Changes Coming to Facebook Business pages?
ByA popular post of mine from last June (post also appears below), was about setting up a Facebook page for your business. 
Since then, Facebook has made some enhancements and changes so I wanted to pass along a few more thoughts on the advantages of having a page:
- It’s like having a free and mini-webpage that you have complete content control over. It’s pretty easy to add video, pictures and even your logo to this page
- Your Facebook page is public—meaning no one has to have a Facebook account to view your page. It can be ‘googled’ and instantly viewed. This also means it can be indexed by search engines.
- When folks become ‘fans’ of your page, you can send them updates when you have something new to announce.
- When your updates go out to your fans, it will appear in their newsfeed. This gives you extra exposure because as people casually scroll through their friends news, they will see the update and may decide to become a ‘fan’ of your page as well!
New Changes Coming to Facebook Pages??
While doing the research for this article, I came across a posting from February 26th by one of the blogs I follow, TechCrunch. According to ‘a source’, there will be some major redesign changes coming next week (March 2, 2009). It seems that Facebook likes to make these major changes with little or no warning. According to TechCrunch, they may be implementing this new redesign as MySpace is starting a business application very soon.
Make a note to check out the Facebook Pages next week to see if it happened!
Post from June of 2008
Last week, we looked at inserting your blog as a note and adding a screenshot of your web page right on your Facebook page.
Those are tasks you can do that show up in the ‘casual’ part of Facebook. BUT – did you know you can also set up a Business Page, or section of your Facebook and from there, there are many viral things you can do to promote your business.
Log in and page down to the bottom of the screen and click on ‘Advertising’. That will bring up a form you can start filling out to create and customize your business page. Put some time and thought into this. You want it to be engaging and inviting–you want people to read it!
After you create your page, Facebook will automatically adds the ‘Page Manager’ application to the top of your application list (right at the top and left side of your log in page). Click this to enter your business page to manage, edit and create more content.
What can you do with a Business Page?
- Advertise any events or accomplishments
- Post pictures relevant to your business
- Start and be a host of a Discussion Forum from within your page. Get it started by posting a thoughtful question or comment regarding your business or industry that will generate discussion
- Post a Video. It doesn’t even have to be one you made. Find something of general interest to your audience…for example a video on time management (who doesn’t need that). Just make sure it’s worthy
- Reviews – this is a default application that allows people to comment on yours or someone else’s page or business. Each user can write only one review (although they can come back and edit it). Also, anyone can write a review on your business page, not just a ‘fan’, or someone who has subscribed to your page.
- Wall – a feature of every user’s profile, it appears here as well. Only your fans can write on your wall
If you have a small OR large business, set up your Facebook Business page, it’s free! More information can be found here.
[...] Facebook, free, small business, social media | Author’s Note: Follow-up post titled “Changes Coming to Facebook Pages” written [...]
You seem very knowledgeable on Facebook business page. I have a question/problem on this matter – was wondering if you could direct me to find answers? My emloyer created a page and without being logged on I cannot view it. I thought all pages are viewable – as you wrote too. I can’t even do a search & find it through google. And through facebook search in one way i do it, it is found, another way i try to search, it says not found. The one where it is found – it does not allow me to view unless i log on? I can’t seem to figure this out and I have been at this for hours & hours. Any advice on how to resolve or where to go to find the answers would be helpful.Thanks in advance
That’s interesting. I signed out of my FB account, and did a google search for these 3 fan pages: Mashable, Duct Tape Marketing & St. Jude Children’s Hospital. With all three, I was able to negotiate around the page, clicking on all the tabs and they were all available to me.
I did some reading of other blogs about fan pages and them being searchable. One blogger said that it can take awhile for the page(s) to get indexed by the search engines. If your employer’s site is new, perhaps that could be it. Otherwise, there could be a fan page privacy setting I’m not aware of. But you’d think fan pages would be pretty wide open as that’s the purpose of them!
If you want to delve into it further, click the link at the end of the blog article – there you can download a guide from facebook.
I’m interested to know about the banner ads that show up on the right side of a facebook page. My clients has a business page, and his competitors are showing up in banner ads when I’m viewing his page. Is there a way to avoid this?
Hi Cheryl,
I’m not sure about that, but a great resource for you to look for answers would be . I refer to them often and haven’t been disappointed.
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.
Lynn
I created a fan page and am having the same problem Cigdem Aritan. How long approximately does it take to get indexed? I have tried the “suggest to a friend” and my friend never gets the suggestion to come to my fan page. Does getting indexed mean that the “suggest to a friend”, and “search” will work? Or is their a problem with Facebook?