3 Tips That Will Help You Use Facebook Pages Better In Your Business

Continuing our conversation about the recent changes at Facebook, let’s talk about how you can use the updated Pages (now called Public Profiles) feature better in your business.

If you haven’t checked out the changes, head over there now and browse around. One of the first things you’ll probably notice is the Wall.

For the most part, it looks and behaves in the exact same way as the Wall on your profile does… It’s where you and your friends can “publish” information such as photos, videos, your status updates, and so on.

One of the side-effects of these changes seem to be a greater emphasis on communication. In other words, your fans and what they want to say have become even more important.

This makes it critical that you (1) engage them and not only encourage the conversation but, actively participate in it as well.

It’s easy just to sit back and let things run their own course but, today’s customer/client/Internet-user is becoming more accustomed to two-way conversations.

And, that makes sense considering that we’re in an era we call “social media;” with the emphasis being on the “social” part. So, it’s certainly in your best interests to foster and participate in the dialog.

But, what’s dialog if there aren’t people to have it with? That question leads me to my next point, which is to (2) utilize a profile tabs as a landing page that turns your visitors into fans.

A very subtle change that Facebook made was in the way Public Profile owners could use tabs. Now, you have the option of designating a tab of your choosing as the main “landing page.”

This is what visitors who are not already fans will see once they visit your page. In other words, you can take current fans to one tab (say, for instance, the Wall), and visitors who aren’t fans to another.

And if you’re savvy, you’ll use that landing page to encourage visitors to become fans. Or, perhaps you’d prefer for them to opt-in to your newsletter.

Get as creative or detailed as you want to get. Just make sure you have a clear call-to-action that gets the job done.

Now that you have these tips in place, another thing you’ll want to do is promote your Public Profile. Chances are, if you’re involved in things like social networking, you’re also visible in other social media arena.

So, take advantage of that! Post links to your Public Profile in your email lists, blogs, articles, and so on. But, there’s something you should do before that: (3) create a URL that’s easy to read and understand.

Take a look at the URL structure for your Public Profile. Notice how nasty it looks? That’s not something you should want to post all over the place.

URLS filled with ampersands, question marks, and undecipherable text do nothing to encourage people to click. But, with a simple redirect you could make your link much more attractive.

Something like www.yoursite.com/facebook looks much better and is much more search engine and user friendly than the alternative.

So, start taking advantage of these recent changes. It doesn’t matter if you’re keen on them or not. What’s important is that you’re using them in a way that’s beneficial to you and your fans.

About The Author

Carol Hansen, a Twitter specialist focusing on building and monetizing your network. You can connect with Carol on Twitter or Facebook and follow her latest projects, blog posts and cool tips on building and monetizing your Twitter following.

About The Author

Dali Burgado, also known as "The Dali Blogger" teaches creative entrepreneurs how to carve a web presence that connects with their Inner Guru and their target audience. Her first online marketing love is SEO. She's an avid connector on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. When she's not coaching or teaching, she's tweaking sites for Search Engine Visibility, working on her PHP and Javascript coding skills, Singing Opera, or learning about gardening. Circle Dali on Google+