I’ve just finished writing Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies with two fabulous co-authors (Amy Porterfield and Phyllis Khare) and we’ve been neck-deep in Facebook for the last 9 months.
For a platform that’s used by hundreds of millions of people, Facebook can be kind of … complicated. Particularly if you use it for business. So let’s get you some specific how-to advice so you can get rolling without getting frustrated.
So how do you get your Page started? And how do you get more people to Like your Page? What are the best ways to use Facebook and how can you measure your progress?
The questions go on and on, and I’m about to answer a lot of them, with a little help from some friends.
It’s all here, eat up …
Gimme the big picture …
Facebook 101: A Simple Guide to Understanding When & How to Use Basic Features
On Search Engine Land, Greg Finn breaks down the different aspects of Facebook such as Profiles, Groups, Pages, Places, and Events.
Setting up your Facebook Account
Facebook 101 for Business: Your Complete Guide
Mari Smith gets you started with reviewing your profile, making a friends list, and adjusting your privacy settings. Then she dives into looking at Facebook Pages. This is a great overview post on Social Media Examiner.
Facebook Privacy and Security
How to Protect Your Privacy with Facebook’s New Privacy Settings in 17 Easy Steps
Sara Ines Calderon provides a great overview of some of the latest Privacy settings on Inside Facebook. Make sure you control who can see your personal information.
Set up “Login Approvals” 2-step account security on Facebook?
Concerned about someone swiping your password while you are surfing Facebook at Starbucks? Ask Dave Taylor outlines how to use Facebook’s login approvals, which require an additional numeric code only when you try to log in to your account from a computer that Facebook’s never seen you use before.
Why Use Facebook for Business?
11 Mind-Blowing Reasons Your Company Needs Facebook
Jay Baer of Convince and Convert will blow your mind … in general and in this post. Some of the numbers are a little out-of-date, but that just means the reasons have become more mind-blowing.
Top 10 Reasons You Should Have a Fan Page
Kim Garst provides some compelling numbers and reasons why your business should have a Fan Page.
R.I.P. 3 Ways Facebook is Killing Your Website
Another great post by Jay Baer where he drives home the need for Facebook. But be careful, as he says, and don’t become what Copyblogger calls a “digital sharecropper” — don’t build your future on rented land.
Setting up your Facebook Page
How to Set Up a Facebook Page
Laura Drell takes you by the hand and leads you through the Page set up process on the American Express Open Forum. You will find lots of good screenshots so that you know you are on the right track.
How To Set Up The Vanity Url For Your Facebook Fan Page
Once you get 25 “Likes” on your Facebook Page, you need to go out and grab a custom URL for your Facebook Page. Your URL will be easier to remember, branded to your company, and much shorter! Nicole Simone of Cruel to Be Kind shows you how.
Getting People to Like Your Page
21 Creative Ways To Increase Your Facebook Fanbase
Mari Smith gives some smart ways to increase your Likes on Social Media Examiner.
Business 101: How to Get People to LIKE You – Tips on Building Your Facebook Fan Base
In this post on MOMeo Magazine, I give you seven tips on how to increase your Likers (or Fans … just what is a Liker anyway?).
How to Get More Likes For Your Facebook Page (The Easy Way!)
Dave Charest shares a quick thing you can do to make it easier for your Facebook Friends to like your page.
10 simple ways to grow your Facebook Page
Rob Dickens covers some organic ways to grow your page so you aren’t your only Liker.
Why I Don’t Like Your Brand on Facebook
My favorite quote from this guest post by Andrew Blakeley on Brian Solis’s blog is: “This morning my yoghurt told me to find it on Facebook. It didn’t tell me why, it just told me to find it. Why on Earth would I want to find a yoghurt on Facebook? It’s a yoghurt!” Give people a reason to Like you.
Setting up a Welcome Page
How To Build A Facebook Landing Page With iFrames
Francisco Rosales from Social Mouths takes you by the hand to help you create your very own Facebook iFrame application. This is not for the faint of heart, since you will have to become a verified Facebook Developer and design your own web page. Don’t worry, though … Francisco makes it easy.
Tutorial: Add an iFrame Application to your Facebook Fan Page – 2011 Edition
Tim Ware at HyperArts is a great resource if you are going to build your own iFrame Application. Not only that, he has a very nice easy iFrame application called TabPress if you don’t want to build your own.
How to Make a Custom Facebook Page Tab With Iframes
If you need more reference material on how to create your own Facebook iFrame Application, Kim Woodbridge of (Anti) Social Development also takes you through the steps.
How to Add the Wildfire iFrame Application to Your Facebook Page
If you don’t want to create a custom application yourself for your Welcome Page, there are lots of third-party applications that make adding a Welcome Page easy. All you need is some graphics and you can have a custom page installed in minutes. I show you how in this post.
3 Tools to Create New Facebook iFrame Pages
Paul Chaney of Practical eCommerce covers three of my favorite third-party iFrame applications: Wildfire, Involver and Static HTML: iframe tabs. All very easy to use and allow either a graphic or HTML code to create your Welcome Page.
Facebook Groups
Facebook Groups vs. Facebook Pages – Which Is Best?
Great post by Mari Smith on the differences between using a Facebook Group for your business or a Facebook Page. She suggests using both, but I believe the Facebook Page is the better choice if you are going to pick one. Facebook Groups are nice for some things but the Page has more advantages.
New Facebook Groups Could Be Big for Business
How can you use Groups for business? John Jantsch at Duct Tape Marketing gives you some ideas.
Facebook Events
HOW TO: Organize an Event on Facebook
Creating a Facebook Event can be a great way to get the word out about your open house, sale, book signing or other business event. Josh Catone takes you through the steps. Note that the Message guests feature is not available now when you create your event on your Facebook Page.
Creating the Perfect Facebook Event — Part One
When, What and Where are some of the basics that Alex Smith covers in this post.
Creating the perfect Facebook event — Part Two
More info and how to use the invitations are covered in part two of Alex Smith’s post.
Six Ways To Effectively Promote Events on Facebook — Case Study
Don’t stop at just creating a Facebook Event. Mari Smith gives other ways to use Facebook to promote it, such as share buttons, comment plugins, and more.
Facebook Lets Users Check In to Events via the Touch Site, Soon the iPhone
Combine the Facebook Place “check-in” concept with your event to draw more attention to your event. Josh Constine gives you the low-down on Inside Facebook.
10 Facebook Events Gone Wrong
Just be careful when you create your event that you are prepared for the viral nature of Facebook. Julius Solaris outlines 10 Facebook disasters. Most of them involved free booze.
Facebook Mobile with Places and Deals
New Data: 33% of Facebook Posting is Mobile
Dan Zarrella is a social media scientist. I don’t know if he’s mad, but he sure has good data. Facebook Mobile usage is increasing, which is a good reason to use Places and Deals to your advantage.
A Field Guide to Using Facebook Places
If you have an actual physical storefront, you may want to consider setting up a Facebook Place where people can check in. Mashable gives you the big picture.
Facebook Deals Review
Facebook Deals were touted as the “Groupon-killer” by many blogs and news outlets when Facebook officially launched the Deals service in April. So far, so good … for Groupon. But don’t count Deals out; Ignite Social Media shows what Deals look like and where they live on Facebook.
Introducing Deals
Facebook’s own blog gives a very good overview of how to use the new Deals features.
Adding Facebook Applications
Top 75 Apps for Enhancing Your Facebook Page
In this post on Social Media Examiner, Mari Smith gives you the top 75 Facebook Apps. Which is plenty. You don’t have to use them all.
Add YouTube to Your Facebook Page
Laura Roeder shows you how easy it is to add your YouTube channel to your Facebook Page. There are several YouTube applications out there, but she demonstrates the best one in her video: the Involver application.
NetworkedBlogs is the App of Choice for Bloggers
Denise Wakeman of Build a Better Blog did an informal poll and found that most bloggers use NetworkedBlogs to automatically import their blogs posts. I do like it for automation, but Facebook hides some of the automated posts that come in from NetworkedBlogs in the News Feed. So manually posting your blog post is better in the long run.
Appbistro
It can be challenging to find the right app to use since Facebook’s own search function is not that hot. Appbistro is a good place to find apps that can help.
Big Companies on Facebook
The 15 Most Popular Brands On Facebook
Number of fans is not the only thing that matters — it’s also how engaged they are. Business Insider takes a look at the numbers for the top 15 brands.
8 Brands That Have Found Success on Facebook & What We Can Learn
Dave Kerpen of Likeable gives us a concrete lesson from 8 big brands that we can implement right away in this Mashable post.
26 Facebook Fan Page Examples in Detail
Over on the Ignite Social Media Blog, Lisa Braziel is dissecting 26 big brands on Facebook to show you exactly what they are doing. Follow this series of posts for some great ideas.
25 brilliant examples of Facebook brand pages
Jake Hird covers 25 brands that are doing a good job on Facebook on Econsultancy.
Small Companies on Facebook
Two thirds of small business owners use Facebook for marketing
Baaaa. Should we be sheep? ZDNet dissects some recent stats from a survey of 1,132 small businesses on Facebook.
Top 5 Facebook Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses Make
I think everyone needs to read this post by Leyl Master Black. I see these mistakes in small, medium, and large businesses.
B-to-B Companies on Facebook
10 Examples of B2B Facebook Fan Pages
Business-to-business can be a little trickier on Facebook. You are searching for a more specific niche audience. In Social Media B2B, Jeffery Cohen gives examples of companies that are doing well (kudos to the updated numbers).
7 Awesome B2B Facebook Pages
Yet another great post by HubSpot. This time they cover what makes these B2B Pages special.
Non-profits on Facebook
Facebook Business Tips for Nonprofits
Rebecca Leaman helps answer questions for non-profits such as whether to use a Group or a Page, and how to set a social media policy.
Best Practices
Altimeter Report: The 8 Success Criteria For Facebook Page Marketing
Download this 27 page report from Jeremiah Owyang and devour it. The report is filled with concrete examples on how brands can market, graphs and charts on how brands are performing, and great tips for any sized business on how to be successful on Facebook.
The Difference Between Engaged and Engaging
Even if you are posting often, you may still be doing it wrong. Danny Brown shows a concrete example of the best way to be engaging on Facebook.
Are You Asking The Wrong Questions On Facebook?
Amy Porterfield shares that the best way to create engagement on Facebook is to ask interesting, thought-provoking questions. She tells us how to make sure we are not asking the wrong questions.
Make Your Facebook Page Posts Count
How do you attract people to interact with your posts? John Porcaro not only gives a great list of best practices such as keeping it short, adding a link and delivering value but he also shows some concrete examples of posts that catch his eye.
5 Tips To Drive Engagement With Your Fans On Facebook
Jeff Bullas tells us not to beg for Likes, but get them naturally through engagement with these five tips.
Advertising on Facebook
Facebook Ads 101 – How to Set up and Track Facebook Ads
Facebook ads can be targeted to a very specific demographic which make them a very powerful tool. Subliminal Pixels has a great overview on getting started with Facebook Advertising.
The How-To Guide For Facebook Advertising
If you use Facebook ads, make sure you are identifying your goals, understanding the cost structure and measuring your results. Anthony Piwarun gives the low-down on these steps in a guest post on Social Media Explorer.
Guide to Facebook Ads
Facebook would like to encourage you to spend money with them in this comprehensive overview of how Facebook Ads works. Tongue-in-cheek aside, it’s a good guide to all the pieces of the ad campaign.
Running a Contest on Facebook
The unofficial guide to Facebook’s terms and conditions
There is a lot of confusion around running a contest on Facebook. Mostly because many people are doing it wrong. Lauren Fisher of Simply Zesty gives us the guide to Facebook’s Contest rules in this post.
Facebook Promotions: What You Need to Know
Another gem by Mari Smith, although she doesn’t mention Woobox in her list of contest applications, which I have used and liked.
Selling on Facebook
16 Facebook Marketing Strategies
A good rundown of different apps you can use to market your business on Facebook by Top One SEO blog.
Why it’s important to set up a Facebook store
Have stuff to sell? Set up a storefront on Facebook. The Next Web tells you why.
4 Ways to Set Up a Storefront on Facebook
Four great apps to use to sell your wares on Facebook are covered on Mashable. I use Payvment myself.
Facebook ROI
Facebook Marketing ROI: 3 Case Studies
Brian Carter shows us in his Search Engine Journal post three small business examples of how Facebook Ads generated at least 300% ROI and higher for these cases.
Your Brand Has Thousands of Facebook Fans–What Is the ROI?
Steve Kerho on Fast Company answers the question everyone is asking: What is the ROI?
10 Measures of Social Media ROI for Your Brand
Neil Glassman on the Social Times site urges us not to declare our success based on readily available metrics (such as Likes), but to focus on the metrics that are truly relevant to our business. Good advice.
Don’t Stop There
5 things you can do to spice up your Facebook Page
Make it spicy! Ayelet Noff tells us how on Socialmedia.biz.
How to use Facebook insights to identify core supporters
John Haydon goes through the steps to using Facebook insights in a meaningful way in this YouTube video. He mentions in the video that the insights he is covering aren’t available for Pages with less than 10,000 fans, but that has changed and the stats he covers are now available.
Are you full yet?
Yes, there are endless things to know about Facebook. So if you really want to know almost everything, you may have to buy my book — it’s 720 pages long. And even that doesn’t cover it all.
Got your own favorite Facebook resources? Link them up for us all in the comments!
Reader Comments (220)
Wow. This is quite an extensive list. Thanks for taking all that time out to provide us with all of this useful information. Facebook has proven to be a very useful social platform for sharing content and spreading the word and I’m sure all of this content will be a huge contributor to the success of the rest of us.
Happy to help Patrick!
Thanks for this amazing article. Added lots of RSS feeds and nice resources…finally can say that I can track the Social Media news more or less well…Was stuck with Mashable for a long time but I can see that there are better and more practical sites.
Thanks Andrea!!
That’s so nice to share all those links on Facebook! Seriously, I started my page not long ago it really s*cks… Now, I’ll have all the information to make it better and useful! Thank you so much!
You are welcome Marie, and I’m sure your page isn’t as bad as you say 🙂
This list is pretty intense! I have yet to do any dedicated Facebook marketing campaigns (unless it escapes me at the moment), but I think I may take a shot at a few after reading this!
Facebook is a great place to be – thanks Dewane!
Great list of resources man!
You really are neck deep in Facebook. It’s nice to see a wide range of sites where you received your great information from.
This is a great collection.
Thanks David!
Outstanding resource Andrea!! You found some of the very best resources I’ve seen on Facebook topics and so many more. I only wish there had been more juicy links… LOL!
Love every bit of this and am sharing right now!!
Thanks Lori – it’s hard to keep these posts on Facebook current!
Holy Crap! Let me take the next month to digest it all.
Don’t eat it all at once 🙂
This is one seriously great resource!
Have bookmarked this for future reference.
I did too. There are many useful information. Facebook, as one of the top social network, proven itself in many ways. Surprisingly it connect people for business and pleasure.
Can I add a suggestion?
If you add a name to the fan page, you’ll get a LOT more likes.
More info: http://www.viperchill.com/facebook-fan-page/
Nice one, Glen. Your post gave me a couple of good ideas.
Glen: Great post and great resource!
Nice Glen! I’ve bookmarked that one too. Always good things to learn!
Hi Glen,
Correct me if I’m wrong here, but for people that didn’t get Facebook’s Static FBML app installed before March when Facebook switched to Iframes, they will not be able to access the data required to display the visitors name.
I used your fan page code and graphic before Facebook switched to Iframes and it worked great, and I assume it still would. However, since I plan on adding custom Facebook page design as one of my services, I didn’t want to show a “feature” that is no longer available. For the time being, I am still using a modified version of your background graphic on my page at http://www.facebook.com/web101marketing/. Thanks!
Thanks so much for compiling this terrific list – I’m bookmarking it for easy access so that I can forward it to friends and colleagues who are looking for advice on where to get started. You don’t know how much time you’ve saved me!
Glad to help Tracy!
Wow, I’m impressed. This is one of those eminently bookmark-worthy posts that folks will be referring to and sharing far into the future, I’m pretty sure. One thing I’d like more DIY online marketers (that is, solo and small business owners who are in charge of their own marketing efforts and execute most of it themselves) to realize is that FB and Twitter are best thought of as supporting channels, that should be bringing traffic TO your central site or blog, not end destinations in and of themselves. So while they should be made attractive, with unique content and engagement at all levels (in both cases, but more so Facebook), they should never divert traffic away from your main site/blog but be designed with the purpose in mind: bring these people to the website, where the content you’re offering will continue to (A) build your authority and credibility, (B) give your targeted readers/potential clients what they’re looking for, and (C) move them progressively down the marketing funnel towards ultimate conversion. That being said:
Dudes, I’m totally bookmarking this epic post.
I agree, Annie. Your website should always be your main focus but Facebook and Twitter other social sites can be where people really connect with you on a personal level. Thanks!
Exactly! Well done, and completely worthy of all the piled-up praise it’s getting, Andrea. Truly epic.
Wow – what a great list of resources! I have a fan page set up, but I’ll admit, I’m guilty of not putting a lot of effort into it. It’s definitely a priority for me in the next few months, though!!!
One thing that’s confusing for me – I have “Sarah Russell” the personal page and “Common Sense Marketing” the fan page. Which one should I be promoting? Are people more likely to connect with one versus the other?
Thanks for a great post!
Sarah, I think you should be promoting your Common Sense Marketing Page more. People are usually more likely to connect with a Fan Page if they don’t know you personally because they may not want to give you access to their personal photos and posts. But do use your personal page to connect to business people you meet as well. I recommend using your personal page for a combination of business and personal updates.
This is just as awesome as your Ultimate Guide to Twitter post! Another great resource and reference, thanks!
Talk about comprehensive, what a great compilation of info in one place. Thank you to everyone that contributed their insights to this incredible resource!
Marketer, small biz owner, social media maven, it doesn’t matter – this is a MUST READ for anyone using Facebook to further their goals.
With this list there are no more NO excuses for NOT doing a great job using Facebook as an effective marketing tool. (Except for the time deficit!) Amazing and overwhelming all at the same time. Jodi
Thanks for the Facebook info! Been wanting to rev it up over there. Look forward to your book coming out.
Thanks Gabrielle!
Well done Andrea, well done… This is a big enough list to keep me busy the rest of the week (heck, the rest of the month).
Thanks Ricardo!
Thank you for the treasure chest of resources Andrea! Like many here, I’ve bookmarked this to come back and dive as I can use each gem.
You are welcome Rikk!
Awesome list of resources! I need to get more into working with Facebook – this looks like it has some great inspiration for doing just that!
Thanks Kristi! Love all your posts on Twitter, blogging, and SEO among all your other great topics!
I just wet myself.
This is a Brilliant Facebook Rodeo~!
Janet you crack me up 🙂
I’m having this web-addy tattooed on my ass so I’ma nevah forget it~!
Would we call that a Book-Mark?
Wow! This is an awesome resource.
Thanks for putting it together – I’ve already picked up a few great ideas from some of the articles.
Wow – just wow! I work with facebook pages on a regular basis, and a lot of this I knew, however, there was a lot on here that really opened my eyes. Thanks so much for such a comprehensive list of articles. It’s going to take me a week to get through it all but I know it will be worth it 🙂
Wow, thanks so much Andrea! I’ll admit that I’m especially confused by Facebook welcome pages, but I’m hoping this article should help clear that up. I’ll need to bookmark this one as it’s so in depth and come back later to trawl through all these great looking resources.
Glad to help Tom!
Andrea,
I like hanging out on FB every once in a while and seeing what my friends on FB are up to, but I dread the thought of trying to build business there. It feels like a walled garden. An AOL from the stone ages of the Internet. And they they change the rules on you -again.
FB is a steep mountain that I don’t want to climb. Thankfully, I have friends on the trail and a great guidebook like this one to help lead the way.
Thanks for compiling this monumental list. I will be visiting often.
Best,
David Bourne
David, don’t get discouraged or freaked out by the walled garden of FB (which is a really, really good analogy, to be honest). The downside (if you can even call it that) of a post as comprehensive as this is that it makes the subject look intimidatingly huge and complex.
Instead, think of it like a trip to a foreign country. You can go and play tourist for a day or two, see the main sites, chill in a cafe or two – which is a lovely experience in and of itself. You can go for a week and see some more of the popular places, maybe sneak into a local pub or two – also a great experience. Or you can move there for a year, learn the language, pay your taxes there, become a local — also a great experience. Just a different one.
Start with the day trip. Move on to the permanent residency when you’re ready and IF your business could profit from it. That’s the great thing about Facebook: you can go shallow and still get results, and when you’re ready to build more, it’s there for you to experiment with. Posts like this one are the Lonely Planet Guidebooks of the social media marketing world. 😉
David, yes I know it can be scary but it is addictive once you get started 🙂 I know you are on Twitter more but I do like the threaded conversations you can have on Facebook with your community. Come to the dark side 🙂
David, Facebook isn’t a place to build a business. It’s a place to attract traffic back to your own site and business.
Remember that, and it all starts to make more sense.
Right on~!
Hi Brian,
I loved what you said so much that I quoted it here: http://learnoutlive.com/why-you-shouldnt-base-your-business-or-your-online-experience-on-facebook-only/
🙂
have a great day,
André
Agreed — you’re not setting up your business inside the walled garden (which would be a bad idea), you’re just putting a cute little booth up there where you can meet potential new customers and chat with them and give them ways to come find out more about you.
I’d forgotton how good Coppyblogger was, you have some fantastic FB Information here, I’ll bookmark it and read it bit by bit.
I agree FB is a great place to market but you do have to watch out for distractions – there’s so much going on! and another thing: I wish I got as many business contacts as I do romantic propositions! lol …Louise : )
Too funny Louise! Yes what is up with those odd guys wanting to connect because they found our profiles so attractive? It does require discipline to keep your focus.
@Brian @Sonia and @Whoever from Copyblogger. Do note this is not just a casual thanks nice post kindaa comment. I have checked out a few articles and I believe this monster list is actually Very Very useful resource. Hence thanks for the same. Do encourage more of such stuff probably on Twitter, LinkedIn, GA, SEO, etc etc. Thanks a ton!
Thanks Himanshu! Every link in this list was carefully chosen for it’s usefulness! Make sure you check out the Copyblogger post on the Ultimate Guide to Twitter here: https://copyblogger.com/ultimate-twitter/ It is also awesome!
Thanks for the headsup Andrea. Sorry forgot to mention your name in the earlier comment. I very much appreciate your effort in compiling the best of the best articles. Will look forward to more such series in future. TC
WOW! Thanks so much!
Just when I thought I was getting a handle on Facebook… Wow.
Discouraging and encouraging all at once!
Conrad, don’t worry – take small bites 🙂
The “20 examples of Great Facebook Pages” was my favorite out of all of these!
It’s kind of a way to reverse engineer so that even if you’re a beginner you see the puzzle top picture of how it should look when you’re done. A ton of the other posts here give you the reason why you need the pieces of the puzzle and then some explain why the puzzle needs to be spread out on your table in the first place.
This, like the Ultimate Twitter guide is gonna be another one of those posts that should get a ton of love on the webz because it helps any and everyone interested in using this platform. And once again I appreciate the quick snapshot of what the article covers. I hate doing those! If you do a good one they can take FOREVER! Hahaha!
Thanks Andrea for doing the leg work to find all of this awesomeness! I imagine you and the person who did the Twitter post have a ninja method for finding all of it. Would love to see that someday. 🙂
Thanks Lewis – I liked that link too! The ninja work included a lot of bookmarking over a long period as well as knowing exactly what I wanted to share.
Wow. This is a wonderful list. Now if I can carefully write a post linking to this for my SMB SEO clients. Thanks Brian and crew.
Glen, thanks for sharing too.
Thanks for the link here guys. The one thing that I would say even looking at the list above is that there is so much to take in with Facebook that most people get a little confused and are not sure where to start. It’s a big complicated sprawling platform with lots of moving parts but if you just take baby steps (starting your own page is a good one) it actually gets a lot easier as time goes on.
Great advice Niall. You don’t have to learn all this at once. Do the first thing, get that down, then take the next step.
Andrea,
You must be psychic. I just filled in my profile at Facebook and here you come just in the nick of time.
What a relief to have you and your wonderful friends produce this battery of information that will raise us out out of the quagmire of the Facebook Maze. I really appreciate what you, Copyblogger and your friends have done for us to help us understand and properly utilize Facebook.
As soon as I can, I hope to get Scribe as a token payback for all your efforts. Thank you, again for writing such an informative and thoughtful article.
Kindest regards,
Stan R.
So glad to help Stan! Good luck with your ventures into the wonderful world of Facebook
I was reading this excellent post through feedburner and i noticed that copyblogger is not using cannonical tags.
Tsktsktsk
I’ve been dismissing Facebook for years as a viable tool because I didn’t really understand its’ relevance in the business world. Thanks for this great tool and reference to get me over my mental hump!
Wow this is a list and a half, perhaps this will help to install faith in using Facebook for business purposes again, thanks.
Hey thanks! These are some great blog posts you got here. I actually needed some help on getting more people to ‘like’ my page. This was a big help!
Great aggregation of timely content regarding FaceBook. Many of us will find this immediately applicable. Thanks for posting!
Ronald Sieber
Brian,
You say:
“Facebook isn’t a place to build a business. It’s a place to attract traffic back to your own site and business”.
But how does that relate to the people who are thinking of setting up facebook shopping carts?
Cheers Ron
Hi Ron – I do think you can sell on Facebook and set up a storefront but I think your own website is still the best place to sell. Your website is more flexible and it’s your own. Some people are asking if they should dump their websites and only use Facebook. I think that’s a bad idea. You don’t want Facebook to call the shots on your destiny.
Hi Andrea,
Yes i see what you mean,
cheers,
Ron
Haha I hate Facebook so much. I started a fan page a week ago. Gonna go public with it eventually I guess. You have to get 50 likes before you get your own url. So it’s embarrassing when you first start out.
It’s ok to hate Facebook Martyn 🙂 You actually only need 25 likes to get your own url. Everyone has to start somewhere.
Oh good, I’ll send an email asking dudes to like it. Only need to convert like .5% and I’m off the to races.
Thanks!
There’s also that whole “social proof” thing – don’t want to publicize until you have some traction. @Martyn – I kinda hate Facebook, too, but it’s actually a LOT better for referral traffic than Twitter (for me, anyway). It’s worth the investment, especially since over half the content shared online is done via Facebook. GREAT for marketers and bloggers.
Holy crap that’s a big list! Fantastic work guys this one will come in very handy.
Excellent timing Andrea!
I’ve been working away on a site on how to build fan pages from the ground up, so this is some great fodder for me to look at and incorporate into my project.
I find that people seem to be the most confused when it comes to setting up a custom fan page tab, and I really wanted to look into this so I can help people out.
People see the word “iFrame” and they freak out. I totally understand why; computer code is not for the faint hearted at all and it takes alot of time to get your head around it. Web developers are loving it at the moment, and consequently they are milking it for all it’s worth while they can. I’m not a fan of that at all.
Little do peole know that they can use WordPress, especially the Genesis and Thesis themes, to create a professional looking custom fan page tab. And without all the crazy code!
I’m currently playing around with ‘Premise’ for creating a custom fan page tab and it’s looking pretty good so far 🙂
Em
That sounds great Amelia – yes iFrame is a scary word.
I was just starting to look into custom fan pages earlier this year and I was SO glad to see Facebook making the decision to drop FBML and go to IFrames. It actually makes things a lot simpler and more flexible to be able to use HTML and CSS instead of having to learn another language specifically for Facebook.
Thanks for an awesome resource Andrea! The article content actually lives up to its title!
Hi everyone and thank you so much for the great post. Much appreciated and I’ll share your knowledge and wisdom on FB and Twitter.
Have an inspiring day.
There goes my weekend……
Thanks Andrea! 🙂
You are welcome Ralph – hope you didn’t have any plans 🙂
I’m thinking more like…there goes my week.
Excellent resource. Thanks.
JC
You know what, there seems to be a whole lot of stuff you need to read and learn just to use facebook. Maybe it is a little easier than that.
I thought that if I just built a relationship with people on there I could build a business. And that is what is happening 🙂
I’m still thinking about using Facebook for my blog. For a business, it’s good. No doubt. it’s good for individuals. no doubt again.
Is it good for a blog? Well I’m still yet to be convinced to have a FB page for my blog.
Thanks for the great share
Ardash – I have a blog and Facebook is my number one referrer after Google search. So it works! Just allow time to build it.
This is what we called the complete guide to facebook marketing. Wow, their is so much to learn and read. It will take me months to digest all this things. Thanks Andrea for sharing this wonderful articles to us. I hope that all people in the world will see this post and learn what is going on about Facebook being on top in any social businesses.
Cheers!
This information is awesome! I am in the beginning stages of social media marketing and this is going to be a tremendous help! I am not an avid facebook user, so any help I can get now is so appreciated. Thank you again…this is definetely a post that I can refer back to over time.
Thanks, Kendra
Andrea!
Thanks for the Facebook info. Best list of resources!
Regards,
Artem
Wow! This is a GREAT resource…and it sounds like your book is THE BOOK for Facebook pages. Looking forward to checking it out. Thanks for sharing!
Congrats, Andrea. You’ve just written the go-to blog post for all things Facebook. Awesome!
One thing though… you forgot to mention Post Planner 🙂
Post Planner is one of the most valuable apps out there for making Facebook posting easy. Not only can you schedule future posts and choose whether and how long/often they repeat, but you can also access a massive database of effective posts by using the brand new status shuffle feature. Seriously, you should check it out!
Thanks again for the sweet post!
Thanks Josh – I couldn’t cover every app! That would be it’s own book in itself 🙂
I’ve been looking for a reliable set of resources on this, thank you!
Excellent resources- thank you for creating this post.
Hey Andrea!
As you know, I couldn’t have created my business page if you hadn’t helped me every step of the way. But how did you know I was looking for a uber-comprehensive list of all the next steps I should be taking?
Thanks so much for compiling this awesome list – I will be working from it until your book comes out.
Thanks again (and congratulations on your book)!!
Great Job Andrea, Thank you very much, Sergio.
I launched a Facebook page for my blog a while back and have been astounded by the amount of traffic it has brought. Facebook traffic far outweighs Twitter (even when I only have a handful of shares versus lots of tweets). This is a pretty extensive list; I’ll have to think about what could be added. Great work!
One of the most comprehensive collections of fb marketing resources I have recently come across.
Andrea, did you see on TechCrunch that Facebook has partnered with a firm called BrightEdge to produce a whitepaper on SEO of Facebook pages? If so, what were your thoughts on the initiatives? http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/07/facebook-teams-up-with-brightedge-to-help-brands-better-manage-social-seo-of-pages/
Frankly, I wasn’t particularly impressed with their paper and it was lacking the rather groundbreaking initiatives I was rather hoping for given the hype the TechCrunch writer afforded in the original copy. Nor was I impressed with my initial look at the BrightEdge website. Their website looks pretty shoddy for a self-confessed ‘enterprise leading social SEO company’.
Needless to say, I got more creative ideas out of the collection of resources you’ve posted here than those via the ‘official whitepaper’.
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Anthony – I hadn’t seen that. I agree, the whitepaper wasn’t earth-shattering but many people probably aren’t doing some of the basic things listed and just need to be pointed in the right direction. Thanks for your kind words!
Great aggregation of timely content regarding FaceBook. Many of us will find this immediately applicable. Thanks for posting!
What a great resource for new community managers and companies just getting into the social media game!! Thanks for putting this together!!
Exhaustive, yet admirable. Thank you!
Comprehensive, brilliant guide on facebook marketing – everything in one article. I love the idea of sharing links to each sub-topics, I must say that this article is a plethora of learning resources which you can read through to get a feel of things in facebook marketing spectrum. Keep it up, Andrea!
Hey Andrea!
This is seriously impressive and it’s definitely got me overwhelmed! You managed to come up with an encyclopedia of information on how to market on Facebook. I am very sure anyone starting out online and looking to market their business through Facebook is going to have a great resource in this blog post.
I’m going to take my time and read through the posts that you have shared over here. I even shared it on my social media sites as I believe they are going to add so much value to other people who need it out there.
Thanks for taking the time to come up with this blog post and finding blogs which provide so much valuable content. You’ve definitely brought it all onto 1 place. 🙂
Regards,
Darren Spruyt
Thanks Darren! Happy to help!
Added this to my ’10 Facebook guides & blog posts every non-profit should read’ blog post http://ow.ly/5ej2W
WOW this is impressive! It’s going to take a bit to look over this entire list, but I know it’s going to be extremely valuable in my continued efforts in marketing with FB and finding relevant fans.
Just when I think ‘nah, that’s it, there couldn’t POSSIBLE be anything more about FB marketing…’ BLAMO! You bring out this gem. 🙂
LOVE this!
Awesome! Thanks so much for sharing this. There are so many great Facebook resource available, but I’ve never seen anything as so comprehensive. Really appreciate it.
This is the #1 resource related to Facebook! I am bookmarking this and copying all the links in a spreadsheet
for easy reference!
Keep these information diamonds coming folks!
Great share!
Hi, Andrea! Wow, thanks. I’m wondering about setting up a storefront (as a coach) that would only have 3-4 items (bootcamps, 1-1, online package etc) and hopefully link to my 1SC for checkout. I don’t need a storefront with dozens of items, and I would prefer not to re-create a shopping cart – but this doesn’t seem to be discussed in the resources for setting up a storefront. I’m having trouble getting Facebook to approve my Facebook ads which link to an external website, so I thought adding tabs within Facebook for free teleseminars and a storefront would solve this issue – I’d be able to link to my Facebook page internally in the ads. Does this sound reasonable or am I missing something? Many thanks! Nora
Hi Nora, If I’m understanding correctly what you want to do, here are a couple of suggestions. Now that facebook has stopped supporting Static FBML and starting using Iframes, this opens up some some great functionality. You can basically put a “mini-site” on facebook in an Iframe and do pretty much whatever you want to do with it (within legal, moral, and facebook guidelines of course.. 😉 ). Basically what you do is set up your own app, or use a third party app like Static HTML, (which also lets you set up a fan gate or reveal tab if you wish), that pulls your content into the facebook Iframe from an outside host. You can have multiple pages inside your Iframe, hence a “mini-site”, any of which can contain your shopping cart links. Your facebook ads can point to your facebook page. Hope this helps.
Hi Nora – Yes Tom is correct, you would probably want to build your own storefront with the iFrame app that is covered in the Setting up a Welcome Page section. It’s the same app. There are also storefront apps such as Payvment or Ecwid that make setting up a storefront easier but may not link up to your existing 1shoppingcart the way you want. You could then direct the Facebook ads directly to your storefront. Hope that helps!
Thanks to both! Nice to know I’m on track here… will pursue the iframe with 1SC link and Facebook adds pointing back to my F page. Nora
Thanks for a great list! I set up a Facebook page after my book Bloom’s Desk was published
(shameless plug)
but had no idea what else to do.
Now that I have some direction, it’s time to get busy!
Thanks again!
I really liked your list! Great post!
Really appreciate it.
I’ve gotten advice from Grandma Mary twice so far. Looks like you also have a little help to offer 🙂
Awesome!
Glad to help Phyllis 🙂
Wow! This is definitely an extensive and thorough list. I will most definitely bookmark and refer to this post. Thank you!
Hi Andrea!
Great resource, and a lot of really useful lateral thinking, especially on the uses of Facebook for small businesses. I think the key point here is “engagement”, whether thats a competition, or discounts via facebook – its what seems to get people, customers or not, coming back for more. We have seen more and more companies turning to video to do this. And within the “video for social network” field, there are so many approaches again, and just a few are outlined here http://bit.ly/dgbysW. And now I will get back to getting through the rest of your guide – plenty for me still to learn!
Thank you for your generosity in sharing this great list of tips about how to use Facebook and fan pages more effectively. I’ve now got a fan page but there is so much more to learn. I’m also in the B2B space, and these companies are way behind B2C in leveraging the wonders of Facebook.
Great collection of resources. 🙂 NO excuses …wish I could have left a FB message when I ‘liked’ this post at the top.
Susanna
WOW! This list is like the Bermuda Triangle for me. I could disappear into the blogosphere for a few days reading all the awesome blogs you’ve linked up to here!
One thing that I would like more information on is FB etiquette. For example, one thing I have struggled with is knowing when to comment as “me” and when to comment as my page. A few months ago it wasn’t even possible to comment as my page. Now it is and it’s created a dilemma for me. Any thoughts?
I think it’s fine to comment as your Page most of the time although I like when people sign a name to the comment so that people can address you personally rather than saying “Thanks Automobile City for your comment” or whatever the name of your page is.
Thanks for the input, Andrea. I like the idea of signing as my name rather than “Pop Parables”. I’ve done that a few times. I wish that FB had a way to show my name, like Twitter does.
Although most of my SEO focuses on Google, I think Facebook can be a vital tool to market especially as SEO takes too much time to achieve. I have been contemplating Facebook marketing for some time now and can across your post just at the right time.Facebook is by far the most stable social platform our there. While MySpace, Bebo and others have declined over the years, FaceBook has continued to grow.
I think both Google search engine visibility and Facebook marketing are needed. For me, it is not one or the other. I totally agree it takes a long time for SEO but Facebook is not a panacea either. It takes time to build relationships in social media.
Facebook has made a serious contribution to our business. This post really brings home that its not ‘just having a FB page.’ You really have to develop it and make it your own.
Wow, thanks for sharing this! There are so much resources that I don’t know where to start.
Most people underestimate the power a proper facebook page has.
Keep up the good work!
There’s no secret that social media is taking over the web as one of the most effective and affordable marketing venues available. Your message needs to be where your customers are…
However… the problem is that very few marketers are approaching social media sites the right way, and rather than pulling in traffic and boosting their profits they’re looking stupid, losing money and turning people off in droves…
Wow. I thought it’ll be another bite-size chunk of wisdom, but it looks like something that will take me days, if not weeks, to go through. Love it.
The company I sell for is not interested in putting up a Facebook fan page at this time. But I don’t want to miss out on the benefits of this channel. Assuming I have permission to do so, is it appropriate to create a fan page under my own name? Or is that sort of individual page only appropriate for celebrities, etc? I’m not interested in sharing/creating business conversations on my regular Facebook account, but don’t want to come off wrong with my own fan page. Any insight?
Anyone can create any Facebook page under their own name. But if it is for your company, I would be careful that you have their permission before creating something. If the Page is for you personally, another alternative that was just introduced is the Subscribe feature. There is more info on that here: http://www.facebook.com/about/subscribe The limitations are that it only works for personal profiles so you can’t do things like run contests, have custom tabs, or other apps. But it works well for people who don’t want an official Page to be able to give people access to their posts. You can choose which posts will go to the public and which ones will be only for friends. Hope that helps some!
Thank you Andrea. Not a bad idea to use the Subscribe feature. I may do that. Though I do prefer to have everything separate. It just seems that creating my own fan page might come off as a little arrogant to have people “Like” me, and not my product and services. Or maybe I shouldn’t worry about that.
It takes time and effort to build a targeted audience in Facebook regardless of the vehicle (fan pages, groups, events). Just because Facebook has over 500 million users does not mean you can reach them. You still have to resort to things like advertising, social media “share”, marketing give-aways to attract attention and gather an audience, etc. And of the 500 million users, there are many people trying to attract attention by creating fan pages, groups and events. Unless you have a targeted audience, there will be more “sellers” than “buyers” in your circle of friends (oh boy, “circles” is the term used by Google+).
Andrea you are amazing! Thank you so much for compiling all of this information onto one list. You are saving me and my company tons of time and $. Cheers!
Noah
@Noahtorious
Switchcam.com
There is a lot to digest here. At this point, two highlights for me are: 1) 26 fan page examples and 2) more Likes by tagging your Facebook page in status updates.
I had a look at the FB Influence program put together by Amy Porterfield and others.
Based on that we created a helpful toolset from the suggestions that came out of that group at http://www.fbinfluencetools.com.
That reminds me, I must list Copy Blogger under the blogging section..
Wow, Great resources, it may take sometime to setup a business facebook page. i’ve bookmarked this blog for future.
Thanks, Cheers!
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