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Now, Any Business Can Tap 53 Million Facebook Users (For Free)

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First off, if you have not yet heard of Facebook, thanks for exiting your cave. I'd like to heartily welcome you to the Internet. I think you'll like it here. :)

But seriously, here are some quick stats on Facebook which should be of interest to businesses:

1. More than 53 million active users

2. An average of 250,000 new users join every day.

3. About 34% of users work as professionals, sales, executives, educators or are in technical careers.

4. The fastest growing demographic on Facebook consists of users 25 and older.

Though Facebook started in the student demographic, it's quickly growing out of it. So, my guess is that if you have a product or service offering, chances are that at least a few of those 53 million active users (which spend about 20 minutes a day on the site) are prospective customers of your business. The question is, what do you do about it?

Until recently, only big businesses with big marketing budgets could setup a Facebook account for their companies and/or brands. Examples included Verizon, Walmart, Victoria's Secret and other well known companies. For these brands, Facebook users could become "fans" by adding the brand as a friend (much like they would add a person as a friend). This was pretty cool, but pretty expensive for those companies that wanted to tap into this feature.

Now, any business can create a Facebook profile, or business page, which any Facebook user can become a "fan" of. You no longer have to be a Fortune 500 company to afford this. It's free.

Here's how to do it:

Creating A Facebook Business Page

1. Visit this URL: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

2. Decide what the best category is for your business. (Spend a couple of minutes on this as you can't change it later easily).

3. Enter your business/product/brand name and click "Create Page".

4. At a minimum, I'd suggest entering a short description of your business and a website address. This is in the "Add Information To This Page" area. I'd also advise uploading your logo as a photo/image.

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.

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". Hopefuly, some of your Facebook friends will befriend your business. Then, their friends will see a message, and so it goes…

If you want to see a sample Facebook business page, you can check out HubSpot on Facebook . In fact, you can even add HubSpot as a friend (once you visit the page, click on the "Add Product" link in the right column. There are two benefits to becoming a friend of HubSpot: One, you'll feel a positive glow of good karma. Two, you'll have my attention, and my gratitude.

Any questions? Leave them in the comments.

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Posted by Dharmesh Shah on Mon, Nov 12, 2007 @ 01:29 AM

COMMENTS

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.

posted on Monday, November 12, 2007 at 5:45 AM by Donald B. Dousharm


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

posted on Monday, November 12, 2007 at 7:56 AM by Peter Glyman


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

posted on Monday, November 12, 2007 at 9:31 AM by Craig


Love to chat about ways to promote my Talk Fusion Business

posted on Monday, November 12, 2007 at 9:40 AM by Steven Gans


great tips. I'm going to have to look more into this. I have known a bit about the ads but now that the user base is expanding beyond college students the market is huge.

posted on Monday, November 12, 2007 at 1:36 PM by Matt Ellsworth


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!

posted on Monday, November 12, 2007 at 2:27 PM by Job


The actual amount of users who can be marketed to would be much lower that 53 million. http://askaslacker.blogspot.com

posted on Monday, November 12, 2007 at 5:29 PM by Slacker


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?

posted on Monday, November 12, 2007 at 5:52 PM by Emily


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

posted on Monday, November 12, 2007 at 6:26 PM by Jens Kuhnhenn


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.

posted on Monday, November 12, 2007 at 6:40 PM by Federico Munoa


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

posted on Monday, November 12, 2007 at 6:43 PM by Oscar


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.

posted on Monday, November 12, 2007 at 7:44 PM by Ruth Lanham


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?

posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 1:11 AM by Chuck Bergeron


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.

posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 1:27 AM by Paul..


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.

posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 1:40 AM by


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

posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 5:47 AM by 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.

posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 6:06 AM by Paul


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.

posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 12:42 PM by Frank


Wow... i feel like I have just stumbled upon a new and exciting business promotion venue.. Social bookmarketing. Who knew?

posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 10:34 PM by marie


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.

posted on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 2:37 AM by Sandeep Balaji


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!

posted on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 8:42 AM by Adam


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

posted on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 12:22 PM by Ken Barber


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.

posted on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 11:43 PM by p.o.s.


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.

posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 8:18 AM by Adam


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

posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 8:28 AM by "Tommy" - Decebal Adamescu


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!

posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 2:30 PM by David


Great article - I'm already on there but have 100 direct sales staff who could do so much on there too. <a href = "www.tishtashtoys.com</a>' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>http://www.tishtashtoys.com">www.tishtashtoys.com</a>

posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 6:46 PM by Sharon


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"?

posted on Friday, November 16, 2007 at 1:47 PM by Tara


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.

posted on Friday, November 16, 2007 at 2:13 PM by pm


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).

posted on Friday, November 16, 2007 at 2:24 PM by


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.

posted on Sunday, November 18, 2007 at 4:13 PM by Bob Mason


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

posted on Monday, November 19, 2007 at 8:24 PM by kristofer


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.

posted on Wednesday, November 21, 2007 at 3:07 AM by paradise5000


Really? I can have access to those 50 million users? Let me think...wait THAT'S RETARDED. That's right, you have access to massive multiples of that right here on the web where people can also become a "fan" of your site. Social networks are closed environments where you have less power, less control and less profit potential because you're on someone else's turf. Don't be a sucker.

posted on Thursday, November 22, 2007 at 12:53 AM by popo


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

posted on Sunday, November 25, 2007 at 9:21 AM by S Miller


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?

posted on Tuesday, November 27, 2007 at 11:52 AM by Julie


Great information. Thanks!

posted on Sunday, December 02, 2007 at 12:39 AM by David Mackey


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

posted on Wednesday, December 05, 2007 at 5:52 PM by Tom Humbarger


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.

posted on Friday, December 07, 2007 at 12:18 AM by Facebook = BlueMountain


Please include your website(s) in our free advertising network at: http://www.jingalink.com

posted on Tuesday, December 11, 2007 at 12:39 AM by jingalink


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.

posted on Wednesday, December 26, 2007 at 10:12 AM by Steve Burzynski


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???

posted on Saturday, December 29, 2007 at 12:35 PM by Peggy


A really nice compilation!

posted on Wednesday, January 02, 2008 at 7:38 AM by Markenführung


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

posted on Wednesday, January 02, 2008 at 8:14 AM by Peggy


i want a help from googles that is computer

posted on Thursday, January 03, 2008 at 6:26 AM by Alhassan kamil


Can i get Link back from websitegrader

posted on Wednesday, January 09, 2008 at 9:06 AM by Aafiza Parveen


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.

posted on Thursday, January 10, 2008 at 10:58 AM by Valerie Keener


I have created one for my company, lets see what it makes!

posted on Friday, January 11, 2008 at 3:48 AM by SEO Kamal


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.

posted on Monday, January 14, 2008 at 2:36 AM by John Ward


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. <a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=647949714">Check me out on Facebook</a> if you're looking to expand your network of friends.

posted on Wednesday, February 06, 2008 at 3:58 AM by Tim Baxter


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

posted on Wednesday, February 06, 2008 at 2:09 PM by CentroMarenostrum


Looking forward to see Facebook evolving

posted on Thursday, February 07, 2008 at 10:43 AM by Schwimmbecken


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?

posted on Thursday, February 07, 2008 at 11:07 AM by steven


Thanks for free tips.

posted on Saturday, February 09, 2008 at 10:06 AM by Healthbase


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

posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 10:46 AM by Omar


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

posted on Monday, March 03, 2008 at 4:32 PM by jerm williams


thanks dharmesh. somehow I could post jobs details here

posted on Saturday, March 08, 2008 at 9:34 AM by designamigo


contact me 9884262305

posted on Thursday, March 13, 2008 at 4:46 AM by C.Sathianesan


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?

posted on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 at 5:40 PM by Craig


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?

posted on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 at 8:34 PM by Santiago


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).

posted on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 at 11:51 PM by


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

posted on Saturday, March 29, 2008 at 7:27 PM by Wikiecho


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!

posted on Wednesday, April 02, 2008 at 12:36 PM by Lorena Bowser


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

posted on Wednesday, April 02, 2008 at 12:38 PM by Lorena Bowser


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

Persistent, aren't I ....

posted on Wednesday, April 02, 2008 at 12:41 PM by Lorena Bowser


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

posted on Thursday, April 03, 2008 at 12:13 PM by Kim


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

posted on Friday, April 04, 2008 at 3:38 PM by Fred Weaver


Thank you. We have now added a facebook page for our green and veggie dating site, www.ethicalsingles.com

posted on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 at 10:20 AM by ethicalsingles.com


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

posted on Friday, April 25, 2008 at 10:19 AM by www.blackwidow.ie


That's real interesting. Thanks for sharing. Now I'll share something interesting with you...
Let me tell you all a little about myself. I used to be completely broke, a complete loser. No women liked me and I was alone all the time. Then, I went to http://www.joeymonk.com and got the referral code "monk" for full tilt poker (online poker room)and then got $600 for free! Wow what a change to my life!! I turned that six hundred into 4.5 million dollars, and now I'm travelling the world, meeting the most beautiful girls in the world. I recommend this site to anyone looking to get ahead in life. That's www.joeymonk.com your welcome in advance.

posted on Wednesday, May 07, 2008 at 2:33 AM by John


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

posted on Tuesday, May 20, 2008 at 8:01 PM by Chloe


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

posted on Tuesday, May 20, 2008 at 8:13 PM by PPC


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!

posted on Friday, May 30, 2008 at 12:09 PM by Peter Kao


Appreciate the free tips

posted on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 at 11:47 AM by MedRetreat


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!

posted on Monday, June 16, 2008 at 4:42 PM by Ragnar


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