Lately, as I have been presenting REACH Magazine and The Big Deal to clients and prospects, we have been talking about things like promoting their business on Facebook. Facebook is a great place to promote your business and create a personal/business presence on the web. It is very easy to get hooked into spending more time than you would like on Facebook, so as a business person you might want to set a miminum and maximum time you want to spend there each day. Ask around and you will find almost everyone you know is on facebook. It is very popular and has participation much greater than Twitter and LinkedIn. Just google “facebook growth” and see how fast it continues to grow.

There is no question that every business person should have a facebook personal page and a facebook business page. As you add people to your personal list, you can keep them on lists such as PERSONAL FRIENDS, RELATIVES, OLD SCHOOL BUDDIES, BUSINESS PEOPLE, ETC. But, NO, people do not want to know about “everything” you do. Share things that make you a real person or express something about you so that other can get to know you better, not things like, “I just brushed my teeth.” At the same time realize this. People buy from PEOPLE and letting people get to know you and what you are doing from time to time can help break the ice for you to make some important connections from places and people you would never have thought of.

You then can create a business page as well. These PAGES are sometimes called a FAN PAGE because people who join that page click on a button that says, “become a fan”. This is where you can put your business description, location, hours, and etc. And this is where you can openly promote your business. People who become fans of your business like your business and may be recommending your business to their friends. When they become a fan of your business this is noted on their personal “Wall” and your fan page is listed on their info page as a business they are a fan of.

When you join up with Facebook, there is small print about what you can and cannot do. Do NOT set up a personal page for your business. You can create a “group” or a “fan page” for your business, but you have to have personal page first. However if you put your business logo on your personal page and start having sales and promotions there you could get REMOVED from Facebook. This is considered spamming and although you will see this from time to time, sooner or later people doing this from their personal facebook pages will be banned.

Here is an article about how to promote your business on facebook that I found interesting:
http://robmaguire.com/blog/2008/12/13-ways-promote-your-facebook-page/

If you would like to become my “friend” on facebook I welcome business and personal connections there :

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?ref=profile&id=1407421933

In addition if you would like to see how I use my Business Fan Page to promote my part time photography business, feel free to become a fan here:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Germantown-OH/Peter-DeMott-Photography/152303558213?ref=ts

We can continue to learn together.