Your customers will be looking for you on Facebook, so it’s vital that they can easily find you. Facebook itself is so popular that Facebook Fan Pages have become a secondary web presence for many small businesses. But, like your Website and Blog, they need care and nurturing.
If don’t yet have a fan page for your small business, take a look at one of my previous posts: How to Use Facebook for Marketing your Small Business
You probably already know that SEO means Search Engine Optimization, and has to do with your site ranking when people search on your keywords.
Keywords are actually the first thing you should think about when it comes to SEO. When you people are searching for your products, services, and events, what do they Google? These are your keywords. You need to emphasize them on your fan page. Google Adwords has a great tool for finding keywords.
Here are some steps to help you get found:
Fan Page Step #1
Get a Vanity URL – The first step to marketing your Facebook fan page for your small business is having a simple URL you can refer customers to. When you first create a fan page, the address is something like this:
“www.facebook.com/pages/the-long-name-you-chose/numeric-id”
and what you want is this:
“www.facebook.com/mycompanyname”
Sounds easy enough, but but you will quickly discover a roadblock thrown up by Facebook. You must have at least 25 fans to create your fan page username. This may pose a bit of problem, since it’s more difficult to get fans if you don’t already have a username you can market.
Fan Page Step #2
How to get your first 25 Fans -There are a few methods to get up and running with a few fans.
Your Existing Contacts – Fans are created when someone likes your page. If you have a good size social network or email database, simply ask some of your associates to visit and like your page. First, you ‘ll need to make a note of your page URL If you know a little HTML, you can generate a like button that you can add to your website or put in an email.
Run a Facebook Ad – You can run a short Facebook campaign. On your page wall on the right, you’ll see a button that says “Get More Fans”. There will be a cost, but you can set your own budget and if your target is 25 fans it shouldn’t be much. The advantage of this method is that these will be quality fans that are sincerely interested in your business.
Use Twiends – This service can get you the 25 fans in just a few minutes. Go to Twiends and register your twitter account and facebook fan page. You will get 15 Seeds. Seeds are points you barter with. When you like someone’s page or follow them in twitter, they give you seeds. When they like your page, you give them seeds. When you complete your profile, Twiends gives you another 40 seeds. This should be enough to get you 25 fans. Be sure to turn off paying seeds for twitter and focus on your Facebook page.
The downside to Twiends, is these are not good quality fans. They probably won’t be your customers, but will give you the numbers you need to get a facebook fan page username.
Fan Page Step #3
Select the Best Name for your Page – Up until now, it didn’t really matter what you named your page because your didn’t yet have a username. Now you have to decide. The best bet is to simply name it after your company. Some will try using popular search terms as a username. Don’t do this, it will only make your page seem suspicious and illegitimate. Also, Facebook will likely remove any usernames that are trademarked.
Once you’ve decided on a name and have the 25 fans, go here:
http://www.facebook.com/username/
If you haven’t created a username for your regular Facebook page, do so now. You can then create usernames for your fan pages. Don’t get them confused as you can’t change them later.
Again, match your username to your fan page name and your organization’s name.
Fan Page Step #4
Fully Compete “About” Box – The About box ranks highest on the page for search engine indexing. This is the premium real estate for your keywords. Try to make complete sentences rather than just a list of keywords.
You can get to the “About” box by looking at the profile picture on the left. Under the picture, you see “About” text with an “edit” next to it, or you may see “Write something about [YourPage]”. There is a limit of 250 characters.
Fan Page Step #5
Fully complete the “Info” box, it’s also rated fairly high on search engine indexes.It’s on the left of your fan page just under the “Wall” menu item. Make sure you completely fill out all fields, including your location. Make it readable, but insert your keywords where you can.
Also get the Extended Info App. This will let you create your own fields, so you can add more detail, like product numbers, your areas of expertise, testimonials, etc. These will also be indexed by search engines.
Fan Page Step #6
Try to use keyword rich status updates. Everything on your wall is indexed. Also, don’t use link shortener in updates, especially when linking to your own site. This may hide keywords from search engines.
Fan Page Step #7
Don’t forget Multimedia Descriptions – One of the most often overlooked SEO opportunities, is uploading photos and events. Facebook lets you include descriptions of each one. So be sure to use your keywords in the descriptions, as they are indexed as well.
Fan Page Step #8
In your website or blog, link back to your Facebook page. Backlinks will help your SEO. Also when you you do this, use your keywords as link anchor text. In other words, rather than: Click Here , do it like this: Click Here for MyCoolProduct.
Fan Page Step #9
You’ll often be asked for your website information. When you register at a new site, leaving comments on other sites, entering profile information, even when you attend conferences and meetings. It’s important to get your Facebook username distributed as much as possible so, occasionally, use your Facebook fan page URL instead of your website.
Fan Page Step #10
Consider using the iwipa (HTML + iframe + FBML = iwipa) app for Facebook pages. This will make your Facebook landing page look more like a web site. You can add HTML, videos, more pages, and forms. It looks professional and all of it will indexed, helping your SEO.
It does require a bit of HTML knowledge, but easily handled by whoever did your website.
If you want to see what this looks like visit the ZockEye Media Facebook fan page.
Summary
Designing and Developing your Facebook Fan Page for your Small Business requires constant planning, monitoring and vision. Effective SEO strategies can improve your fan base by expanding the reach of your message.
If you have experience or questions about the tools mentioned above that you’d like to share, please leave a comment below.