Facebook Pages

Do you like bananas? I know, I like bananas, too! Hey, do you want to mind your own business? Wait, wait, wait, wait! I mean on Facebook! You see, if you run a business or an organization, Facebook is a simple way to create a strong online presence, so let's get down to business... monkey business. Life is crazy. I mean, who has time to keep up with all the latest in social networking? I'm Carley Knobloch, and if you stick with me, I'll show you all the tech tools you need to get socially connected. You may already have a Facebook profile, but that doesn't cut it when it comes to representing your business. For that, you need a Facebook page. Here's one I'm bananas about. It's my friend's company, and I'm going to show you how she set up her page. Go to the 'Create Page' link on Facebook, and then you'll be walked through a few simple steps. Choose what kind of business you are, and start to fill in your business profile. Here, she lets her customers know what she does. In this case, she's the premiere purveyor of primate playthings. Say that three times fast. Your page is only as good as the information you put in it, so don't leave people guessing when it comes to your hours, your location, or even your website. And now, the real showstopper: your graphics. Upload your logo, because this is what people will see when you post. It will also help people remember your brand, and make you easily recognizable online. Then, choose a cover photo. That's that big image that goes across the top of your page, where you can make the biggest impact, so don't monkey around when it comes to choosing one. Except in this case. Facebook recommends this as the ideal dimensions for your cover photo, but if you're not sure how to do that, just make sure the resolution of your image is high enough that it won't look blurry, and not so big that it takes forever for your page to load. And while it may look like a billboard, Facebook won't allow you to put ads, website information, or coupons up here, so just stick with a nice 'welcome to my page' kind of thing and move on. Okay, just a few more steps and your page is going to be ready to go. On your personal account, you may be very selective about who can see what, but pages are for businesses, so adjust your settings so that everything is public. For instance, it's a good idea to let people write on your Wall so they can engage with you, and you'll want to active your subscribe option, so people can see all your updates in their News Feed. Now to spread the word, you can ask your Facebook friends to start liking your business page, because when they do that, all of their friends see, and they might want to know what makes you so darn likeable. Of course this is all about drumming up interest in your business, so let your followers know about sales, coupons, or events. Plus, it's a great idea to reward them with exclusive deals. Turns out people like saving monkey... I mean, money. And here's a tip: if you want a specific post to take center stage, click this star under the pencil to expand it to the full width of the page, and if you want to keep it up top, you just use this pin to top option, and it'll stay up top for a full week. Lastly, once you're all set up, you can use your admin panel to manage your page. From there, you can check updates, exchanges messages, and see who has liked your business. Just remember: it's important not to talk at your customers, but to really engage with them on Facebook. They don't call it a social network for nothing! Speaking of which, make sure you keep the conversation going by liking our eHow Facebook page, and for other Facebook tutorials, check out the rest of the series at eHow Tech. So now that you know how to create a business page on Facebook, it's time to swing into action. Whoa! Bye! That's one fast little monkey.