You Don’t Want to Hear it But Your Business Needs a Facebook Page.

Since we started doing our Social Media workshops one of the main things I hear when we start to talk about Facebook pages for business is: “I don’t need a Facebook page for my business. My kid’s use Facebook, my customers don’t.” I dare say you may be wrong. In fact unless you have actual data that shows that your customers are not using Facebook, you are most likely wrong. Saying your business doesn’t need a Facebook page without even learning what they are is like when kids tell you they hate cauliflower, even though they have never tried it.

Let’s stop acting like kids, and learn a little bit about the business benefits of Facebook.

Aside from the fact that large companies (Coca-Cola, Pringles, Dell) are using it to great success (which to me is an indicator of its effectiveness) there are a few ideas that I can share, off the top of my head, as to why your business needs a Facebook page.

1. Search Engine Benefits
Facebook is an authority site which means a few things for your business: Your Facebook page will rank well in the search engines for your company name, as well it is a great source to get backlinks to your website. If your site is brand new and you want to ensure your site gets found by Google quickly, set up a Facebook page  and when the Google spiders crawl Facebook they should find your website through the links on your Facebook page. Google doesn’t instantly know about new websites, they need to find your site through other sites.

2. Customer Interaction
Due to the social nature of Facebook you can hear what your customers are saying. A Facebok page is a great opportunity to connect with your customers.

3. Analytics
Facebook pages allow you to see who are fans of your page. In the admin area there is a fantastic tool that shows you the gender, ages, countries, cities and languages of your fans. This can easily show you exactly who your target market is.

4. Targeted Marketing
Although this is not particular aspect of Facebook pages, it is more of a tool from Facebook in general. You can create ads that will show up in the sidebar of the Facebook interface and you can target some very specific types of people. You can target ads down to gender, age, country, interests and much more. This is a great feature to combine with the Analytics mentioned above.

5. News Feed.
This one is huge, and really takes advantage of the viral nature of Facebook. When someone becomes a fan of your Facebook page, any update you make is shown to them in their news feed. This is a great way to keep your business on the tip of your customers mind. The other amazing benefit is that when fans of your page make a comment on your Facebook page, this comment will show up in their friends news feed.

Those are just a few ideas why you need a Facebook page for your business. There are plenty of other benefits, but those are just a few off the top of my head. So go ahead and give Facebook a try for your business. If you would like to learn more we are offering a Facebook Marketing Workshop that will take you through the whole Facebook for business process.

Please share a link to your Facebook fan page and tell us how you are using your page:

Chris Whiteley

Chris Whiteley is a web designer with a passion for blogging. This self proclaimed 'Jack of all trades but a master of none' has working experience in areas such as SEO, Social Media, and Internet Marketing.