I am constantly surprised at how many businesses are not taking advantage of Facebook. It’s some of the best free marketing out there. It’s a great stand-in if you don’t have a website up and going yet.  And, as with most social media endeavors, you can do as little or as much as you like. There are some basics that every business should take advantage of, and these are detailed below.

Set up a page.

As I mentioned in a previous post, very few customers want to be your friend. They want to “like” you. And they can’t do that if you haven’t set up a page.

Setting up a Facebook page is fairly straight forward. Let’s assume you’re already on Facebook. (If not, you’ll need to do sit down with someone who is familiar with it. Unless you’re up for spending a few hours learning the ropes.) To set up a page, just follow the instructions here. You’re going to want to fill the fields out as completely as possible, including a logo or photo that represents your business.

Secure your vanity username.

When you get to the point where you want to start sending people to your Facebook page, you want to be able to give them a short address. The instructions for that are here. Note: You need to have at least 25 people “like” you before you can secure your username. We’ll talk more about how to promote your page in future posts. For now you can simply suggest that people like your page from your own Facebook wall. Surely you have 25 friends or friends of friends! Just let people know that you are trying to get to 25 and soon they will come. Alternatively, you can send out an email blast to your customers asking for their help. Warning: Once you have chosen your username, you cannot change it. Be sure of the name you want or you will have to start all over.

Don’t ignore your customers.

If you are not ready, you don’t have to start a regular posting schedule. But YOU MUST respond if people post on your page! There’s nothing worse than going to a business’ page and seeing a question from a customer such as “hey, do you have widgets?” and no response from the business is there. Make sure you have the email notifications turned on. (Go into Edit Page > Your Settings and make sure that option is ticked.)

So there you have it, the bare minimum for getting started on Facebook. That wasn’t so bad, was it?

If you’re still feeling lost, I am available to help for an hourly fee. Contact me for details.

Are you on Facebook? What has been your experience with it?