With Facebook’s more than 55 million active users, it would be a tragic oversight for a company not to have a public presence on the site in some capacity. Facebook offers more than a way to keep up with friends – it has the ability to keep you in touch with your clients, gain attention for your brand and provide a more personal face for your business.

The nature of Facebook is entirely viral, and users can garner information from their friends and their interactions. Facebook can be an unintrusive way of making people aware of your business.

Recently, the social networking website has allowed businesses to create profiles for free, and innovative companies are fast employing the tool. Kris Krug, President of Raincity Studios, added the “fan page” application for his company, commenting that such an option “means companies can have a place of their own in the FB empire allowing them to send out announcements to “fans” and build up yet another presence to promote their projects, give details and promote events.”

Mhairi Petrovic uses the profile page for her company, Out-Smarts, to “extend our brand reach and reinforce it. When people become a fan, our logo appears on their website and in turn is seen by more people. Having a page and encouraging fans to join establishes Out-Smart as an innovator in social marketing (one of the services we provide).”

Utilizing this particular tool to its full capacity is the Palo Alto restaurant, Junnoon,
whose page contains essential information such as hours of operation, payment options and parking and further entices customers by prominently displaying pictures of the interior of the establishment, the food and posting its culinary philosophy, accolades and reviews.

Indeed, providing articles, pictures and videos profiling your company’s work can be highly useful for potential clients and can encourage referrals. Even your business’ blog entries can easily be syndicated to the page. And Facebook’s Events is an ideal way to promote your business’ launch, seminars, webinars and parties as well as track invitees and attendees.

Petrovic considers Facebook very helpful for “lead generation” and many do see the social network drive visitors to their website and blog. Sherman Hu began using Facebook purely as a social tool but, in tracking statistics, discovered that “Facebook accounted for a decent and growing percentage of new visits to my ShermanLive.com blog.”

“The platform offers you a sneak peek into the personal and business life of a Facebook ‘Friend’,” says Hu. “At a glance, I can get a feel about [their] preferences, likes, dislikes and conversational style. These offer me very effective ice-breakers.”

Creating an application can also bring attention to your brand especially if it is related to your company’s function, such as Kinzin’s highly popular “Are You Normal?” application. Or take a page from some business behemoths and encourage involvement by running a contest (prime examples: Molson’s “Cold Shots Campus Challenge” or KFC Canada’s “It’s Better in the Bowl!” page (… though this one, although likely accurate in its own way, is not the best tagline I’ve ever heard…).

Facebook is a social network so it is critical to add value to the conversation. Petrovic encourages “fan participation by including discussions on the Out-Smart Page about topics pertinent to the business such as corporate blogging” and by providing “daily marketing tips.”

Facebook truly has the ability to make you more popular, win you more friends and influence more people.

So get on there, and get folks excited about your company!

Learn more about how to do it:

(Thank You Techipedia’s Tamar Weinberg for these excellent links which were part of her Best Internet Marketing Blog Posts of 2007 )

New to Facebook:
Top 10 Ways to Use Facebook to Promote your Business for Free by Shama Hyder

So that’s it then? Nope:
12 Ways to Use Facebook Professionally by Judi Sohn

Wait - Make Sure You Know About:
The Facebook Marketing Bible: 24 Ways to Market Your Brand, Company, Product, or Service Inside Facebook by Justin Smith

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