Facebook advice - TilersForums.com

[poynton phil]

I just joined facebook, being a bit of an oldie,and not fully understanding how to use this site, i was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on how to use facebook to my advantage in promoting my business.

 

[Deleted member 9966]

United (Mark) is using facebook and twitter to promote his business Phil. He's the chap to speak to. No doubt he'll see this and put his views in.

 

[user123]

Hi, Phil,

I'm on facebook, and you have various options - you can have your personal profile page, where basically it is a social gathering but where you have, IMO, the most flexibility of interchange between you and potential clients. You can upload photos of your work, say what you are doing on an ongoing basis and people can comment feeling they are talking to a person rather than a business, in my view that works best.

You can also have a page in your business name (often with your real name in brackets after it) and update purely business news, people choose to 'like' such a page and get informed of your updates on their homepage, like they do from your personal page. The upside is that it is purely business, the downside is that unless people are really interested what is happening with you business they will lose interest and are more likely to click the 'unlike' button than 'remove (your) from their friend list, as can be done on your personal page.

Then there are events, you can click on the 'create an event' tab if you have some special day planned you want to invite people to, but how that would apply to your business I have no idea.

The upshot is, again that is purely my opinion, that to generate business via facebook it really helps to be sociable on there, let people get to know you, see your photos, whether purely professional or mixed in with personal photos of you and your family, don't ever swear and don't get involved in playing online facebook games.. people who are your friends will see the updates about most everything you do on FB and if you are seen to spend hours farming virtual farms or shoot aliens it isn't exactly a recommendation for a thriving business!

Think how you want to come across and post accordingly... I am friends on there with Doug and Liz etc, I am quyite happy to add you, too, but I promptly delete anyone whose posts or friends' posts to them include swearing or coarse stuff or even constantly moaning or negative stuff, don't want it on my pc and the association looks bad to others, too.

Oh and decide carefully on your privacy settings, keep your name, business name, website and phone number public, and the rest for friends only, or you can choose to keep your professional photos for all to see if you are not worried someone might copy them and pass them off as their own - for that you could insert a copyright note in your images, something I keep meaning to do and haven't yet, I do keep my photos private though and have a copyright note on my wall info...

Phew,.. :lol: hope that helps a bit?

 

[b-fly]

As a beginning you can create a fan page of your business here
For this purpose you should have a personal profile in facebook first. When creating the page take a notice to the options in order to make finding your business easier. You need an official page not a community one... I think

 

[united]

Hi, Phil,

I'm on facebook, and you have various options - you can have your personal profile page, where basically it is a social gathering but where you have, IMO, the most flexibility of interchange between you and potential clients. You can upload photos of your work, say what you are doing on an ongoing basis and people can comment feeling they are talking to a person rather than a business, in my view that works best.

You can also have a page in your business name (often with your real name in brackets after it) and update purely business news, people choose to 'like' such a page and get informed of your updates on their homepage, like they do from your personal page. The upside is that it is purely business, the downside is that unless people are really interested what is happening with you business they will lose interest and are more likely to click the 'unlike' button than 'remove (your) from their friend list, as can be done on your personal page.

Then there are events, you can click on the 'create an event' tab if you have some special day planned you want to invite people to, but how that would apply to your business I have no idea.

The upshot is, again that is purely my opinion, that to generate business via facebook it really helps to be sociable on there, let people get to know you, see your photos, whether purely professional or mixed in with personal photos of you and your family, don't ever swear and don't get involved in playing online facebook games.. people who are your friends will see the updates about most everything you do on FB and if you are seen to spend hours farming virtual farms or shoot aliens it isn't exactly a recommendation for a thriving business!

Think how you want to come across and post accordingly... I am friends on there with Doug and Liz etc, I am quyite happy to add you, too, but I promptly delete anyone whose posts or friends' posts to them include swearing or coarse stuff or even constantly moaning or negative stuff, don't want it on my pc and the association looks bad to others, too.

Oh and decide carefully on your privacy settings, keep your name, business name, website and phone number public, and the rest for friends only, or you can choose to keep your professional photos for all to see if you are not worried someone might copy them and pass them off as their own - for that you could insert a copyright note in your images, something I keep meaning to do and haven't yet, I do keep my photos private though and have a copyright note on my wall info...

Phew,.. :lol: hope that helps a bit?

Couldn't have put it better myself.

I have a page on facebook but compared to the big brands it's nothing. It's really hard to get people to 'Like' your page, the big brands give things away when people like them and a lot of them run competitions but I know I can't afford to do anything like this so my page only has around 60 people connected to it. I have had 1 phone call as a direct result of the page so I guess it's worth it.

I have seen a lot of people make a profile (like the one you create for yourself as a person) with their business name and just add loads of friends, this is against facebooks rules so they run the risk of it being blocked and in my opinion you will only get kids and other fake profiles to be your friend, I would never accept someone who I don't know or a business to be my friend and see my personal info. I like to stick with my page as I can keep my own personal profile and my business page separate

Hope that makes some sense :lol: