Many businesses are switching on to the opportunities of social media for not only growing their online presence, but in growing their business in general. Facebook Pages are an essential part of an integrated online presence, but we have come upon people asking why have a Facebook page? And why a Facebook page rather than a personal profile or group? In this post we hope to highlight the main benefits of a Facebook page and answer any questions you may have been wondering about.
1. Facebook pages are public to anyone, and anyone can join your fan base by ‘liking’ your page.
2. Facebook pages are searchable and indexed by outside search engines, e.g. google. Facebook personal profiles are not.
3. Once you get 25 fans, you can apply for a vanity URL which can act like a website and has huge SEO benefits, e.g. www.facebook.com/socialmediasorted
4. Via your Facebook page, you can instantly communicate with all your current customers and fans: Finding out what they like, alerting them of special offers, events and discounts, getting feedback, engaging in conversation and general relationship building.
5. You can have custom Facebook pages and tabs installed for your business. A custom tab can be set as the new fan landing page, inviting the user to ‘like’ your page, link to your external website, fill in a competition or database form and more. There is a custom tab application for everything these days – Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, blogs, PDF, slideshow, galleries, online shops and much more.
6. You can send a bulk message to all your fans or import an outside blog or RSS feed in place of an email newsletter.
7. With millions of users on Facebook, you can drive new traffic to your website through your page. Check out some New Zealand social media statistics.
8. A Facebook page allows you to have UNLIMITED People who LIKE you! (Unlike a personal profile or group, which has 5000 max).
9. Facebook pages have a traffic/visitor stats (“insights”) feature to monitor the effectiveness of your Facebook interactions.
10. You can have as many administrators as you want to help carry the load of maintaining updates and interaction with your customers. These administrators can be made private to the page users (unlike a group).
11. Facebook Pages are better for long-lasting relationships with clients and creating an interactive community with them.
12. You can switch to using Facebook as your page name, liking other businesses, commenting on pages, and expanding your network.
13. Facebook pages give a professional image for your company, especially if you have customised it with well-branded and space optimised custom banners and tabs.
14. Using a Facebook personal profile for a business is against Facebook’s terms of service and you run the risk of getting your page taken down.
15. Import your external blog RSS feed to your wall to reach a wider range of readers. Read here for more information on the benefits of blogs.
In Summary:
Groups and personal profiles are great for organising on a personal or private level and for smaller scale interaction around a cause, e.g. community groups, schools, and individuals. Pages are better for brands, businesses, bands or celebrities who want to interact with their fans or customers without having them connected to a personal account, and may want to exceed the Facebook 5,000 friend cap.
If you have unknowingly set up a personal profile for your business, there is not a lot you can do except bite the bullet and set up a new page. Yes you will lose your content and friends but all you can do is let your friends know the link to your new page and invite them over, your loyal fans will gladly follow you. Facebook HAD recently made it possible to transfer a personal profile over to a business page which was good news for some, but as of the 2nd April 2011 they have disabled this feature due to the many, many bugs that had not been properly worked out. Maybe we will see this feature bigger and better in the months ahead, who knows.
If you still have questions, we have the answers! Talk to us about all your social media set-ups and sort-outs and we can help get you back on track.
