10 Facebook Fan Page Tips for Creative Entrepreneurs

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1. Create a Fan Page:

First things first.  If you don’t have a fan page yet, go and create one now! Fan pages are a great way to promote your creative web biz (make sure to choose the ‘official page’ option, not the ‘community page’)

2. Set Your Username:

Facebook finally implemented urls based on usernames. Most of you will have set the url for their private profiles already, but you might not have done it  for your fan- or business page yet.  Both can be set here. Please note that you need to have 25 fans before you can get your url. If you don’t have that many fans yet, proceed to step three first.

3. Page Badges :

Facebook badges can be found on your page admin screen under ‘Marketing’ in the left sidebar . Click  ‘get a badge’ and then ‘page badges’.  You will then get a snippet of code to copy and paste anywhere you want on your website, in email signatures or anywhere else around the web.

4. Like Box:

A more interactive way to promote your page is the Like Box which can be customized to include your latest updates (pictures, videos and all) and also display your fans. To get one go to your page admin screen, follow the ‘Marketing’ link in the left sidebar and click on ‘add a like box to your website’. Customize as you like, get the code and past it on your site or blog.

5. Facebook Marketing Solutions:

Facebook Marketing Solutions is fan page run by Facebook employees that ‘helps marketers share with users and create movements on Facebook’ .  They provide news and info on how to market your brand on Facebook. Become a fan to get updates!

6. NetworkedBlogs:

NetworkedBlogs is a very useful application on Facebook. It will import your blog feed to your private profile as well as to your fan page  and into the news streams of your friends and fans. In has it’s own tab which shows your latest blog posts and will let people follow your blog right inside Facebook. See it in action on the Creative Web Biz FB  Page.

7. Twitter for Pages:

Another app I use is ‘Twitter for Pages‘ by Involver. It adds a tab to my page which displays my last 20 tweets. However, it does not update your status (unless you pay), so if you want to do that you should also get the official Twitter app which will do just that.

8. Live Stream Box:

During the 2009 US Presidential Inauguration, Facebook tested a new feature that let people share Facebook status updates and comments side by side with real-time streaming video on CNN’s website. Now this feature is made public. The  Facebook Live Stream Box is easy to install and takes just a minute to set up. You can include a Live Stream Box anywhere on the Web, or within your Facebook Page, or a Facebook application.

Both Justin.tv and UStream.tv have developed apps to help you do this. You will have to apply to use the one by UStream but Live (byJustin.tv) is ready and as easy to use as any other Facebook app. Check it out!

9. Find more apps for your page:

To find more apps that work on fan pages (not all do) go to the application directory,  then click on ‘pages’.

10. Facebook Ads:

Promote your page with Facebook ads. To do so you only need to go to your page admin screen, follow the   ‘marketing’ link to your left and then click on  ‘advertise on Facebook’. This will take you to a screen where you can input a title, body text and an optional image (default is your page profile pic).  For more info go to the Facebook Ads Help Ceter.

11. Get a custom tab for your page

Add advanced functionality to your page using the Facebook Static FBML application. This application will add a tab to your page in which you can render HTML or FBML (Facebook Markup Language) for enhanced page customization. This way you can add a newsletter sign up form or any other special info. Just find the ‘add to my page’ link right under the (missing) picture on the application page).

12. Don’t forget to become a fan of Creative Web Biz on Facebook!

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