We don’t need a map.  That’s what my van full of friends told me as we left Erie, PA and headed to Niagara Falls, Canada for a Christmas shopping extravaganza on a cold December evening in 1996. I ALWAYS travel with a map. I almost spoke up, but, I thought, “These ladies are locals and they’ve made this trip before.” Three hours later, we were circling a Canadian lake in a small, unknown town laughing all the way but without a clue how to get to our hotel. Soon, a Canadian policeman graciously came to our rescue and escorted us–with lights twirling–back to a major road that my friends recognized!

We did make it to the hotel without a map, but I ask you, Did we need a map?

How about your facebook page visitors? Do they need a map to do business with you on Facebook?  If you ask them, they would say, “We know how to get around facebook, write a comment on a wall, Like a page or post a status update.” But, do they know how to do business with you on Facebook?

Facebook, by default, lands your visitors on the Wall tab. While everyone knows how to read a wall and make comments, it isn’t always easy to drive business from there. In fact, your business is going to be influenced by the last comment posted. Even if it is a positive comment, it is typically a supporting business message rather than a core business message.  And, worse, it could be a negative comment that is viewed before you post a business-building positive response! 

The solution is to drive the user experience (and first impressions) with a custom landing page. Don’t leave your visitors circling the FB wall unsure of how you serve them. Show them the way. Change your default landing page from the Wall to a custom tab.

I’ve changed my landing page on facebook.com/socialmediaexplained to the Welcome tab. 

On the Welcome tab, I:

1. Welcome visitors!

2. Share my core message, the mission of Daystar New Media, Inc.

3. And, provide information with links on how I can be of service to my FB guests.

Visitors will still make it to the wall to read the comments and interact with you which is a valuable experience for them.  But, that experience will come after you’ve provided them a map on how your business can serve them.  

Page visitors might eventually get this information without a custom Welcome tab, but providing one will save them time and the need for a police escort!  

You can do this too.  Here’s how:

1. Go to your facebook page and click the Edit Page link on the top left column. (Page Admins only will have the Edit Page link.)

2. Click Wall Settings to expand options

3. Under Default Landing Tab for Everyone Else, select the landing page.

Next week, I’m heading to Cleveland, OH to meet up with the Erie, PA friends who took me on my most memorable shopping trip ever.  I’m bringing the map!

You may think reading about facebook page tabs is boring but after reading this,  you will see that tabs can lead to beau coup (French for many) opportunities for business growth. And, THAT is anything but boring!

Here we go! I’m going to share 5 ways to use Facebook tabs to drive business:

1. Put YOUR BEST website page—the one with a strong call to action– on the most visited site on the internet. 
Facebook surpassed Google as THE MOST VISITED site on the internet this year. With this statistic in mind, it behooves businesses to take their website content to Facebook like we’ve been doing with Google for years! I’ve done it and you can too!  Using the Facebook app, FBML, I’ve created a new wall tab, Daystar New Media,  and I’ve copied the HTML code from my website to the app so my facebook page visitors can follow my “calls to action” without leaving Facebook.  Think about this: ANY webpage on your company site can be “installed” on facebook by using the FMBL app. Which page on your site drives the most business? Get more out of it by moving it on facebook!

2. Introduce a new product or service with a special offer.   You can use an app called Promotion-there are many others-or you can copy html from your product page on your website and use the FMBL app again.  Think creatively and strategically and these tools will become a profit center rather than a time drain or cost to your business.

3. Build trust and strengthen client and prospect relationships by consistently offering valuable content to your target audience. Do this on Facebook  by flowing your blog content into your Facebook page with the app, Social RSS.  Your blog will have a tab AND every article you add to your blog will be posted to your facebook wall and included in the Blog tab. See the Social Media Explained Blog on flowing onto my facebook page.

4. Grow your email listfrom within Facebook. Add a tab for your email list sign up form. There are many ways to do this.  I’ll show two examples. I use MailChimp.com so I have installed the MailChimp App. I have client who uses ConstantContact.com so I’ve installed the Constant Contact app on the client’s Facebook page.  Because most email list management systems provide the form code in HTML, you can also use the FBML app to grow your email list on Facebook.  Search FB App directory or visit your email list provider website to find the best choice for your company.

5. Get your FB community engaged and viral by sharing your latest video.Using the Youtube for Pages app from Involver.com, you can load your Youtube Channel into your page as a tab and offer your latest business video to your audience. What’s great about this app is that it makes it easy for your community to share it with their friends. Think viral exposure.  Here is an example of this app in action on the  HomeCare Association of Louisiana facebook page. HCLA keeps membership informed about events, homecare industry news, healthcare reform issues (ie. report from Capitol Hill) and more using Youtube and the Facebook page.

 Now, I’ve just scraped the surface of the beau coupways you can use fb page tabs to drive business. I hope these ideas have inspired you to think of some new ways you can use facebook for your business.  Next week, I’m going to show you how to get even more action from tabs by making one of your new tabs your landing page on Facebook.  Stay tuned next week for Driving the Facebook User Experience.

Let’s talk about it.

Profiles

The personal profile is the core of facebook. Everything that is done on facebook revolves around it.  People with profiles create and join groups. People with profiles create pages and become fans of pages.  While you can administrate a page on facebook and no one can see your personal profile, you still must have a profile to create a page with full-functionality. (Note: You may create a page first and then connect it to a profile, but without a profile, you may not add applications to the page which limits its functionality.)

Pages

While personal profiles are strictly for individuals, pages are for organizations, products, services, bands celebrities and public figures to have a professional presence.  Pages must represent a real organization, business, celebrity, or band, and may only be created by an official representative of that entity.  Pages allow people to maintain a personal-professional distinction on facebook. Pages are public websites that extend content to the web at large. Pages are not limited to facebook members, as is the case with most personal profile content. Pages are indexed by search engines and rank well. Pages are great for web marketing!

Groups

Groups can be created by any facebook member and about any topic. Groups are used for sharing opinions and interests in a particular subject. Groups can be kept open to anyone, closed to a select group or secret (not findable except by invitation). If you’re a group admin, your name will appear on that group. Additionally, when you take actions on your group, such as posting on your group’s wall, these actions will appear to come from you as an individual. However, if you post or take other actions on a Page you own, it will appear to come from the Page. Group content is not indexed by search engines and are not good for web marketing. They can be good for relationship marketing if you commit to building relationships in the group and engaging in discussions.

How are you using your profile, pages and groups for business? I’d love to hear from you.

On Tuesday, August 25, 2009, Plan Your Meetings, sponsored a webinar, hosted by David Nour with Michelle Cullison and Nhat Pham. These questions were asked by the meeting planners:

1. Can a group created by an individual be moved to a public business page?

Moving from a group to a company page is a manual process. Create the page and then invite all group members to become a Fan of the new page. Some Group admins put a deadline on the move and close the group. You may also provide some new content on the page as an incentive to make the move.

2. How are people using Facebook to find potential partners/vendors?

You may find vendors/partners using the advanced search page on Facebook. It allows you to search for people, pages and groups by keywords. You can get to the advanced search page by typing search in the Search field. (Currently, there isn’t a link to advanced search on the menu.)

Another great way to find potential partners and vendors is groups. Join industry specific groups where your partners and vendors are spending time. Need to find the groups, search for them with the advanced search page.

Are they searching like on Google? Yes. Business pages on Facebook are public so googling the company name and the term facebook as search words is a good way to see if a potential vendor has a facebook presence.
How does Facebook rank pages when a search is done?
Facebook doesn’t disclose how it ranks pages on its search results page.  However, this page about the new Facebook Search may be helpful to you: http://www.facebook.com/help.php?page=923

3. I get feeds on my home page from groups/pages that I am member/fan of, what do we need to do as a company to get our updates to post to our friends pages?


4. Can you create an event for a Cause FB account?
A cause is an FB application. Anyone with an FB profile may create an event.

5. What is the difference between a group and a fan page – benefits of both?
Groups gather people around a topic of discussion and can be a good place for collaboration. FB fan or business pages are like personal profiles but for businesses.  They have all the power of personal profiles including the ability to publish a lot of company info, install apps, communicate with and build a fan base.

6. Is it advisable to keep a “personal” Facebook page versus a “professional” page?

Having both kinds of presence on Facebook is important.  You develop business relationships personally using your personal profile and as a brand using your (professional) company page.

7. If you post a blog to the notes section how do your friends see it?

Under the Settings menu, Choose Application Settings and then Notes under the Wall tab click on: Allow Notes to publish to Streams.

8. I am the director of communication for a small trade association – we have created a group on Facebook – so are you saying we should create a profile – if so, for me or for biz? How would you do this?

Groups are good for collaboration but do not have as many features a public profiles (business pages) have.  As an association, you could benefit from the added features that public profiles have. To create a public profile for your association, go to Facebook.com and click this link: Create a Page for a celebrity, band or business.  Having a personal and a business presence on Facebook is helpful as business relationships can be formed personally and organizationally.

9. How can Facebook give an incentive travel company an edge on the competition? Create a content-rich public profile for your company on Facebook Business pages.  Make it a page that adds value to your audience and includes links to your website and industry specific keywords for Google. Invite your target audience to become fans.  Engage your audience in conversation.   

10. I’m looking for a job – any suggestions on how to use Facebook for that? Many times job leads come through the people you know.  Make sure you’ve entered all your education and work history info in your personal profile. Communicate confidence and the value you bring to employers in your status updates. Do communicate that you are looking for opportunity. Don’t convey desperation in your updates.

11. How can you use Facebook for education/learning?

12. How can my company keep negative comments off our Twitter account? Controlling negative comments is a common concern across social networking platforms.  Some of the blogging/microblogging tools allow you to turn off commenting but then you’ve shut down communication with the exact audience you want to build relationship with.  Responding positively to the negative comments may indeed give you an opportunity to build repo ire with your audience and show how you are handling the issues that occur. Google the words “Transparency in blogging” to learn more about how companies are dealing with negative comments in the blogosphere.

13. How secure is Facebook?

I will talk about 3 common ways that FB accounts are compromised and how to prevent it from happening to you.

1. Phishing: Do not give you account information to someone who claims to be an FB rep via email. FB will not ask you to update your account info via email ever.
2. Hacking via email access. You can reduce your chances of having your account hacked by using a password on your FB account that is DIFFERENT than the password on the email account that you have associated with your FB account. If a hacker gets your FB password and it is the same as your email password, they can then take over your email account that manages your FB account and lock you out of your account.
3. Applications are another door hackers use to compromise your account. Facebook is an open development platform meaning applications can be submitted by anyone. One way to reduce your vulnerability is by installing only verified applications. Read more about verified apps here: http://developers.facebook.com/news.php?blog=1&story=247

14. Looking to extend company community aspects while differentiating content on Facebook so it is not a duplication of efforts. With this type of strategy, you will need to communicate what type of content will be unique in the FB arena. I saw a site that week that gives tips on their FB page that they do not post anywhere else.

And, if the company doesn’t have a blog where interaction occurs, then of course, the FB page can be the place for customers to provide feedback and enter discussions with you. Open up your FB page wall for community interaction.

15. How do you get over the legal hump within a corporation to allow use of Facebook for the company and employees? Developing a policy and making sure all parties understand the rules is key to social networking success in a corporate setting. Here is a GREAT site, the Social Media Blog Council, to use a resource in the process of policy development: http://www.socialmedia.org/

16. As a non-profit with few resources, how do we figure out what the best use of Facebook for our situation is? If you have a small budget for education, invest that in learning social media strategy. Then, perhaps you can utilize volunteers or college students for implementation. The leaders must understand WHAT the goals are and who the audience is on these social sites. Social Media Strategy programs are offered by David Nour, Nhat Pham and Michelle Cullison.

17. How do you keep you personal Facebook and business Facebook separate?  I don’t want to personally become a fan of a vendor but want to professionally become a fan. Only people (personal profiles) can become fans of pages. However, you can tag another page as Favorite page of your Business page.  Go to the Vendor page on FB that you want to support as a business. Then, click the Add to MyPage’s Favorites and select your business page from the list. You won’t be a fan but you will be showing support business to business.

18. What’s the quickest way to add value to the lives of those we contact with in Facebook and to monetize opportunities for all parties involved? To add value, think about what tip you can give your audience today that will help them in business. Monetizing many times comes when a client trusts your business enough to close the deal, buy the product.  What can you say today to build trust in your product or service?

19. What is the balance between being effective at promoting events vs. spending all of your time on social media sites?

It is best to determine 2 things before you login to social sites:
1. How much time do I have to give to this social media session?
2. What specifically do I need to accomplish when I login?

I would suggest allowing time to create the event in the FB events app and promoting it on your page and to your targeted friends list. You may also promote the event to select groups on FB that have the targeted audience on FB.

20. How do you show the value and utility of Facebook and social media when executive management doesn’t even understand social media? Case studies are really helpful to show what others are doing that is working. Mashable.com is a good site for breaking info on social media and web 2.0. Here is an article that highlights some big business success stories that you may want to share with your executive management: http://mashable.com/2009/02/06/social-media-smartest-brands/

21. Facebook comes across as a social site – how do you make messages more “business like”? In your status updates, answer questions like these, “What would add value to my audience today? What can I share that will help them professionally?

22. How do I  get folks to register for my online training?

You may want to familiarize yourself with FB events. Another great way to get the word out on FB about products and services is to join groups with members who are in your target audience.  Start discussions in the FB groups and offer the group members free pre-training teleseminars or webinars so you add value first and then plug the training on the call. You wouldn’t want to join a group and then start selling your training services.

23. How can I advertise my business on FB but not have it so “In Your Face” to my friends. You may want to consider a paid FB ad. You can get significant exposure for $30 a month. Or, segment your friends using Friend Lists and send targeted advertising messages to select groups. However, remember that social networking culture is somewhat averse to advertising. Try soft marketing value add messages that also include links to learn more about a product or service.

24. To me, Facebook is merely a social tool.  I want to be convinced of it’s usefulness as a business tool. I’ll give you 3 reasons:

First is location, location, location. Facebook allows you to put your business where the traffic is flowing. There are many people you can touch in FB that will never come to your website. Secondly, google loves high traffic sites and a link to your website from within FB increases your findability on google and other search engines. Finally, on FB pages you are allowed the chance to have people build a relationship with your company or brand.

I am often asked the question, “How do I create a badge for my FB page?”

A badge is an icon that indicates you have a presence on Facebook and want to connect with you.

There are 2 types of badges: personal and page badges. Personal badges link to personal profiles. Page badges link to business pages.

To create a personal badge, go to your Profile Page and scroll down to the bottom of the left column. There you will find the “Create a Profile Badge” link. Click the link to go to your Facebook Badge page. Next, select the “Create Badge” option and follow the instructions on your screen to create a badge.

To create a page badge, also known as the “Find Us on Facebook” badge go to the ‘Promotion Guidelines’ link found in the right hand column under the communications section of your Edit page screen.

Both of these badges can be used on other websites to drive traffic to Facebook.

If you have a brick and mortar location, you would do well to create physical badges on site announcing your Facebook presence. You may also use FB badges in print mailings or Print ads. In these circumstances, you will need to provide the FB URL for them.

If you have 100 followers, you may request a URL to match your business name such as facebook.com/businessname.