8 Ways to Get More Likes for your Facebook Business Page

So you've set-up a Facebook page for your business, now what?  A Facebook Business Page is only effective if you have fans who “like” the page. Here are some suggestions on how to find fans for your page.

1. Send an email out to your company's contact list asking them to “like” you on Facebook, include a link to your page in the email.

2. Personally ask work colleagues, friends and family to “like” your page.

3. If a customer/client has had a good experience working with you, ask them to “like” your page and to leave feedback/recommendation on your Facebook wall.

4. Invite friends of your personal Facebook page to “like” your Business page.

• When logged into your personal account, visit your Business page
• Click on the “Build Audience” tab located in the upper right portion of your Admin Panel
• Click on “Invite friends...”
• Change the tab that reads “Recent Interactions” to say “Search all friends”
• Click on the names of the friends you would like to invite to like the business page and press “Submit”

5. Add the Facebook “Like” button to your website and blog

6. Add a link to your Facebook Business Page to your email signature

7. “Like” other business pages from the community and participate in conversation by commenting on their post

8. Buy Facebook advertising. You can target your advertising by age, location, gender, occupation, interests, etc. This can an effective tool to gather a new audience and Facebook only makes you pay each time someone clicks on the ad to go to your page.  For more information about Facebook advertising click here.

Building a large Facebook fan base takes time and patience. It will not grow if you do not put work into it.  Word of mouth is one of the most effective forms of marketing and social media makes it easy for people to recommend trustworthy professionals to their friends and family.

If you are in Columbus or the greater central Ohio area and need more help developing a social media fan base for your company, contact me at kdbsocialmedia@gmail.com.

What is Facebook's Graph Search and what does it mean for your business?

Today Facebook unveiled Graph Search which it's executives describe as the third pillar of Facebook (along with Newsfeed and Timeline.)  So what exactly is Graph Search and how will it effect your Facebook Business Page?  

In the simplest terms:  Graph Search is a social media search engine. Think of your community of friends on Facebook as a giant database of information.  Users share where they have been (via check-ins), they share their interests and recommendations (by liking Pages), they share their age, employer, and relationship status.  Facebook has now made it easy to utilize all of this information.

What kind of information will Graph Search be able to retrieve?  From the Facebook press release: 

The first version of Graph Search focuses on four main areas -- people, photos, places, and interests.

People: “friends who live in my city,” “people from my hometown who like hiking,” “friends of friends who have been to Yosemite National Park,” “software engineers who live in San Francisco and like skiing," "people who like things I like," "people who like tennis and live nearby"

Photos: “photos I like,” “photos of my family,” “photos of my friends before 1999,” "photos of my friends taken in New York," “photos of the Eiffel Tower”

Places: “restaurants in San Francisco,” “cities visited by my family,” "Indian restaurants liked by my friends from India," “tourist attractions in Italy visited by my friends,” “restaurants in New York liked by chefs," "countries my friends have visited"

Interests: “music my friends like,” “movies liked by people who like movies I like,” "languages my friends speak," “strategy games played by friends of my friends,” "movies liked by people who are film directors," "books read by CEOs"

If two different people type the same keywords into a standard search engine, such as Google, they generally get pretty similar results.  With Graph Search, the search results will be greatly varied from person to person depending on the users unique friends and their interests.

In their press release Facebook mentioned that this will eventually be able to find medical professionals and other businesses. I foresee that eventually users will be able to get results for questions such as: "who is a realtor in Powell, Ohio that my friends like," "dentists in Grandview that my friends recommend," or "where do my friends get hardwood flooring in Columbus?"   The possibilities are endless!

Now it is more important than ever to make sure your business has a Facebook Business Page and is actively gathering "likes" from customers and clients

Facebook Graph Search has massive potential in terms of marketing your business through social media!  

Social Media for Business 101: How to link your Facebook Business Page with your Twitter Account

"How can I link my Facebook account with my Twitter account so that my Facebook posts appear on Twitter?"   -  I get asked this question quite often and those who ask are pleased to learn that there is an easy way to link the two accounts.  But nothing is easy unless you know how to do it!  So here it goes...

Log in to Facebook and then go to the website: www.facebook.com/twitter

You will land on a page that looks a little bit like this (the red text I've added):

If you are trying to link your business page then click on the lower "Link to Twitter" button that is parallel with the name of the page you are trying to link.

Next screen you see will look like this:

Enter the username and password of the Twitter account you would like to use.  If you do not get a box asking you to log in that means you are probably already logged in.  Look in the upper right-hand corner.  If you are already signed in your twitter profile picture will appear.  If this is the correct Twitter account then press "Authorize app".  If not, sign out of Twitter and sign in using the correct account.

Congratulations your accounts are now linked!  This page allows you to pick the exact kinds of updates you would like to share with Twitter.  Now every time you make any of these updates it will show up in both your Facebook and Twitter feeds.