Facebook Pages are for businesses. Your customers and potential customers can then become “Fans” of your business page. Because of this association to the page, Facebook Business Pages are most often referred to as “Fan Pages”.
You can have as many Business Pages as you want. You can (and should) set-up Business Pages for any and all business activities and/or products of your store. You should first set-up a main Facebook Page for your store using your store name. Then over time start making additional Facebook Pages on all aspects of your business. For example you could make a page for jewelry repairs, custom designed jewelry, appraisal services, diamonds, gemstones, engagement and wedding rings, different lines of jewelry and watches you carry, etc.
Your main store Facebook Page is what you would want to promote to your customers and potential clients. You can stay in contact with them through this page and inform them about specials and new products you have. All the additional pages are used to get links to your store’s website to raise it in the search rankings, and to get indexed in Google to give your store broader exposure on the Internet.
Creating a Facebook Page
To create a Facebook Page log into Facebook and look at the bottom of your profile page. Across the bottom on the left you will see little icons. The second one from the left looks like two overlapping blue boxes with a lowercase “f” on it. When you hover your mouse over it a pop-up will read “Ads and Pages”. Click on this icon and the Ads manager will open. Near the top of the page you will see the word “Pages”. Click on Pages and you will be taken to the Page manager. Here will be a list of any pages you have created or for which you are an administrator. On the right side of the page near the top is a grey button that reads “Create a Page”. Click on this button and follow the instructions to create your page.
I’m not sure why Facebook has this so hidden. I guess it is their way of limiting the number of pages created. If it was oblivious and easy to find everybody would be creating new pages all the time.
When creating your Facebook Page be certain to up-load at least one picture for your page’s profile picture. This is the place to use your store’s logo, picture of the store, or a picture of your jewelry. Up-loading more pictures to the photo gallery is a great way for potential customers to see your jewelry, so don’t stop at just one.
In the page’s info section, fill out as much information as possible about your store and the products you carry. This will not only allow visitors to learn about your store, it also gives Google something to index so they can properly list your Facebook Business Page in their search results. If these sections are empty and you just up-load a bunch of pictures Google will not be able to tell what your page is about and will not index it.
Most importantly, list a link to your website in the websites box. You can list up to 10 links here, but it is better if you only place two or three links. You want one to your store’s website, one to your Blog, and maybe another one to some other website about your store.
Don’t make all the links to your store’s website to the home page. If you are creating a Facebook Page about engagement rings, link it to the page on your website that is about engagement rings. A Facebook Page about jewelry repair should be linked to the page on your website that talks about your jewelry repair services, etc. This not only creates the all important deep linking for your website, but by matching similar content on the page to a page to which it is linked makes the link more valuable.
Facebook Page helps your Internet Marketing in 3 important ways:
1. Facebook Pages are a great way to drive traffic to your website and into your store. Potential customers can go to your page, become a fan if they like and learn about your store. Many times people will go to your store and shop with you from the information on your Facebook Page without ever visiting your website. In addition you can send messages to all your Fans and it is a great supplement to your e-mail, and Blog advertising.
2. Google and the other search engines see the link to your website on the Facebook Page and give your website points for that link which helps your website rise in their rankings. Facebook has a Page Rank of 9 and these links are very valuable links to have.
3. Your Facebook Page is another page on the Internet promoting your store. Google and the other search engines index these pages and list them on search results just like other types of websites. Many times you will see a Facebook Page ranked higher in the search results ahead of the website it is linking to.
So as you can see even if you don’t get many people to become a fan of your page, it is not inactive. It’s doing its job of marketing your jewelry store and your website.
However, it is always a good idea to promote it and get more customers from it. Adding a “Fan Button” on your website, announcing it in your store and in your newsletters is a good idea. It is also good to invite your “friends” on Facebook to become a Fan of your Page.
To invite your Facebook Friends to become a Fan of your Page, log on to Facebook and go to your page. Underneath the picture on the left you will see several lines of text including Edit Page. At the bottom of the list it says “More”. Click on More and the list will expand. In the expanded list is a line “Suggest to Friends”. Click on this line of text and a pop-up box will appear with a list of all your Facebook Friends. Select all the Friends you want to invite and click the button “Send Invitations” and an invitation will be sent to all the Friends you selected. Later if you come back to this list, only friends who are not a fan will appear, so you don’t have to worry that you are inviting someone who is already a Fan. However, if you invite someone and they decline their name will still be there. So you want to be careful with this so that you don’t keep inviting someone over and over that doesn’t want to be a Fan.
Once you have some Page Fans, you can go to this list and click “More” , and then click on the line that says “Send Update to Fans”. A pop-up box will appear where you can create a message and send it to all your Fans. The message goes into their Facebook In Box and has a better chance of being read. Although this message will not show up on your page.
A post on your page will remain on the page so visitors can read it. It also sends a post to all the Fans on their “Page Up-Date” page. Most people on Facebook don’t know about this page and seldom look at it. To view it go to your profile home page and underneath your picture on the left is the word “Pages” with a little flag in front of it. If you click on this you are taken to a page that looks like your wall. Here are listed all the up-dates to pages of which you are a Fan.
I find it best when I make an up-date to post it on the page and then send a message to all my Fans. This way, by doing both, they will get a message that most of them will read, AND it is on my Facebook Page for everyone who visits to read.
Once you have 25 Fans to your page we can get a simple URL (also called a user name) to the Fan page such as www.Facebook.com/YourStoreName instead of the longer URL with all the meaningless numbers in it. This will make it easier for you to advertise it. Facebook limits this to only pages with 25 or more Fans so you will need to wait until you have some fans before you can do it. Having a simple URL for your Facebook Page makes it easier to promote it, and including keywords in your simple URL will help that page rank higher in the search engine results page listings.
To claim your simple URL log into Facebook and then go to www.facebook.com/username. On the page that appears it should state “Your username has been set.” (If it doesn’t, click the link and set a username for your Facebook profile as I discussed in last month’s article.) Underneath the yellow box it says “Set a user name for your Pages.” Click on this link, and you will see a drop down menu that contains all the pages you created or for which you are an administrator. Choose your page and follow the instructions to set your username for your page. This username becomes your page’s simple URL.
If you want to become my Facebook Friend log onto www.Facebook.com/BenchJeweler
Brad and Debbie Simon are owners of Internet 4 Jewelers. If you need a website or need help with your Internet Marketing go to www.Internet4Jewelers.com.
