook? 
 
Thanks for any help!

We've recetly created a facbook page for our business. So, this was helpful. Thank you.

Very interesting. I am an active user of Facebook, but not a user of the applications on Facebook. I am not a "fan" of anything (according to Facebook) but I can definitely see the potential of business having a Facebook page. I also like how you walk people through the process. The only concern that I have for that bit is, if people can't even do the process themselves, how will they manage the page?

view my evening gown collection  
 
www.nmsandy.com

I've used Facebook personally for a while, and now I'm starting a small business. Should I just create a page from my personal FB account, or should I create a 2nd account just for my business and create the page from there?

Leigh: Don't create another user account (that's against their terms of service). Simply create a "Facebook Page" within your existing personal account.

"Add to my products" link 
 
I also cannot seem to find this link on my new page - all I see is "Promote this Page" can you help me?? 
Lorrilee 
 

I handle marketing for several arts organizations, I created a page for two of them, but don't quite understand the link to my personal account, I want the two to be seperate, do outsiders realize they are linked to me? Also, can you invite people to be fans or do you have to wait for them to stumble upon you?

So I followed the steps above to create a business page on my facebook account. Here is my problem...the only way I seem to be able to access that page is by doing a search for it. I did become a fan so I can click on that link on my page but that is annoying. I guess my personal site and my business page are connected. When it asked for my e-mail and password it said do you already have an account so I clicked yes and entered my facebook acount info. So now the two are somehow linked together but when I sign in it brings up my personal account. Then I have to do a search for my business page. There is no link or icon on my facebook page that allows me to switch between the two? Ok sorry so wordy but I am trying to explain this the best I can as I am totally new to this. Thanks for the help!

I have a question and would appreciate feedback. Our company just created a Facebook page, but it was done by several members of our staff who used their personal accounts to set it up. How do companies deal with this situation when one of these individuals leaves the company, yet still have their personal accounts tied in to the corporate page? Is there a way around this?

We are just ready to create a business Page on Facebook, and have discovered that they have changed the format dramatically. Are there any guides out yet that can help a newbie through the process (ie. advice on categories and the options with each, how to incorporate static content as primary, etc.) We're feeling pretty frustrated right about now!

I’m often baffled by how the recent Twitter frenzy has overlooked the brand opportunity for marketers on Facebook, along with the lack of scale for Twitter. Yes, Twitter now has 6 million users, but Facebook has 175 million! More importantly, according to Nielsen’s recent report on social networks (which we covered this week), Facebook users spend an average of 3 hours and 10 minutes on the site per-month; the highest average time per-person amongst the 75 most popular brands online.

I too have just started a page for my business. I can not figure out how to "add product" to become my own fan. There is no button for that. Plus I can't figure out how to search for other pages or even mine. 
Thanks

marketing a business

I purchased the book "Facebook Marketing; Leverage Social Media to Grow Your Business" by Steven Holzner and have found it to be pretty helpful.

Useful and clear information. Thanks for sharing!

Is there a way to create a business page without having to create it under an admin?

I already have a regular Facebook page created for my business...but because of limitations realize I should have built it as a business page. When I go in to create the business page, it asks if I am already in facebook and lets me use the same user ID and password...so if I continue and build the business page...will I lose my friends, or will they become fans?

Helloooooooooooooooooo...is anyone out there? I've just read through the comments (so many!) and found oodles of questions/queries/needs/problems un-solved - but no more that a few answers/solutions/feedback comments. My own questions (posted a very long time ago!) never received an answer. Clearly everyone seems to be in this thing for himself! I don't get it.

Does anyone know how to add standard sections to a page such as Discussions and Boxes?

Hi, 
 
 
 
I notice on your page you have 
 
 
 
Company Overview: 
 
Mission: 
 
Products: 
 
 
 
I have tried numerous ways to create my page but can't find where you would add these features, can you help? 
 
 
 
Thanks

I set up a biz page the other night and then couldn't find it...discovered in reading this that I should have become a fan first. Aargh! How do I find that page now? When I tried to recreate it, FB won't let me in--says my signature doesn't match my full name. Help anyone?

SOMEONE HELP! I set up a page for my business but I want to access it on myiphone so I can update photos on the go. Can't figure out how to access the page instead of my profile.

Thanks for the insights! We have an ice cream product called Arctic Zero and it's not available to those not on the west coast.  
 
 
 
The whole pint 136 calories per pint, fat free, gluten free, lactose intolerant friendly, all natural, and it packs 20 grams of whey protein into the pint. We're passionate and so are our customers, this will be a great way to get the word out.

Thanks for the Useful blog

Thanks for the Useful blog

Hi, 
 
 
 
Have just started a business page on facebook. Wondering if it's possible to become 'fans' of other business profiles on facebook as well? can't seem to be able to work out how to do this. Any help would be appreciated. Cheers.