Maybe it's a delayed reaction from its IPO, not sure, but last week I got asked a number of times from a few different business owners whether I thought a Facebook Fan page is really neccessary. Along with it came the lament… it’s for socializing; businesses don’t take it seriously; it will mean I have to be on it all the time and I don’t have the time to do that; I’m trying to run my business, etc., etc.
Stop right there. I’ve heard it all before, and let me just say, respectfully, that you need to get over it and just do it. Build a Facebook Business page. Like it or not, it has become a marketing tool you can no longer ignore. Here are four good reasons why:
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With over 600 million users and almost 50 percent of them on Facebook daily… stop… think about it…, AND over 40 percent of existing businesses already up and running on it, you want your business to be where your customers and your potential customers are going, right? If you knew that your customers were passing by one of the huge billboards in Times Square every day and those billboards didn’t cost millions per month to be advertising there, you would want to be up there… wouldn’t you?
So think of it that way: a Facebook business page is like that billboard except for the fact that it’s free. Your customers are there, their friends are there. And you can say a heck of a lot more on a FB page than you can on a billboard.
- The search engines love a Facebook Page. Because a business page is a public URL and not a private one, your site will have a much easier time making it to the top of a Google search than your website, unless you’ve invested a lot of money into SEO (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
- As mentioned earlier, your competition already has one, and not because they want to share about their favorite rice and beans recipe. The “like” button has become the new link. Many online marketers — myself included — now believe that the Facebook “like” button is becoming just as significant as backlinks are to a website. In other words, the more “likes” your page has, the greater the chance of it ranking high in the search engines for your specific field and keywords. So think of it as a link and encourage your customers to press it. Every time you update something on your page these customers will now see it as they have been “linked” to it.
- Since its insane IPO, Facebook has a lot to prove in regard to its business "value" and therefore, if you think it was working hard before to prove relevance in the business community, you ain't seen nothin' yet. Projections are that adverising options and other innovative marketing options will, within the next few years, unfold and be more accessible to the masses. It's still free, not to mention simple to be present there. Go along for the ride and lets see what unfolds together.
Remember that a Facebook Business page carries good “link juice,” and therefore provides valuable SEO without having to pay for it. So think about the math. The average Facebook page has 140 friends. When you post to Facebook, your ‘friends’ and all their ‘friends’ will view your post. When someone "likes" your post, or your fan page, it spreads. Can you spell V-I-R-A-L? As insane as it might sound, there’s a reason why Shoprite wants you to “like” them on Facebook. Refer to for ways to create a page folks will want to visit.
[Editor's Note: Don't forget to "like" Brookfield Patch's Facebook Page, too.]
