Facebook has incredible potential – they recently passed the 500 million member mark! Facebook is one of the fastest ways to build a fanbase (a network) of people who know, like and trust your client.

You can create FanPages with unlimited numbers of fans.

Facebook is viral – your clients messaging can spread in seconds across other Facebook account owners networks.

Facebook is easy to update – change a Status Message, Post to your clients Wall or add a video and all of their Friends will learn about it.

Facebook is also personal – it is how people get to know your client in a more personal way than is possible through their website.

Clients Profile Page/Fan Page

Visitors to the Clients FanPage should be able to tell clearly Who they are, and What they have to offer, and How your client (or his product or service) can help people. Ideally the page would be written in a personal style, trustworthy, likeable, and one that encourages interaction.

• Mixing personal pictures, and videos together with business pictures and videos can help to create a warm, friendly experience for visitors to the page.
• It is important to be honest, transparent and appear real to visitors too (clients who want to hide something are not as approachable).

 

Set Up

Whether or not you already have a Facebook account, setting up a page is easy. Just visit Facebook and click on “sign up”. Use your dedicated email address.

Choose company, as one day you will want to turn yourself into one. You’ll use your name for your company name for now.

 

You’ll be able to fill out an informational “about” page, add your blog url, and create a Facebook page that identifies you as a social media expert.

Admin Panel

Once you’ve created your page, you’ll see an admin panel and be prompted to add an additional cover image which will appear as a banner stretching the width of the Page.

There are several drop downs at the top right of the Page. “Manage” lets you edit your Page, use the activity log, see banned users or use Facebook as your Page. “Build Your Audience” allows you to add email contacts or create ads. “Help” gives you access to a multitude of helpful tools to get you started. You can hide the Admin panel by clicking the “Hide” button.

Populate your Page

Facebook operates on a timeline format. This means that posts begin at the bottom of the page and run in chronological order with the newest posts appearing always at the top. The timeline begins with the founding date of your organization, which you can edit by clicking on the pencil icon. Above that is the date the organization joined Facebook. Then comes all of your activity (posts, polls, etc).

You’ll want to populate your page with about 15-20 posts to get things started. Use images and videos to make your Timeline interesting.

Getting Likes

Likes on Facebook are kind of like endorsements. You want 25 “Likes” for your Page as soon as possible because this “unlocks” the ability to choose a unique custom URL. When you hit 25 Likes, you can edit your URL to reflect your name without a series of random numbers after it.

You can usually get your first 25 Likes by asking members of your personal circle of family and friends to like the Page. You can also increase Likes by liking the pages of other people, particularly by searching for and liking pages having to do with being social online, as they are likely to Like your page back.

Another way to get Likes in a hurry is to get someone who has a huge number of Facebook fans to post your Page on their Wall. A lot of people with huge followings advertise this sort of service on websites such as “Fiverr.com”, but before you pay out any money make sure you check out the satisfaction rankings. (Note: It is against Facebook’s TOS to buy Likes, but paying someone to simply share your Facebook Page with their own following is allowed.)

You can also generate likes by using Facebook Ads, by running a contest on your Page, and by simply participating on Facebook in Groups and on Pages with likeminded people.

Identify Related Facebook Groups

• Groups that are related to your clients niche
• Groups that are related to your clients personal interests and hobbies
• Groups that are related to things your client like (products/brands/companies)

Next join those Groups

• Be active in the discussions that take place
• Focus on adding users who are both active, and those with many friends
• Follow your own newsfeed, which will give you Status updates of people you are friends with:
  • this means you can join in the discussion and be more active
  • it means you can work out the things they are interested in, identify problems they want to solve -then you can comment on their status updates as appropriate
  • don‘t be afraid to give an opinion, or to be controversial, but …
  • avoid political and religious comments which can often offend other users

Apps like “Fangate” can help you customize your page, create a discount or coupon, and make your Page more Likeable!

Another terrific way to get likes is to run a giveaway. Announce that when the Page reaches a certain number of likes, your client will give away a prize. Everyone who likes the page will be entered. This is a quick way to get people to like your client’s Page. You can even use a giveaway app on the Page that will give extra entries in the giveaway to those who share the Page on their own Page or Facebook Wall, to reach more people.

Comment / Wall Posting are great ways to remain active, and draw new friends and fans.

• Add new photos and videos and if they are related to other Facebook users, or of interest to other users tag them
• They could then appear on the users Wall, which can attract more friends for you
• Regularly update your status, tell people what your Client is working on
• Include links of things that you found interesting

For this to be effective you need to be regular and organized. This means scheduling a few minutes a day to carry out between 3-5 things per day. This way the Fan Page will always be fresh and interesting, and the social networking will branch out semi- automatically the more you do, the greater the expansion rate is.

Finally, simply asking people to “Help us reach our goal of — Likes!” will often spur people into Liking the Page just to help out.

Establishing a Brand

At this stage of the game, YOU are your brand, and you need to show people how savvy you are without seeming condescending or unapproachable. Figure out how you want to present yourself and your services online, and keep it consistent across platforms.

That said, you can afford to be a little more relaxed on Facebook than on LinkedIn, and a little more relaxed on Twitter than on Facebook! You want to appear both trustworthy and capable, with a sense of humor but not crude or offensive. An occasional personal post on Facebook is not amiss if it is in good taste.

Facebook Content

Facebook allows you to post status updates, polls, images, and video. Take advantage of all four! People respond well to pages with upbeat content that is either entertaining or helpful. Ask viewers to caption a humorous picture, to give their opinion on a topic, or to vote in a poll.

Keep the call to action always at the front of each post. “Like this post if…” is a good way to get people to act. So is “Share this if you agree that…” The more you ask people to participate, the more action your Facebook Page has!

Facebook Timeline Covers

If you use Facebook at all I’m sure you are aware that Facebook has brought in a new ‘Timeline’ layout for profiles and that you can have a cover image to go on your new Timeline wall. What you might not be aware of is that all businesses fan pages were also forced to transfer over to using the Timeline format and many businesses Facebook pages still don’t have a good Timeline cover image (if they even have one at all).

This is a big problem for many businesses and you will come across lots of social media jobs where businesses want you to create a Timeline cover image for them to use on their page. Providing a free or very cheap custom Timeline cover image for a business is a very good way of getting your foot in the door with a business and gaining their trust so that you can market your other services to them.

The only problem is that unless you happen to be a graphics designer, creating a custom Timeline cover image for a business could be quite tricky. That is why we have create this template pack with 10 high quality Facebook Timeline cover images that can be easily be customized for any business.

Each cover image comes in both .psd and .png formats. If you have Photoshop or the free alternative ‘Gimp’, you can easily customize the .psd files to match exactly what the client is looking for. If you don’t have one of these programs, you can simply edit the .png files with ‘Paint’ or any other simple image editing program you have on your computer and simply paste the businesses logo over the right section of the image and then save it.

Its’ as simple as that!

 Facebook Timeline Cover Images – Download

You may need to right-click the following link and select Save Link As to download the file to your computer.

Facebook-Cover-Images

Best Practices

Have some posts ready to go when you set up your Facebook Page so you can “populate” it. A good rule of thumb is one self promotional post for every six to eight non-promotional ones. If you are able to load up around 15 posts as soon as you take your Facebook Page live, you will keep your Page from looking quite so new.

Engage with others on the platform in a real and meaningful way – in other words, be social! Don’t pepper other people’s Pages or Profiles with “Hi!” comments – this is a good way to get labeled as a spammer and get thrown in “Facebook jail”. A few thoughtful, insightful comments are more likely to get the attention of people you want to Like you.

Facebook Tools and Analytics

Facebook now offers a form of analytics called “Insights”. This allows you to see at a glance how much interaction you are getting on your Facebook Page, as well as what your “reach” or how many potential people may have seen your posts.

This can be a valuable indicator of how well your Facebook efforts are paying off. Learning how to use Insights will be an invaluable tool when it comes to proving your worth to potential clients, so play around with the analytics as you build your own Page and discover how much data you can extrapolate from the results.

Ongoing Management

Once your Facebook Page is set up and on its way to a thriving start, set up a schedule and develop daily, weekly and monthly goals. Posting several times each day is optimal, and if your followers get used to seeing an interesting poll over morning coffee, so much the better.

Stay with the formula of offering helpful tips and advice without giving away all of your secrets, mix a little humor in with your posts, and keep the ration of one self promotional post for every six or eight other topics. Look for relevant news in your industry and share them on your wall. Don’t forget your own participation – keep joining discussions and voicing your thoughts on other people’s Pages as well!