<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Susan Payton is the President of Egg Marketing  &amp; Public Relations, an Internet marketing firm. She blogs at The  Marketing Eggspert Blog. Follow her on Twitter @eggmarketing.\nSo you paid attention to what everyone is saying and you created a Facebook Page for your business. You\u2019ve got your press release links, photos and videos ... but no one seems to care. What are you supposed to do now?\nYou\u2019re on the right track, so congratulate yourself. A lot of small business owners don\u2019t even bother to create a page \u2014 they\u2019re simply not \u201Con\u201D Facebook.\nBut it\u2019s all about where your customers and future customers hang out. And with people spending more than 700 billion minutes per month on this social networking site, it seems pretty apparent that your business needs to be hanging out there too.\nLet\u2019s review your Page. Go ahead, pull it up. Your Facebook Page should contain all or most of these:\n Links to your blog posts\n Links to related articles (whether they\u2019re yours or not)\n Videos\n Photos\n Discussions\n\nThis type of content is key in getting people to \"Like\" your page, and contributes to its overall success. And how do we define success? By getting people to interact and leave comments on your Facebook Page, as well as travel from the page to your company's website and, of course, buying your product.\nFacebook Pages Need Attention\n\n\n\n\nIf you neglect your Facebook Pages, they will die. If you use Facebook, you\u2019ve probably stumbled upon a company\u2019s page with no conversations going on and no recent posts. I\u2019m guessing you didn\u2019t click \u201CLike\u201D on that page. An unattended Facebook Page leaves a negative impression of the company \u2014 don't let yours fall by the wayside.\nThe more you pay attention to your Page, the more positive results you\u2019ll see. Cathy Nguyen, President of LeatherandBags.com, has seen great results from her Facebook Page, but admits she could do more.\n\u201CAlthough I have a Facebook Page, I'm not utilizing it to its fullest potential because of time. I try to update when I can and should probably try to engage more often,\u201D said Nguyen. \u201CUtilizing Twitter, blogs and e-mails has worked, but then again, I'm not doing it frequently.\u201D\nPeople are used to passive marketing. In the old days, you could pay a magazine or billboard company to create an ad for you. Then you sat back and waited for sales to hopefully pour in. But those days are gone. Whether it\u2019s you or someone else at your company, you need to dedicate someone to social media strategy.\nCreating a Facebook Strategy\n\n\n\n\nMaybe we put the cart before the horse in creating the Page without a clear-cut plan. That\u2019s OK. Let\u2019s develop a plan together. First, decide why you want a Facebook Page. Is it because everyone else is doing it? Or because you understand the value in connecting with customers who spend time socializing on Facebook?\nWrite down five goals for your Facebook Page. They might be:\nCreate awareness of our brand on Facebook\nGet 10,000 \"Likes\" by year-end\nHave at least 5 comments or shared items each week\nMake Facebook one of the top 3 referrers of traffic to our site\nGet 2,000 entries to our Facebook contest\n\nOnce you have these goals, break down the tasks required to achieve them. If you want 10,000 people to click \"Like\" on your page, you\u2019re going to have to expand your contacts through your profile. Post your page link on Twitter, your blog, your e-mail and everywhere else. If you want interaction, you need to post insightful and thought-provoking questions and comments. Decide how regularly you need to post (I suggest at least 3 days a week).\nNow determine who will handle these tasks. It might be one person or several. If it\u2019s you, post the tasks to your calendar so you don\u2019t forget to do them.  In time, updating your Page will become second nature.\nGinger Anderson, who handles the Facebook Page for Scripps Health in San Diego says that when she started handling the page, all it did was push health news. Now the Page offers a mix of news, useful articles and videos that frequently get comments and questions from the 900 plus San Diegans who follow the brand.\n\u201COur intention is to build relationships within the San Diego community (specifically with current patients and employees) and position Scripps as a trusted leader in healthcare,\u201D said Anderson. \u201CWe receive the most comments on the posts that are general and applicable to a wider audience as opposed to disease-specific. We try to balance serious health news with fun, general health and wellness related content along with stuff about San Diego life (again, making sure it's not always about us).\u201D\nPractical Tips\n\n\n\n\nJust updating your Page won\u2019t make it fabulous \u2014 that will take a little work from you. Here are a few tips to make your page more searchable and appealing.\n\nTitle: Some say the title is the most important part, so make sure your title is descriptive of your business and unique on Facebook.\nFBML: Facebook Markup Language helps you create a custom landing page for your Facebook presence. If you want to promote a special event or direct attention to a particular product, this is a great way to do it. Don\u2019t run screaming when I say that this code can make your page better. It\u2019s not complicated, but if you don\u2019t want to deal with it, hire someone to help.\n\nPhotos and Videos: Don\u2019t underestimate the power of photos and videos. Even if you don\u2019t sell products, you can still add photos to spice up your page. If you\u2019re a dog groomer, take \"Before and After\" photos of those precious pet makeovers. A realtor can add photos of the houses on the market. A services firm can post pictures from the office to help visitors feel more connected to the staff.\nFor videos, why not shoot a tutorial on getting the most out of your products? An office tour? There are applications you can install within Facebook that will let you pull photos from places like Flickr. This can save you the trouble of uploading them in two places.\n\nQuestions: The jury\u2019s still out on Facebook Questions, a recent addition to the site. But by asking questions through your Page, you can start discussions that will spread beyond just the people who follow your business.\nOnce you\u2019ve put together your strategy and have worked on it a bit, give it three months. Then analyze your results and decide: Is Facebook helping your business?\nMore Facebook Resources from Mashable:\n\n- 10 Fascinating Facebook Facts- 10 Cool Facebook Status Tips and Tricks- How News Consumption is Shifting to the Personalized Social News Stream- How Online Retailers Can Leverage Facebook\u2019s Open Graph- 5 Useful Facebook Trend and Search Services\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2010/08/26/business-facebook-page/>