Social Media Can Do Your Work

When used correctly, social media can be an amazing tool for all types of businesses; but still, there are those ‘old-fashioned’ entrepreneurs out there who can’t trust Facebook, Twitter and the likes to grow their existing customer base.

 

According to the Pew Internet Study, the number of Facebook users in the US over 65 has reached 35% while in 2013, 43% of Americans of 65 years or older were using at least one social networking site like Istagram, Pinterest, Twitter or Tumblr, compared to 26% in 2010 or a mere 1% in 2008.

On Twitter, the 55-64 year age bracket has grown by 79% since year-end 2012, being its fastest growing demographic, while the corresponding numbers for Facebook and Google+ for the 45-54 year age group have leaped over 46 and 56%, respectively.

So why are there still businesses that insist to ignore those fast growing demographics? And why do they fail to target them when they know that these are actually the ones that have money to spend on their products?

Social media is not that complicated!

Here are a few more reasons which might convince you that using social media for business might actually not be such a bad idea:

Brand and Positioning
Strong online presence can only make your product stronger! By knowing your customer base, you’ll definitely be able to build a loyal following base on social media networks. And by doing this, you can only grow bigger and bigger day by day, strengthening your online and offline market presence.

Brand and WOM
Use word of mouth to pave your way into the digital world. When you know your product, you also know your marketing; and when you do your marketing right, people will be happy to talk about it on social media. Getting and monitoring feedback is key; it can actually help you improve your product and the way you do business.

Be Brave, Communicate!
Open communication on social media can be an invaluable business tool, if used correctly! Just think of the amount of information exchanged publicly between you and your current or potential customers! If your communication is genuine, you should only expect the same from your audience.

Dummy Run
You don’t have to be an expert to check upon your metrics or website analytics; don’t be afraid to start using Facebook Insights, which can help you measure your Facebook marketing and engagement efforts, or Google Analytics, which can give you significant information on your site traffic and where that comes from. See for yourself what is driving your ‘Likes’, check which status updates worked and which didn’t, and how your followers responded to that important update!

Bespoke Content
When you own a small local business, or your product ‘works only’ on a specific area, wouldn’t you prefer to be able to offer your services only to those that might actually be interested in or be able to use them? Twitter and Facebook provide the option to localise content and geotarget your posts – why offering an active ‘walk-in’ promotion to your followers outside your area? Just keep it local and relevant, and it will work!

Managing social media for your business definitely requires an integrated approach, and calls for a significant amount of time and effort in building brand awareness through pins and boards, posts, groups, podcasts, tweets and so on. Success of your social media strategy is solely based on your unique presence and your charming and engaging manner.

What do you think? Are you willing to give social media another chance?

Facebook Acquires Branch Media Team

Facebook has purchased another start-up namely Branch and Potluck. Branch is the startup behind Potluck, which is a link sharing service and the conversation service dubbed Branch. Josh Miller, who is Branch Media Team's co-founder, is the one who broke the news about the purchase it on Facebook. Financial details of the transaction were not unveiled, but The Verge attached the value at "around $15 million". The 10-person group won't have to change place as it will be creating a fresh conversations team in charge of creating Branch "at Facebook scale".

Branch is a smart and dynamic startup that has created a number of fun and functional internet products. Branch also initiated Potluck, which presents a great interface for talking about Web findings with colleagues. In recent times, the company made public via social media news sources a digital chatting service for the present workforce, Chitchat, as well as the 'Phone Tag' app that aims at making it effortless to connect with hard-to-reach buddies and family in a special way.

Branch Media puts forward two services: Branch, a policy for hosting and distributing invite-only conversations, and Potluck, a Web and mobile app that is intended to provide a platform for friends to talk about any interesting stuff they find online. Both are anticipated to continue working outside of Facebook.

Branch permits users have invite-only discussions around social content. Potluck promotes conversation by allowing users to partake links with pals and even strangers.

 

When co-founder Josh Miller announced it on Facebook, he said his team will be creating an innovative Conversations group, whose base will be in New York City. He said that the goal of this group would be to help people interact with others around their concerns. He also added that even if the products they form will be suggestive of Branch and Potluck, those services will remain to live outside Facebook.

His post is insufficient on details (he said he's presently on vacation and just posted because he was told that "the account was going to be disclosed"), but The Verge reports that the cost was $15 million.

Branch Media's shareholders consist of Obvious Corp, Lerer Ventures, SV Angel, Betaworks, and others. The startup reportedly was able to come up with an initial funding of $2 million.

What Branch is working on is still a complex problem regardless of the countless conversational platforms individuals have all around. The main problem particularly lies in finding how to include an intelligent conversation in a place that materializes to increasingly more value, speed, brevity and 'viral' content.

It's also right, however, that the company has struggled to build up an audience. It began as an invitation-only area that attempted to produce a space for bright conversation among well-informed sources about significant or appealing topics — so a conversation that started on Twitter, for instance, could shift to a Branch and increase further. But the platform has limited its prospective reach.

Mr Miller thought the idea of Branch was to reorganize online conversations given that they're usually flooded by many users in his 2012 Betabeat profile.

He incorporated a big 'thank you' to his shareholders. This included Twitter, which was founded by Biz Stone and also Evan Williams.

There are two distinctive things about this purchase:

Branch raised a sum of $2 million from some prestigious investors and one of them was obviously The Obvious Corporation which was formed by Twitter creators Biz Stone and Evan Williams.
Jelly, a just in progress on Q&A app by Twitter creator Biz Stone was the earliest to proclaim this news. A user asked this inquiry - "What took place [to] Branch? The company has been silence. Are they concentrating on the Potluck app now?".

It is sensible that Facebook would desire to obtain a startup much as Branch Media. It has made especially clear its purposes of developing into the pioneer in social conversations. Facebook announced last month that the company would prioritise concrete news above memes in the feed to create more real-time conversation.

The administrators of the company, and this group, will be a component of Facebook, but go on to toil in New York. The mission group of Branch Media Team is going to contribute to amending the selections users get. Miller and his group will be beginning with the group's conversations on Facebook, and will concentrate on developing products related to what had been shaped in Branch Media. The point of these is to assist users of the site to take part in a variety of discussions based on their personal concerns.

The reason why Facebook has bought the company is unknown for sure. The amount is also not known. While the company over the last two years has concentrated on generating products the current consumer will discover useful and insightful, Facebook has directed most of its attention on inventing products that monetise its uses. Who knows? With these two trends in mind, this could be the start of products that every user will be happy to pay for thanks to their usefulness.

 

Miller went on to include that: "Even though the products we construct will be suggestive of Branch and Potluck, those services will exist on remote of Facebook. A more considerate note and particulars to come soon yet I am writing this randomly from a mountain in Japan."

The attainment of Branch could mean that Facebook wants to improve on the methods that are used by its users to make discussions, and the social network will require a lot of assistance to make that happen. This is the initial step and we're fascinated in considering what happens next.

Nobody knows how much of the original Branch or Potluck will be seen in the outcome of the working together of these two companies. However, one thing is certain; if this is carried out successfully, the result will be a better user experience for Facebook users and massive exposure for products from Branch Media Team.

4 Effective Social Media Marketing Methods for Valentine's Day

Restaurants, retail stores and specialty boutiques know that Valentine's Day is a profitable time of year. In fact, IBIS World reported the average person spends approximately $134.08 on Valentine's Day festivities. The largest portion of that spending came from eating out, with more than $9 billion spent, followed by candy at $2.8 billion. Is your business ready? Get prepared for the retail festivities by ensuring you have a secure marketing plan that includes social media.

Remember: Each social network has its own etiquette, culture and style, so it's important to match your message to the medium. Follow these guidelines:

Facebook
Facebook pages make it easy to build user engagement for your brand by running giveaways, offering samples and posting polls. Hubspot reported on one company that leveraged their Facebook page for Valentine's Day in a clever and highly effective way: MegaRed tied together a free sample program to Valentine's Day by allowing Facebook users to request a heart supplement sample for the people they loved. MegaRed mailed both the user and their loved one a sample, and went a step further by tying the amount of samples they distributed to a charitable donation. In this example, the company took advantage of the holiday's theme and added a creative twist that tied in well with their brand.

Twitter
Salesforce Marketing Cloud found that 74 percent of Valentine's Day chatter on social networks was positive. Keep your Twitter messages positive and succinct, giving value to your followers by tweeting about Valentine's Day specials, top-selling Valentine's Day gifts or by providing an intimate look at how your company is celebrating the day around the office. Use Vine or Instagram alongside your Twitter campaign to help your message get across better than 140 characters alone can. Quick Vine videos of people receiving Valentine's Day gifts, and Instagrams of creative gift packaging help supplement your tweets.

Sharable Content
Looking to go viral this February 14th? Sharable content opportunities abound for this holiday, whether you're sharing posts on your Google+ page or publishing them on your company blog. Engage your readers about their Valentine's Day plans, offering to give out a prize to the most romantic or most unusual replies. Want to get a conversation started? Ask your readers what their funniest Valentine's Day experience was. Use hashtags to further promote your content and keep the conversations organised.

Pinterest
Promote a DIY or exclusive Valentine's Day recipe by creating boards for the special day that relate to your business. If you're a gourmet food store, for example, create a board with the most romantic dinner recipes, taste-alike restaurant recipes and perfect wine pairings. Sell craft supplies? Post a selection of interesting and easy Valentine's Day crafting projects to make the day special for the entire family. Add in gift guides for couples, kids and more, and keep relevant tie-ins to Valentine's Day throughout your boards.

Relationships with your audience on Social Media

Are you an online social networking freak? If yes, it’s not too surprising. People's inclination towards social sites is on the increase, which means it's never been easier for businesses with a social media presence to attract and interact with their social savvy customers. Social media is a tool that has revolutionised the way in which businesses provide information, promote their services and engage with their target audience.

Most businesses start out their social media strategies by simply posting their latest updates/features on their Facebook page or Twitter account. They usually post regularly but without any idea of how best to tailor it to suit their audience. This can be a waste of content as without an end goal in mind, the social media strategy has no direction.

The solution to this stumbling block is to be more interactive and engaging with your audience. A good question to ask is 'how can we be more captivating to this particular audience?' People will not find you interesting if all you are doing is trying to sell yourself. It's a good idea to constantly evaluate your social media strategy and to tweak it appropriately.

People love to read interesting information, yes! But they also love it when a businesses listen to their needs and opinions. So begin with asking them questions and take note of the positive and negative responses.

Another good idea is to encourage voting polls on a certain topic which requires feedback from the audience. Also small giveaways can work, whether it be in the form of a simple ebook or a sample of the product you sell. This way user’s trust is gained by the brand. And there are a lot of other ways to increase interaction such as building relations with influencers via twitter. Remember, don’t respond to criticism or messages with the same standardised custom message, make it personal!

Once you have secured enough faith in your customer’s mind about your brand, then you can surface with your content strategies as now you have perceived the taste and interests of your target audiences. The moral of the story is you should share only 20% of the information/assets about your services on social media and the rest should be fun, interactive posts that suit your customers interests.

This kind of relationship keeps the users content and assured.

Israeli Company creates pre teen Facebook

Facebook and most other social networks ask you to be 13 before you are able to hold an account with them. This leaves a lot of parents in a very awkward position with children younger than 13 wanting and joining these networks. It isn't just the trouble of monitoring what your child is looking at its also the possibility of inappropriate interaction and bullying. Well a start up in in Israel believe they have the answer.

Itay Eshet has created the first ever preteen social network called Nipagesh, translated from Hebrew it means "lets meet". Eshet says that his network trains the future Facebook users how to be smart online and teaches them the dangers of social media. This is the clever part of Nipagesh, an individual can not sign up only a school can. Once a school has signed up they are able to give students log in details. This also means a user would only be interacting with someone that is a child as well.

A screen grab of Nipagesh's chat feature. When a school joins the network, its entire student body, along with parents and teachers, are signed up at once. Children can flag posts that make them uncomfortable.

Courtesy of Itay Eshet

So far 100 schools have signed up. Fifth-graders at Reut Regional Elementary School in central Israel like it. One student says she plays lots of games on Nipagesh and makes new friends there, while another says any bullying is quickly stopped.

Teachers and parents are also automatically made members also. With a report button on every page it is very easy to report a problem with something that has been seen by a user. Nipagesh also users algorithms to detect inappropriate posts and alerts administrators straight away.

"Kids like to report," says Eshet, adding that sometimes teachers have used such alerts to start classroom discussions. "It's a great way to learn what to report and what not to report. We are here to teach them."

Parents and Teachers are able to see what is posted on walls however in a private message unless reported this message will remain private however, the algorithm still runs which creates alerts and also, parents and teachers are able to find out who has speaking to who. So their is still some privacy on Nipagesh.

There is a lot of possibilities for Nipagesh and could be used socially as well as academically, currently it is only available in Israel for schools and is free to subscribe to. But how long will it be till Nipagesh or something similar hits the western world to teach children the proper and correct way to use social networks.

3 Ways to Become a More Visual Social Butterfly

More and more, it seems like people don’t use the internet to read. They use the internet to see. Whether they’re clicking through photos on their friend’s Facebook wall, pinning recipes they want to try, or watching cats do hilarious things on YouTube, users want visuals. And not just any visuals, they’re drawn to images that pop, images that make an emotional impact, images that are useful. It explains the popularity of sites like Pinterest and Instagram and apps like SnapChat. People just love sharing images.

But how do brands fit into this? According to Digital Insights, who compiled an impressive number of social media statistics for the year 2013, surprisingly well. According to a survey, 46% of web users turn to social media before making a purchase. While they’re on those networks, it is the visual information that stands out. Socially Sorted, who published an infographic on the subject of the increasingly visual social landscape, explains that users are more likely to engage with brands who post pictures more than any other type of media. In addition, photos on Facebook get 53% more likes than any other kind of content.

Okay, you’re convinced. Now how can your business become more visual? Keep reading for some great advice!

Less Words, More Images

Next time you’re about to post to your social media account, stop and think for a moment. Would this post be better-expressed or more successful with a beautiful image alongside it? The answer will be yes 99% of the time. Show, don’t tell.

But how do you come up with these images? If you don’t have a professional photographer or designer on board, try purchasing stock photos or using Creative Commons images. If those won’t do and you’re not a great photographer, slap a filter or some words over it and no one will be any the wiser!

Be the Source of Creative New Content

Did you know that 80% of all pins on Pinterest are re-pins? That means that 80% of the images on Pinterest are just re-shared images that somebody else pinned to the site originally! And although Facebook’s image sharing works in a different way, the number of content creators is still relatively small compared to the number of content sharers.

Take advantage of this by being the source of interesting content that people want to share. Quotes, memes, and videos share well on Facebook, and quotes, infographics, and tutorial-style images do well on Pinterest. Depending on where you want to grow your audience, keep in mind what does best on each platform. A highly-detailed image explaining pricing for web design might be extremely successful on Pinterest, where long and tall images have the advantage, but cropped and squeezed onto a Facebook feed it won’t do as well.

Crowdsource Visual Content

Some of the most successful social contests involve user-submitted images. In this type of contest, your fans and followers create an original image according to your guidelines and submit it to you. At the same time they share it with their own friends and followers. Their followers see it and may choose to participate as well, expanding the reach of your contest. Even after the contest is over and the prize has been awarded, you have a unique gallery of creative images that followers might enjoy.

To see an example of this, look no further than Colonel Meow’s “Cat Fro” photo album. Since he is one of the most widely-followed cats on Facebook, fans seeking their moment of fame were quick to stick their cat on top of their head, snap a photo, and start submitting images. Even though the collection is no longer being added to, the album is still full of cat afro photos to see and share.

Hopefully these three tips will help you become more visual on social media. Just remember, don’t tell when you can show, create instead of curating at least some of the time, and take advantage of crowdsourcing when possible.

The best social media platform for brands in 2013

A recent study reviewed different brands on social media that had more than 25 fans, abd it looked at the 4 most popular platforms; Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Instagram. The study, carried out by SumAll, revealed that Instagram came out on top, for being the best platform for brands.

SumAll is an analytics tool which analyses over a 100,000 businesses on social networks, checking over 290 billion actions a year. “With increases in fan/follower engagement nearly three times that of other networks studied, Instagram is the clear winner for 2013”, SumAll CEO, Dan Atkinson, said. From here, it sounds as if you have a physical and visual product, you should be on Instagram. Otherwise, you'd be missing out on important brand awareness and revenue.

From the study, you can see that Instagram created more new followers in 2013. Brands which were on Instagram have seen on average a growth of 7% on engagement and new followers. U.S brands on Instagram have also said the platform had created an extra 5% in revenue as well. But this wasn't only isolated to the US brands in the UK have found that Instagram has caused nearly a 4% rise in revenue.

However, Instagram isn't the only platform that is solely with the likes of Tumblr and Pinterest being very popular, with Pinterest being the fastest growing network in 2013 and also being the best network at driving traffic to your desired destination. So next year we could be left with a different leader. It justs shows the popularity of theses picture platforms and how well they are doing.

Many critics will then look to Twitter to see that certain brands have millions of followers and post near enough every hour of the day with a mixture of different content from headlines to photo's. This is where it could be the downfall of Twitter, as many users see their favourite celeb promoting a specific product. From here they will now know that this celebrity is endorsing this product and sending the same message out to a huge amount of followers, however, 9 times out 10 these celebs have been paid to promote that product. Which is something everyone will know.

Platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest have created organic engagement which everyone can see it's not fake, which again makes brands even more popular as they are perceived as being well liked by the public.

So, whatever happens in 2014, in 2013 we have learnt that visual stimulation is a great way to create awareness for your brand. However, you may have different preferred platform for your business. The best way to get results is to experiment until you find out what works best for your brand. This could be posting a different range of content, or something specific. Using several platforms or just using a few. The only way to find out what works best is by trying everything.

InstaChat - Instagram launches Instagram Direct

Instagram announced on its blog yesterday that it was joining the direct message party, allowing users to send messages as well as pictures and videos in private to 15 of their followers. They have jumped on the bandwagon to try and complete with similar platforms such as Snapchat and Whatsapp. But the history of social media suggests it won't be easy at all for Instagram to attract users away from platforms that have had this function.

Facebook revealed the new features on Thursday, showing off the new private messaging features, and 'the extent of its Snapchat envy', as Scott Marlin and USA Today put it. Instagram direct is widely thought to be a reply to the rise of Snapchat. For those that don't know, Snapchat allows friends to send pictures and videos which deletes themselves after a few seconds, similar to the messages Tom Cruise receives in Mission Impossible! But it also begs the question; did Facebook implement this feature as their offer to purchase Snapchat was turned down?

Instagram doesn't directly rip off the Snapchat features, as these pictures that are sent privately won't delete themselves. You can only send the direct message to 15 people as well and they must follow you. Still though it still feels like a response to Snapchat's ever growing popularity and as history suggests it's going to be hard for Instagram to take a chunk out of Snapchats following.

Social media history has proven that once something has been successful, the competitors that try to copy and recreate it, just don't have the same success. For example, look at Google+; this has been Google's most successful attempt at competing with Facebook and, although the amount of users is growing, its still not in the same league. There is a long list of competitors that tried copying what others are doing and that have just failed; the likes of Google Buzz, Yahoo Buzz and Apples Ping have all failed however Ping is being incorporated using Facebook and Twitter.

So the question needing to be asked is why have some of the largest tech companies failed at creating a social network. One suggestion is that online networks grow like offline networks. So just copying what your competitors means you won't get the same audience, nor create the same culture successful networks have been able to create.

But, obviously, we don't know if Instagram Direct will fail; it could be a huge success. What has happened in the past suggests that just copying similar features won't be enough to attract an audience. So this could cause Facebook to go back and try to purchase Snapchat again in 2014; however, it seems Google will be looking into this as well after reportedly having a 4 billion dollar off rejected as well.

Facebook to join S&P 500 index

Facebook joined NASDAQ making its debut on the stock market in May 2012

Just over a year since it featured on NASDAQ, Facebook has joined the S&P 500 index. This index is made up of some the worlds largest firms.

After a poor start in May 2012 on the stock market, with Facebook shares sliding to less than half the price. Which was $38, However they began to recover in the summer of this year. The company has had a troubled path to get to where it is now but after pleasing investors recently and creating better than expected earnings it looks like all the hard work has paid off.

Facebook is now thought to be worth a little over 122 billion dollars. This has prompted them to be promoted to the S&P 500 index, an index which features huge businesses such as Amazon, Expedia and Ford. The success of Facebook has been shown by big clothing label Abercrombie falling off the index.

The Biggest Concerns For All Businesses Using Facebook

One of the biggest concerns that I hear from small business owners when teaching them how to use Facebook is 'What about privacy'.

They're understandably concerned that if they start to market on Facebook, their customers will be able to find their personal profile page with pictures of their children, their wild nights out or their embarrassing hobbies.

As with all things in life, if you take the trouble to learn how to use Facebook properly, the solution to this problem is really simple.

 

Facebook does provide all the controls that you need to use to manage privacy matters fully, and I regularly publish family photos on Facebook, but I lock all my private posts down so that only the people I want to see my content are actually able to view it.

Safe Business Pages Step 1: Don't Use Your Personal Profile

The first step to separating business and personal on Facebook is to set everything up correctly.

That means using your personal profile for family and friends use and your business page for business use.

On a personal profile people have to use 'friend requests' ... you are the gate keeper, nobody can be admitted to your personal profile unless you give them permission.

When you post content on your personal profile, use 'Friends' (not 'Public') as your default post visibility option:

Use lists or 'Custom' to lock down content and don't allow people to 'Follow' you and adjust the privacy settings to be as open or private as you wish:

Safe Business Pages Step 2: Adjust Your Settings

On a business page, anybody can find and 'Like' a page, it is 'public facing' so clearly, you will not use this type of page to publish personal information.

You can still, however, lock down many settings on your business page and you should do so, to get it running the way that you want it:

Safe Business Pages Step 3: Sort Out Your Page Admins

I recommend that every page has at least one additional page admin 'just in case'.

If your personal profile was suspended for any reason, or even deleted in error, if you have a second trusted page admin, you can continue to operate your page whilst sorting out the problem with your own account.

The rule of thumb for giving somebody full admin access is 'would I trust this person with my credit card?'.

If not, don't make them an admin.

The Biggest Facebook Concern - Solved!

I've saved the best until last!

Most businesses worry that because their personal profile is connected to a business page the two are 'linked' in some way.

Well, that's certainly true, but they can be easily unlinked so that there is no connection between a personal profile and business page other than via you as the page admin.

To do this, first go to your business page settings:

Next navigate to the 'Featured' area:

Finally, either add or remove yourself as a featured page owner, as seen below:

In my own business, for reasons of transparency, I am happy to leave my personal profile connected to my business pages.

However, I only do this because my personal profile settings are completely locked down and you will not be able to find my Facebook images and posts in the public domain, so I have assured my privacy that way.

In addition, I only accept as friends people who I know personally, so once again, only people that I know get access to my personal info, and even then, I still protect many posts so that only family or individuals can view them. 

I recommend this approach as I personally feel that it is more transparent for a business, but if this personal/business connection really bothers you, this is how you sever the link.

By only ever posting as yourself or your business page, this way both entities can remain entirely separate.

How To Create Your First Business Page On Facebook

With well over 1 billion users using Facebook, this represents a massive opportunity for all businesses, whatever their size, niche or type.

So how do you get started as a business on Facebook?

Well, the good news is that you really don't need to ship in a team of technical experts ... it's no harder to create a page for your business than it is to create a page for yourself.

Important Alert!

I used to see this problem a lot when I first started using Facebook for marketing in 2009. In the early 'gold rush' days of Facebook, many people used 'cheats' - whether knowingly or not - that are against Facebook's terms and conditions.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms

The key points here are:

• You should only have one personal profile
• That personal profile should use your real name
• You should use Facebook pages for your business, not your personal profile

I see it much less frequently these days, but I have met several people now who built their business on a personal profile only to have it terminated without mercy by Facebook - and losing all their followers in the process!

I think Facebook users are much better informed about the dangers these days ... but just in case, make sure that you do this correctly!

Step-By-Step Guide

Creating your first business page is simple ... and remember, it's also free.

Step 1: Log in to your Facebook account

Step 2: Click on the menu link on the top right hand side of the page, then select the 'create page' option:

Step 3: You will now be presented with the options below. Usually you'll select one of the three highlighted options, whichever is most suitable for your business.

Do not use a brand name unless you own that brand or have paid for official licensing rights.

Take care and advice also if creating a page that is based around a music star, celebrity, TV programme or something similar.

You need to make very clear that you are not acting in any official capacity and also take note that you may be required to remove your site if you misrepresent or pass yourself off as 'official' in any way.

Step 4: Read and accept Facebook's Terms And Conditions for business pages.

These are pretty brief and straightforward, but it's time well spent learning what is and is not permissible.

My view on this is it would be a terrible thing to build up a brilliant community on Facebook only to lose it all because you didn't follow a few simple rules.

Step 5: Make sure that you complete the page information section fully because this is where you can make the most of Facebook as a brilliant SEO power tool.

Tip: You should make sure that (without keyword stuffing!) your keywords are included in the description area.

Depending on your business type, you might even use your geographical location here.

Make sure that you add your web site links to (this is how you drive Facebook web traffic to your main site) and take great care when selecting your unique Facebook web address too.

These are difficult to change but, most importantly, you get to ride on the coat tails of the 2nd most popular web site in the universe, make sure it counts for your SEO purposes!

Step 6: Add your profile picture.

Remember that these are displayed quite small most of the time, so make sure that it works well in your Timeline feed.

For businesses, it's fine to use a professional face picture if you're the 'face' of your business, but logos are fine too.

Step 7: Add your page to your 'Favourites' for future easy access or just 'Skip' for now:

Step 8: Skip ad creation for now!

I don't recommend that you promote your new business page until you have some decent content to share.

At the moment your page looks a little sparse, so keep it quiet for a little while longer.

Step 9: Add a cover image to really make your business page stand out.

This needs to be 851 pixels wide and 315 pixels tall.

You can use a photograph for this or use a service like TimelineCoverBanner.com.

That's it, you're done!

You have just created your first business page on Facebook.