How to Use Facebook Fan Pages to Market Local Businesses

Facebook is the most popular social networking site and is widely used by hundreds of millions of people all over the world.  It allows people to share and stay connected with others by creating either a personal or professional profile, or a business or fan page.  Fan pages are public profiles with a customizable presence that allows businesses to interact with users.  With over 500 million users who could be potential consumers and advocates, marketers have engaged themselves into social networking to market their local businesses.

One benefit of having a fan page is publicity.  You start by naming your page with your business or the specific brand or product that you are marketing.  Then, upload a picture using your company's logo, a picture of either your building or your product, or anything that you think would best represent your business.  In order for the users to locate your company, you must add the basic but detailed information including the full name of your business or product, business address, operating hours and the payment options.  You could also customize your page by adding pictures, videos and applications to make it more appealing to the users.  Invite your friends and your current customers to become a fan of your page.  You could also find more fans by using Facebook Ads, which is a form of paid advertising.  Users can become a fan by simply clicking the link, and the action automatically generates a story into the News Feeds, thus easily spreading and generating a free distribution.

Communication is an important element in marketing, and this is one of the many benefits provided by a fan page.  After having successfully enhanced your fan page, start by welcoming your fans to make them feel comfortable and generate a topic in the discussion board to encourage them to participate.  Take note that every action generates a story that would be visible in the users' home pages, thus make sure you post interesting and relevant information to your wall.

Many customers refer to social networking sites to get the latest updates of their favorite products, and the Facebook Page provides them an easy way to do that whenever and where ever they are.  The traditional way of business promotion and product endorsements is costly and time consuming.  With these great features offered by fan pages, marketers are not just able to promote their local businesses but also interact and build relationships with the consumers, and get feedback from them in a timely manner.