If you are spending any amount of time on Facebook, you’ve heard of them. You may have even “liked” a few of them. They go by many names: Fan Page, Facebook Page, Business Page, Pages; but they are all the same thing and if you run a business, you will want one of your own.
What is a Fan Page?
Pages are used by businesess, organization and brands to share their stories and connect with their fans. Think of the page as a satellite of your webpage or an outlet at a really busy mall and your website as your main place of business.
Who can use a Fan Page?
Any business (small or large), corporation, celebrities, public figure, politician, retail stores, restaurants, photographers, bands, brands, and even individual products (ie. Kit Kat or Coca-Cola).
Why you need a Page for your business:
The #1 reason: it’s the rules
All businesses, organizations, public figures, etc are required to use a Page to represent themselves on Facebook. If you use a personal account as a business account and use it to solicit sales, you could end up losing it without warning as it goes against Facebook’s Terms of Service (Section 4.4).
Privacy
Pages are created and managed from your personal account but are separate from your Timeline allowing you to keep business and personal posts separate.
It helps with SEO
Business pages are, by default, open to the public and are indexable by Search Engines. Using your keyword strategies here can help with your website’s Search Engine rankings, not to mention help you get found faster by people looking for your products and services.
You can have help
To keep your customers engaged, you need to update your page frequently, which can be time-consuming. Want some help? Pages are run by “admins” and each page can have several admins. There are also several types of admin roles that can be assigned, each granting that person specific abilities for maintaining the page while you keep ownership. So you could allow another person (such as an employee or an outside service) to post updates on your page – freeing up your time for other things!
Statistical Data
Called “insights,” Facebook provides you a great deal of information on the fans who “like” your page, everything from gender and location to when they log onto Facebook the most. This information is only available on Pages, and it tells you a lot about who is interested in your page. Read on to see what you do with this information.
Page Advertising on Facebook
Use those “insights” to run highly targeted ads on Facebook to increase Page “likes”, get visibility for specific posts, contests or even your webpage. You can also use “Promoted Posts” to get more visibility for important posts on your page. Costs start as low as $5 – a very affordable advertising option.
Unlimited number of fans
Unlike a personal profile (which is capped at 5,000 friends), Facebook pages are not limited on the number of fans each can have.
Facebook tabs
Tabs or Apps are only available on Pages. These apps expand the functionality of your Page. You can have additional information pages (Static HTML pages), Contest apps, mailing list sign ups, and more.
Check-Ins & Location Services
If you have a physical location for your business, you can get people to interact with your brand by “checking in” on thier mobile devices when they visit your location. This social proof adds to your business’s credibility and helps get your business seen in the Facebook newsfeed. This is only available for Pages.
Networking as your Page
Networking as your page gets you even more exposure without having to run around blasting your page link all over the place. Visit other pages in related niches and add to the conversation as your page, and a link to your page is always inserted above your comments. Getting exposure like this without spamming is priceless.
It’s worth repeating: it’s the rules
We’re going to say this again, because it does bear repeating: All businesses, organizations, public figures, etc are required to use a Page to represent themselves on Facebook. If you use a personal account as a business account and use it to solicit sales, you could end up losing it without warning as it goes against Facebook’s Terms of Service (Section 4.4).
Why work so hard on your business only to have it taken away in the blink of an eye? Create a Page for your business and take advantage of all the benefits it offers for Free!