Entry by Judi Bryan

Facebook - It's More than Just a Place to Visit Friends

  4 Comments

"Getting the word out" is certainly one of the biggest hurdles we have in any venture we undertake.  And doing it CREDIBLY even moreso.  After all, we've all encourted charletains of one sort or another who professed certain talent or expertise...but then we discovered (too late, no doubt) that it was all a ruse, that they simply spun a web to get down into our wallet.  No one wants that to happen to them!

Frankly, that IS the beauty of Facebook.  When you put yourself "out there" personally, you begin to gather your friends and family and share all sorts of things.  Some things are consequential...some not so much.  Eventually, if you keep active in the platform, you discover that something else you begin to gather is NEW friends.  People who are already friends of your "friends", or people who have similar interests as you. It's the perfect place to begin creating that credibiltiy.

But what about the "business" portion of it?

First of all, Facebook has a rule:  You can't use "Profile" pages (that's the personal side of it) to conduct business, that's what the Business Page is for.  And if you break that rule (like marketing your listings or your services on your Profile page) Facebook reserves the right to remove your page!  So, that said, seems like a really good idea to have a Business Page! 

But, and I just recently had that "AHAH" moment myself, there is an even better, even MORE COMPELLING reason for having a Business Page (see mine for an example...and I'd LOVE it if you'd like.jpg it): That compelling reason is that second "identity".  There's a bit of a trick to implementing it, which I'll get into in a minute, but that second identity, your BUSINESS identity, can have REAL POWER for helping your business, your services, and your branding grow!

Here's what I mean.  When you have a Personal Profile page and a Business Page, you get to wear two different hats.  If you were to go to my personal profile page to "visit", to talk about that awful storm we just endured or how great the photo of my grandkids looked, you'd want to wear your "personal" hat.

On the other hand, if you were to go to my BUSINESS PAGE and wanted to comment on that great new listing I'm marketing, or the fabulous testimonial I just got from that buyer, you'd most definitely want to do so wearing your BUSINESS HAT.  And the reason for that is simple.  If someone reads your comment on my page, likes what you said and wants to learn more about YOU, you'd want them visiting YOUR Business Page, too.  Wouldn't you???

Take a look at 2 comments I left on the Facebook page for the CRM I use (and LOVE, by the way!).  The first (lower) was left BEFORE I understood what I needed to do to be sure my comments reflected my "business" self.  The second (upper) was after.  Which do you supposed would be the link I'd want visitors to that CRM page to click?

fb_posts.jpg

 It's likely other Realtors are visiting that page.  When they click on "me", I want it to be the "me" that clearly reflects that I'm an agent too, and I offer unique services in my market place.  So here's my QUICKTIP about directing your "identities": Once you have a Business Page as well as your Personal Profile, on the right hand column of your BUSINESS PAGE it will say "Use Facebook as [the name of your Business Page]".  If you want to post to other pages AS YOUR BUSINESS, click on that "Use Facebook as...." link.  When you begin creating your comment on that other page, you'll notice that your avatar for your business page is the one that appears.  If you want to post to something as your "personal" self, simply go back to that right column again and click on "Use Facebook as [your personal identity]".

One more QUICKTIP:  When you've created a Business Page, there's no real Obvious connection between your Personal Profile and your Business Page.  BUT YOU WANT ONE.  So on your Profile page at the top where Facebook shows your Name, and right under it is an area of basic info you've already input, click on the Edit Profile link (this is just above your row of photos).  When the edit profile page loads, click down the left side to EDUCATION & WORK.  As Employer, ADD YOUR BUSINESS PAGE BY TYPING IN THE NAME OF YOUR BUSINESS PAGE (The Facebook search will locate it for you) and when it appears, click on the Add a Project button.  You want your Business Page to be your most recent entry in your "employer".  Once you do that, if someone is on your personal Profile page, YOUR LINK TO YOUR BUSINESS PAGE will be immediately beneath your name!

As to creating that Business Page....technically, that process is very simple and there are some great uTube videos.  Here's a great easy tutorial on setting up a Business Page done by Circle Pix.  Once the Business Page has been created, and you've gone through each section and added photos and content, you fb_statichtml.jpghave the option of creating a unique Landing Page (Welcome Page, etc.).  For mine, I used a wysiwyg editor to create the look and content, and then used a Facebook plugin called Static IFRAME Tab to create my "Welcome" (landing) page.

I hope you found this info helpful...and sure hope you stop by and like.jpg my page!

4 Comments

Wow, thanks for this Judi. I need to start implementing your suggestions on ACRE's business page!

Those 2 quicktips I JUST discovered in reviewing a few youtube videos yesterday!  I discovered the part about "use facebook as...." pretty much by accident.  I also discovered you have to really watch your posts (to see which avatar shows up) because Facebook doesn't seem to necessarily "remember" which was last...or perhaps that memory is cancelled when you move from one identity to the other.  I'm not sure.  But I really liked the idea of getting your BUSINESS PAGE acknowledged SOMEWHERE on your profile page...and right under your name makes good sense.

Always learning...LOL!

On a Facebook fan page, you can use FB app call RSS Graffiti (maybe it is Graffiti RSS) to automaticall send your wordpress blog posts to your Facebooke Fan page which I used for fan page "Houston Commercial Real Estate"

another good Facebook fan page editor is ShortStackLabs.com which I used to build on facebook the page "Real Estate in Houston"

Thanks Judi. It's the advice I have been looking for!

This page contains a single entry by Judi Bryan published on June 10, 2011 12:50 AM.

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