Using Facebook to promote business

CompanyBureau · 29-07-2010 5:24pm #1

Hi everyone. I suppose I'm jumping on the fb bandwagon a bit, but if your not in you can't win! Basically I have created a company profile for my business, however it does not appear to be publically visible on google, whereas I see a few competitors are when i google their company name and facebook. When I go into settings, and select 'publically visible', this still doesn't seem to work! I'm I missing something here or has anyone experienced the same problem?!

PaulPinnacle · 29-07-2010 7:02pm

How new is the page? It's possible that the page just hasn't yet been picked up by the search engines (e.g. spidered for them to find the content) and that 'everything else' is fine and it will be found in due time.

Having something appear on 'google' (or any search engine) is a very large industry, applying SEO and marketing techniques to facebook pages is becoming an industry all of its own with more and more 'experts' popping up all the time (google "seo facebook" to get an idea of it. The first link is actually a pretty good 'overview' of the type of things you'd need to do).

Check out the numerous threads here on boards relating to 'SEO' (search engine optimisation) to see the work/detail/effort required to do it well. The same general principals will apply to your facebook page.

If you're hoping to market your business through the facebook 'page', there are a number of things you need to look at, some specific to facebook and others just general SEO tips. Most importantly in my own opinion, you need to get the content on it to a level where users use/like/interact/visit it. If you simply set it up and then ignore it, nobody gets value from it and they won't visit it (even after they initially 'like' it or do manage to find it on a search engine). So be sure to keep it updated, interact with your fans on it and try and grow your fan base. A page that has excellent content meaning it performs well in search engine rankings, gets lots of fans, still won't provide a return if it doesn't use that page to build a relationship with these new leads and turn them from 'likes' to 'clients/customers'.

The general rule of SEO is "don't do it for search engines, do it for users" (some exceptions to this where things are/have to be done purely for SEO reasons, but the bottom line is the same). If you create pages (so your wall, your 'info' section, a 'landing page' for new viewers) that work well for your users, chances are that it will appeal to the search engines too due to the good content. If you compare the information on the pages you 'find' to the information on your own, it might give you some ideas.

If, after glancing through some of the information you find in google, you've any more questions, there are numerous SEO professionals that lurk around the forum that would be able to guide you in any follow up questions.

CompanyBureau · 30-07-2010 4:26pm

Hi Paul, thanks for your reply. I'm OK with SEO in general, it just bugs me that our facebook page is not fully visable. The page was created nearly a year ago so it should be well indexed. Also some companies have changed their fb URL to one more suited and not sure how they did it! I'll do as you suggest and do a bit of research anyway! FB is not a big part of our marketing strategy, but we may get the odd client from it.

PaulPinnacle · 30-07-2010 5:20pm

http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=900 < help page for 'usernames'. Once you've more than 25 fans, you can get one of the vanity url's as you describe.

If it's that age, it certainly should be indexed alright. I assume the business page relates to 'company bureau'? I'd have to imagine that it is in the listings, just that due to competition it's showing up on some of the lower pages. All you can do there is tweak the SEO as best you can (aiming for niche keywords and not the more generic 'company' type).

mneylon · 31-07-2010 2:56pm

Obvious question - is it linked to from your site?

CompanyBureau · 03-08-2010 12:39pm

Hi, thanks again for the replies - I claimed the url www.facebook.com/companybureau so happy with that. Regarding the link from our website I have put one in from our links page also so that should help it get up the google rankings! I may put a facebook icon on the homepage in the future..

oooomy · 03-08-2010 1:10pm

facebook have a new (easier) api called graph api (http://developers.facebook.com/docs/api) if you implement it on your website you will get ranked.
Each article you publish should have a like/share link.
Each time a user likes or shares one of your pages facebook itself will come visit your site (like a bot)

mneylon · 03-08-2010 3:35pm

oooomy wrote: »

facebook have a new (easier) api called graph api (http://developers.facebook.com/docs/api) if you implement it on your website you will get ranked.

ranked on what?

MrLuke · 10-08-2010 3:27pm

You might also find this useful, 15 tips for using Facebook for Business;

http://www.mrlukeabbott.com/marketing/15-facebook-for-business-tips/

tonyagrey · 13-08-2010 3:42pm

Related to the topic;

I want to set up a facebook page for a business. It has been suggested to me to do this through my own personal account as an additional page. Is this the correct method?

Secondly, (and this may impact on the first), what if i want more than one person to maintain the page. ie. a different employee. Can i give them access rights to the page?

mneylon · 13-08-2010 4:56pm

tonyagrey wrote: »

Related to the topic;

I want to set up a facebook page for a business. It has been suggested to me to do this through my own personal account as an additional page. Is this the correct method?

Secondly, (and this may impact on the first), what if i want more than one person to maintain the page. ie. a different employee. Can i give them access rights to the page?

to create a page, go to: http://www.facebook.com/business/dashboard/?ref=bookmarks

You can assign any other Facebook user you have in your contact list OR who is a "fan" of the page to be an admin of the page

Chet Zar · 13-08-2010 8:59pm

tonyagrey wrote: »

Related to the topic;

I want to set up a facebook page for a business. It has been suggested to me to do this through my own personal account as an additional page. Is this the correct method?

Secondly, (and this may impact on the first), what if i want more than one person to maintain the page. ie. a different employee. Can i give them access rights to the page?

Yes - your page has to be linked from your personal page. Nobody will see the link between the two, apart from you and FB. You can set up as many pages as you want too, in case you were wondering.

lyndak082 · 20-09-2010 7:16pm

i have a fcebook business page too nad i just typed it into google one day itsy bitsy baby clonmel, and hey presto my fb page was the first one up! is that just co-incidence?

BrianD · 26-09-2010 11:54pm

lyndak082 wrote: »

i have a fcebook business page too nad i just typed it into google one day itsy bitsy baby clonmel, and hey presto my fb page was the first one up! is that just co-incidence?

I typed it in and it came up third ... but in Japanese!!!

BTW I think all Facebook pages (as opposed to profiles) are by default appear in Google. You have the option or not of making personal profile indexed by Google. Best thing is to claim your vanity URL as soon as possible and keep it updated.

byrne0f56789 · 27-09-2010 10:55pm

There are various ways to promote a Facebook page.

I don't have one for my business because I use LinkedIn and Scribd to better effect (just my niche).

Use a combination of Groups, Pages and your personal profile. Produce some engaging hint's and tips videos and put the first one or two on youtube and make parts 2 + restricted to you FB friends or Group members.

They become a member/friend to get the remaining parts of the video. Then promote your fan page in both your personal profile and group.

Remember there is a limit to the number of friends and group members you have.

byrne0f56789 · 27-09-2010 10:57pm

There are various ways to promote a Facebook page.

I don't have one for my business because I use LinkedIn and Scribd to better effect (just my niche).

Use a combination of Groups, Pages and your personal profile. Produce some engaging hint's and tips videos and put the first one or two on youtube and make parts 2 + restricted to you FB friends or Group members.

They become a member/friend to get the remaining parts of the video. Then promote your fan page in both your personal profile and group.

Remember there is a limit to the number of friends and group members you have.

PaulPinnacle · 28-09-2010 12:00am

lyndak082 wrote: »

i have a fcebook business page too nad i just typed it into google one day itsy bitsy baby clonmel, and hey presto my fb page was the first one up! is that just co-incidence?

What do you mean by "just a coincidence"?

It would have showed up very high in the SERP due to the fact that no other pages would be set up around the keywords "itsy bitsy baby clonmel". That's a very abstract term that would have pretty much zero volume of searches (only someone specifically looking for your store would search it) and as a result have pretty much zero volume of competition.

If you tried searching for something that isn't directly specific to your site, say "baby clonmel", chances are your page would be much further down the list and buried a few pages deep.

It's all well and good getting "1st place in google", but if nobody searches for the terms you rank for it's of no value to you.

Using Facebook to promote business

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