How Businesses Become Fans With 70 million Facebook Users?

Here are some quick stats on Facebook which should be of interest to businesses:

1. More than 70 million active users worldwide
   
   
2. More than 65 billion pages view per month
   
   
3. Over 55,000 regional, work-related, collegiate, and high school networks
   
   
4. The fastest growing demographic is those 25 years old and older

See Facebook statistics for more recent info.

Though Facebook started in the student demographic, it is quickly growing out of it. So, my guess is that if you have a product or service offering, chances are that at least a few of those 70 million active users (which spend about 20 minutes a day on the site) are prospective customers of your business. The question is how can you make use of that?

Until recently, only big businesses with big marketing budgets could setup a Facebook account for their companies and/or brands. Examples included Verizon, Walmart, Victoria's Secret and other well known companies. For these brands, Facebook users could become "fans" by adding the brand as a friend (much like they would add a person as a friend). This was pretty cool, but pretty expensive for those companies that wanted to tap into this feature.

Now, any business can create a Facebook profile, or business page, which any Facebook user can become a "fan" of. You no longer have to be a Fortune 500 company to afford this. It is completely free, so why not?

This is how to do it:

Creating A Facebook Business Page

1. Visit this URL: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php
   
   
2. Decide what the best category is for your business. (Spend a couple of minutes on this as you might find difficult to change it later).
   
   
3. Enter your business/product/brand name and click "Create Page".
   
   
4. At a minimum, enter a short description of your business and a website address. This is in the "Add Information To This Page" area. Also, remember to upload your logo as a photo/image to capture more attention from your fans.
   
   
5. Click on your business name in the top left corner (it is a hyperlink) and then click "publish this page" (until you do this, nobody but you will be able to see your new Facebook business profile).
   
   
6. Finally, and the most important, from your new profile page, click "Add to my products". This way, you become the first "fan" of your business.
   
   

Now comes the fun part. Once you've become a "fan" of your business, your friends on Facebook (some of which are likely customers) will see a message in their home page showing in your mini-feed news saying "XXX (Your friend) is a fan of XYZ (product)". Hopefully, some of your Facebook friends will befriend your business. Then, their friends will see a message, and so it goes…

If you want to create a Facebook business page , you can check out Facebook Pages. In fact, you can also browse other businesses and add as a friend (once you visit the page, click on the "Add Product" link in the right column). Vice versa, if you want to exit, simply go to the bottom left corner of the page and click “Remove me from fans”. Now, you will be missing three benefits of becoming a fan: One, the positive glow of good karma. Two, express your loyalty and gratitude of the page. Third, receive no more updates about your page.

Any questions? Feel free to leave comments.