Good morning!
On July 24th, 2013, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg announced there are almost 18 million business pages on Facbook and 1 million are being added every *month*.
Broken down that would be around:
- 33,333 pages created every day
- 1,368 created every hour
- 23 created every minute
- 1 created every 3 seconds or so
Now, true, this “business page” count does include every page category. But still, wise businesses (and individuals!) are already taking advantage of this. Facebook makes it so easy for to connect with your customers; using it is just plain common sense.
Are *you* doing so yet??
Facebook Business Pages have the wondrously glorious social advantage in that they allow *anyone* to build thriving communities of rabid fans. Depending upon your topic (business, brand, irrational passion, mooses, etc.) you can quickly grow the number of ‘likes’, thus helping you get the word out about your business.
One of the best roadmaps I’ve found for this is Facebook Demystified: The 10 Critical Components Of A Viral Fan Page by Don Wilson; he has been fine-tuning the art of Facebook Business Pages for popular and/or newsworthy topics for over a year now. I used his techniques myself to build:
- I Love Moosies – 37K likes
- I Support Gun Rights – almost 100K likes
Keep in mind these pages are for individual community passions and NOT business pages for businesses. Still, though, these techniques can be applied to businesses; witness the “Boycott Rolling Stone Magazine for their latest cover” 170K Business Page that blew up in under 24 hours after the Rolling Stone Magazine put the Boston Marathon Bomber on their cover.
That Facebook page gained national news attention, which then drove more individuals to check out Rolling Stone.
Go figure.
The point to remember however is that Facebook is home to millions and millions of users, all who have their particular passions, favorite brands and more. It’s an excellent way for businesses to grow their social reach.
Intrigued yet? If you do not have a Facebook business page, here are some excellent resources to help you begin your journey.
- How to Set Up A Facebook Business Page for Business
- Optimizing your small business page for Facebook Graph Search
- Evaluate Your Facebook Page With This Simple Checklist
- How Humans Of New York Went Viral On Facebook
Major business publications also discuss Facebook as well.
Consider these articles from Forbes:
- Could Facebook Revolutionize Your Business?
- So Much For That Mobile Problem–Facebook’s Mobile Ads Jump In Q2
- Facebook Reality Challenge
Consider these articles from Inc:
- 6 Best Things Companies Do On Facebook Today
- 5 Worst Things Companies Do On Facebook Today
- Facebook – What You Are Doing Wrong
Consider these articles from Entrepreneur:
- As Facebook Hashtags Roll Out, What This Will Mean For Marketers
- The 10 Essentials For Facebook Etiquette
- The Best Days To Post On Facebook
It’s a fact. Smart businesses *use* Facebook.
Don’t stop just with Facebook however – Google+ is fast growing their social network as well! That will be the topic of another article soon…
Remember, your fans are *out* there in social media. Proactively reach out and engage them. Your bottom line will thank you for it.
Grow strong,
Barbara Ling