Create a Facebook Page step by step guide

Make a Fan Page on Facebook

To create a fan page on Facebook is comparatively easy if you know how to use Facebook and it can be done in some simple steps. The first step of course is that you need to have a Facebook account. You cannot create a fan page in Facebook without having a Facebook account. Now log on to your Facebook account and scroll to the bottom of the page. On the left hand side of your browser window you will see a the logo “f” and when you place your cursor over it, it will say “Ads and Pages”. Click on this logo and you will be seeing the Facebook Ad Builder. On the top row you will see a link to “pages”. Again click on this link you will be shown the fan pages that you have already created. Since you do not have any fan page yet, you will be shown a message saying, “You have not created any pages” and below it there will be another message saying “Create a Page”.

Click on “Create a Page” link and you will be asked to answer and fill a number of questions, that comes with options. The first is category and the options are “Local”, “Brand, Product or Organization” and “Artist, Band or Public Figure”. Select the relevant category from the options given. After this you will be asked to select a name for your fan page. Choose a name with care and tick the box that says “Do not make Page publicly visible at this time”. This is because you are still building your page and you will be able to publish it once you are done.

Now scroll down and you will see a box that says “Create Page” and it is written that “By clicking the Create Page link, you represent that you are an official representative of the business, organization, entity or person that is subject of the Facebook page and have the necessary rights to create and maintain the Page”. This essentially means that you cannot go an create a fan page for Sarah Jessica Parker or the Beatles unless you are officially connected to them. Now assuming that you are creating your own fan page in Facebook, click on the “Create Page” link and finally you will be able to view your page.

Now that you know the basics of how to create a fan page on Facebook, you need to make it attractive. The first thing that you need to do is upload a picture of yourself or the logo of your company. At a later stage you can change the picture by simply moving the cursor over the image. Just like your profile page on Facebook, the fan page too has a wall that you can post your updates as well as tabs for your information, photos and discussions.

Click on the “edit information” tab and you will see a pop up menu asking for basic information, detailed information and contact information. Fill up all the areas that you think are relevant for your fan page and click “Save Changes”.

Now the last thing to do on how to create a fan page on Facebook is to click on the “discussions” tab. Then click on “Start New Topic” button and enter a title for discussion as well as some content. Now click “Post”. This was just the bare minimum that you require to do to create a fan page in Facebook. The best fan pages are those which are incorporated with cool Facebook tricks, interactive and comment regularly as well as post updates. Reply to your fans and take part in the discussions. Now that you know how to create a fan page on Facebook, have fun promoting yourself or your business.

How to Create A Facebook Pages!

How to Create A Facebook Page

Facebook Pages get a lot of search engine respect. Even “big business” takes them as seriously as they do with their own corporate websites. Learn what the big deal is about, and how you can make your own from scratch!

What is a Facebook Page?

A Facebook Page, sometimes referred to as a Fan Page, is a single page that you can create for anything you want: a particular subject you like: a celebrity, a business profile, whatever your heart desires (as long as you have the legal rights to do so). Think of it as a one-page meeting place, with information, links, a message forum box, RSS and anything else you want (actually, it’s kind of like making a Squidoo lens!) Best yet, anyone can create them. All you need is a Facebook account! 

Facebook Pages are important for a few reasons. They’ve been showing up high in search engine positions. Also, you can get unlimited “fans” for your Facebook Page, unlike the limit of 5,000 friends that your regular Facebook Profile is capped at. They’re visible to search engines and visitors, too. It’s almost like a social networking mailing list that you can reach out to at any time!

There are two kinds of Facebook accounts you can have: personal and business. A personal account is what you get when you sign on as a regular user, and create a profile for yourself: an individual. A business account is what a personal account can be converted into. Business accounts are limited in the sense that they can only view ad placements and Facebook Pages, but nothing else. Both of these accounts are able to create Facebook Pages.

Facebook Pages vs. Facebook Groups

Which should you use…and which is better?

“Should I go with a Facebook Page, or a Facebook Group? What’s the difference?“ 

Since Facebook Groups changed ENTIRELY in October 2010, I had to re-write this entire section to make it relevant. The good news: my opinion on the “Page vs. Group” issue remains unchanged! Here’s the deal: a Facebook Page can be seen as a one-stop shop for a particular subject. It’s static, like a web page, and is traditionally used as the venue to bring a “voice” about a particular product or service to Facebook. That’s why you see TV commercials where a company will actually advertise “Facebook.com/mycompany”. That’s a Facebook Page.

You may have seen many rather ridiculous pages with hundreds of thousands of fans. Generic, simple, or just plain stupid pages – many of which have no content at all! But why are they so popular? Well, people tend to “fan” things because it adds to their persona and further defines who they are.
Now, as for Facebook Groups, a lot has changed. In the pre-October 2010 days, Facebook Groups looked and acted very similarly to Facebook Pages. Most people couldn’t tell what the difference was at first glance. Now, Groups can be compared more to “live chat rooms” than anything else. Here’s a comparison, to make things easier:

• A Facebook Page is kind of like a blog. It gets updated by you, just like a website would. Use it for: a broad product category (like boots, VHS tapes or swizzle sticks), a state of being (like “Being Bored,” “Italian Americans,” “Being over 6’0″ tall), a declaration (like “I love bread” or “I hate bad drivers”)
• A Facebook Group is kind of like a chat room. It gets moderated by you, and its focus are the conversations that are posted to it by you and other members. Use it for: a cause (anti or for something), a local community (your town’s baseball league), a discussion forum (religion and politics always fits the bill), a meet-up spot (think: your World of Warcraft clan, or something to that effect.)

Advantages of Facebook Pages over Facebook Groups

Undeniable pros for FB Pages!

Pages and Groups both have their own individual functions, but one shines over the other for several different reasons (I’m talking about Pages, if you hadn’t guessed!)

• Pages Get Internal Promotion on Facebook.com
  Facebook Page updates will show up on your fans’ page feed when they “Like” it – Facebook Group updates will not. They are promoted on the right hand “suggestion” column when your friends join them – Facebook Groups don’t get this treatment.
• Pages Have More Options for Customization
  Groups are basically chat rooms, there’s no real “look and feel” to them. Their primary focus is for live discussions that can be continued at any time. Pages, however, act more like a blog with actual content pieces and the ability to add new tabs, static information, and the like.
• Search Engine Visibility
  When it comes to getting visibility off of Facebook: Pages can be seen by non-Facebook users, and can be crawled by search engines as any other static page would. Facebook Groups cannot! It’s also important to mention that Facebook Pages can have a “vanity URL” (Facebook.com/MyPage), where as Groups do not have this feature.
• Anonymity
  The creator of a group is forever immortalized on the group itself, with your linked Facebook avatar, stating that you are the group’s admin. There is no way to remove this, which is bad news for those who wish to remain anonymous. Pages, on the other hand, are completely anonymous – nobody will know that you own it, unless you make a public statement!
• Groups can be really, really annoying
  Know how you’ll comment on a friend’s status, and then get an email every time someone else comments under your comment? Groups do this. Just imagine this happening on a very large scale since the posts in Groups are more like chat posts. Groups that have many members = a lot of these posts, on a constant basis. This is a default setting, and many find it to be annoying.

Important!

Facebook Page FAQs

“Can I Have More Than One Facebook Account?”

Against the TOS or not?

“I have a good idea: I’ll just create several different Facebook accounts so that I can organize my Facebook Pages amongst each one.“ 

Bad idea! According to Facebook’s terms of service, creating more than one personal Facebook account is NOT allowed. This is stated several times, and Facebook takes the issue seriously (in other words, I wouldn’t attempt to create more than one account for the purpose of organizing Facebook Pages!):

Please be aware that managing multiple accounts is a serious violation of Facebook’s Terms of Use. If we determine that an individual has more than one account, we reserve the right to terminate all of their accounts.

Maintaining multiple accounts, regardless of the purpose, is a violation of Facebook’s Terms of Use. If you already have a personal account, then we cannot allow you to create business accounts for any reason.

“Can I Create Business-Related Facebook Pages In My Personal Account?”

One of the most frequently asked questions ever!

Most people are leery over the prospect of creating a Facebook Page for their home business, affiliate business…whatever business…within their personal Facebook account. Long story short – yes, you should create your Facebook Page in your personal account. The Facebook Page will then be in the possession of that account, and only you can access it (unless you appoint other administrators). 

Don’t worry about being showcased on your Facebook Page – you won’t be. In fact, nobody will ever know of the owner of a Facebook Page, unless they went out of their way to let it be known. Your profile name, picture, etc. will never be visible on the page. Not even when you post things on the page (when you do, the Facebook Page’s avatar and name appears as the poster, instead of yours).

Here’s another scenario, though. Let’s say your boss at work asks you to create a Facebook Page for the corporation. In this case, you would not want to create it within your personal account, but you’d want to create a new Facebook account entirely, for the business. Then, you can convert the account to a Facebook Business account (a warning on this: once you elect in to switching the account to a business account you can never undo it). Business accounts are stripped-down Facebook accounts that can only 1) manage Facebook Pages, and 2) manage Facebook Ads. That’s all. Nothing more.

Transferring a Facebook Page to Someone Else

It’s slightly tricky, and definitely possible

Facebook says that you can’t transfer a Facebook Page to someone else. Well, that’s not entirely true. You can set someone else as the administrator of the page, and then you can be demoted to a regular fan. Once that happens, they become the new “owner” the page. 

This process can also be used if you want to delete your entire Facebook account, but not lose your Facebook Pages. Simply appoint your relative or best friend as the Page administrator. Then, delete your account…and create a new Facebook account. Visit the pages you transferred to your relative/friend, and “like” them. Then, have your relative/friend set you as the administrator. Finally, remove them as the administrator. You’re now the Facebook Page owner, again!

Don’t Cybersquat or Spam on Facebook Pages!

If it’s trademarked, don’t take the risk!

If you didn’t already know, a “cybersquatter” is someone who knowingly registers a domain name of a trademarked product or company name. Back in the old days, it was a good way to blackmail that company into paying you a large sum of cash for the name. Then came the Anti Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act of 1999. Now, it’s a great way to get a company to force you to hand it over, or else. 

Just like how you should never register a domain name with a trademarked company or product name in the title, you should never create a Facebook Page to represent one. In other words, don’t create a Facebook Page called “Coca-Cola” or “Ford Trucks.” This is something that Facebook takes seriously, and will either delete your Page or entire Facebook account for trademark infringement when spotted. Here’s the official statement:

Only the official representative of an organization, business, celebrity, or band may create a Facebook Page. If you would like to create a Facebook presence for a celebrity or organization and you are not officially authorized to do so, we suggest you create a Facebook group instead, as these may be created and maintained by any user.
Facebook also cracks down on anyone attempting to “sell” a page, or use their page as a way to solicit affiliate links or spam a list of fans. I’ve heard more than one case where people who have posted a single affiliate link on their Facebook Page have gotten their ENTIRE account banned.

When Your Page Gets Disabled…

…and potentially your account, too.

With the inception of Facebook Community Pages (explained below), Facebook has been cracking down on what they believe are warranted and un-warranted usages of Facebook Pages. More than likely, if your page isn’t about a brand or company that you legally represent, nor a promotion for one, it will either be converted to a Community Page, or it will be closed. Depending on how badly you’ve violated the Terms of Service, your account could be banned, too. This is the message that Facebook will send to you if they’ve banned one of your Facebook Pages: 

You created one or more Pages that have been removed for violating our Terms of Use. A Facebook Page is a distinct presence used solely for business or promotional purposes. Among other things, Pages that are hateful, threatening, or obscene are not allowed. We also take down Pages that attack an individual or group, or that are set up by an unauthorized individual. If your Page was removed for any of the above reasons, it will not be reinstated. Continued misuse of Facebook’s features could result in the permanent loss of your account.

If you need further assistance with this issue, please visit http://www.facebook.com/help/contact…=page_disabled.

The Facebook Team

As you can see, there are two terms here that will trigger the disabling of a page: 1) hurtful/threatening/obscene content, and 2) unauthorized usage or representation.

“What is a Facebook Community Page?”

Facebook Pages vs. Facebook Community Pages

Back in the Spring of 2010, Facebook rolled out “Community Pages.” Basically, they are generic Facebook Pages maintained by Facebook for very broad topics. To see an example of a Facebook Community Page, check out this one for “Small Business Owner.” 

The characteristics of a Facebook Community Page are the generic gray-and-white “molecule” logo (seen on right) with a dashboard purely of “related global posts” which pull in recent posts containing the page’s main keyword (considering it’s from a Facebook user whose profile is public). Community Pages also have this disclaimer at the bottom of the page: “Community Pages are not affiliated with, or endorsed by, anyone associated with the topic.”

Facebook Community Pages sparked controversy when they first came out, because Facebook Inc. started usurping people’s Facebook Pages if they became “too popular” (I put that in quotes, because there was no benchmark defining that term) and would convert the Page to a Community Page against the owner’s will.

Facebook Community Page Email Notice

This is the email that Facebook sends you if it ‘takes over’ your Facebook Page and converts it to a Community Page. It only happened to me once, back on April 7, 2010.

Points to note about Facebook Community Pages:

• Facebook Inc. “owns” and “operates” them.
• There’s no telling if or when one of your Pages could be converted into one.
• In other cases, they are auto-generated when you type things into your profile’s “likes and interests” section. These words get auto-hyperlinked. If one of these hyperlinks doesn’t exist yet, Facebook will hyperlink it and create a Community Page about it.

Important!

How To Create a Facebook Page

How the Heck Do I Access Facebook Pages?!

Find the Facebook “Ads and Pages” section

At first, it can be confusing to remember how to find Facebook Pages. Since Facebook changed its appearance once again in Feb. 2010 (sigh) and then again in December (double sigh) the Facebook Pages icon no longer appears by default on everyone’s profile. In fact, you can no longer manually bookmark what appears on the “bookmarks” menu – they show up based on what you’ve used last. The Facebook Page icon should be a default icon on the left-hand side of your feed page (see screenshot on right) after you’ve created and used a Facebook Page. Click it, and you’ll see the “Ads and Pages” icon. 

I’ll make it even easier on you: click here for the Facebook Page creation screen – but make sure you’re signed in to Facebook, first. If you’d like, visit the official Facebook Page for Facebook Pages (no joke), a place where Facebook updates the community on Facebook Page upgrades.

Click the “Pages” Icon

Bypassing the “Ads” screen

If you’re looking for the Facebook Page screen through the Facebook Bookmark Bar at the bottom of your screen, the first thing you’ll see when you visit the “Pages & Ads” section is the Ads page. This is the area where you can create a pay-per-click ad. Obviously, we don’t care about doing that in this tutorial – find the “Pages” icon on the left, and click it. Unfortunately, you’ll have to bypass this screen every single time you want to create a new Facebook Page, or visit an existing one that you own.

Create a Facebook Page

Categorizing and naming a new page

On the Facebook Page creation dashboard, you’ll be faced with three categories of drop-down menus. Each menu has a selection of sub-categories. Don’t rush through this section, for one main reason:

Be sure that you are absolutely happy with the category you’ve chosen. You’re not alone if you think that the category choices for Facebook Pages are awful. Once you make a decision on a category, you can never go back!
Once you’ve found a category that’s similar to whatever your Page will be about, you can then type out the “Name” for your page — and be extremely careful as it is PERMANENT, and will be seen within the actual URL of your Facebook Page (for all of you SEO professionals, you’ll immediately see the importance of this).

The name that you give to your Facebook Page appears at the top of the page, and before every single post you make on the page, or in reply to a comment. Once you set this name, it is set in stone and can never be edited; not even if you contact Facebook directly and beg/complain/demand them to do it!
Listed below are all of the options from each drop-down category, for your reference:

Local Options

For local-based Facebook Pages

The “Local” category is geared toward the businesses that exist in your immediate area.

• Automotive
• Automotive Dealer/Vehicle Service
• Banking and Financial Service
• Bar
• Cafe
• Club
• Convention Center and Sports Complex
• Education
• Event Planning Service
• Grocery
• Health and Beauty
• Home Service
• Hotel/Lodging
• Library/Public Building
• Medical Service
• Museum/Attraction
• Park
• Pets
• Professional Service
• Real Estate
• Religious Center
• Restaurant
• Store
• Technology and Telecommunications Service
• Travel Service

Artist, Band, or Public Figure Option

For people-based Facebook Pages

Promote an individual of any kind with this option!

• Actor
• Athlete
• Band
• Comedian
• Critic
• Government Official
• Model
• Musician
• Politician
• Sports Team
• Visual Artist
• Writer

Brand, Product, or Organization Options

For product-based Facebook Pages

Looking to do business? You’ll want to promote something…anything with this option:

• Airline/Ship/Train Station
• Communications
• Consumer Product
• Fashion
• Film
• Financial Service
• Food and Beverage
• Game
• Government
• Home Living
• Hotel/Lodging
• Non-Profit
• Online Store
• Pharmaceutical
• Professional Service
• Religious Organization
• Rental Cars
• Retail
• Sports/Athletics
• TV Show
• Technology Product/Service
• Travel
• Website

Customize your Facebook Page

Blank pages are boring! Add some content.

(Above: You should be greeted with this screen.)

That was easy. Technically speaking, you now own a Facebook Page! For the sake of this tutorial, I’ve created a Facebook Page just for it: Pixelrage’s Facebook Page Tutorial. Facebook actually forbids the word “Facebook” anywhere in the title of your page. As you can see, it’s bland and needs some serious modifications. The first thing I always start with is a good picture for my Facebook Page:

Change your Facebook Page’s Picture

The picture that represents the whole page

Your Facebook Page picture is important. Think of it this way: it has a permanent fixture on the upper-left hand side of your page. It has a “mini” version that appears next to every single post you make on your Facebook Page (just like the icon on your Twitter account). When people search Facebook and look for Pages, one of the first things that will attract their eyeballs is the Page icon you chose.

Now that you can see how important this image is, make it count: get a great image, or make one yourself! Facebook Page images are 200×200 pixels, and will automatically generate a miniature version for usage in Facebook search and to appear next to each of your posts. In this example, I’ve uploaded a custom image I made for the page.

Describe your Facebook Page in the Note Box

One or two sentences & a link to wrap it up

The little “note box” you see below your image is what you’ll need to give first-time visitors the scoop on what your Facebook page is about. Click the little blue pencil on the upper-right corner of this box, and it becomes editable. For all of you SEO fanatics, it’s a place where a full URL, starting with “http://”, will convert to a backlink that points to your site!

Take a look at my example. I’ve created a link back to this page, and included a short description of what the Facebook Page is about in one sentence. If you’ve gotten accustomed to communicating in 140 characters on Twitter, you’ll surely be able to sum up your page in this little box. When you’re done typing, click the whitespace anywhere else on your page to save the contents of the box.

Post Something!

Get the conversation started…add some content!

You can add anything you want to your Facebook Page. Copy and paste a Youtube URL into the “What’s on your mind?” bar, and it will convert to a thumbnail with a play button, and a mini-description of the video. Paste a URL, and it will grab the top-most image on that website and display it, along with the page description (sometimes it will let you sift through a bunch of images that it noticed, so that you can choose your favorite one to represent that link). Or, just type whatever you want, as you would with a Tweet…it’s your page!

When you post something on your page, it’s available to every single person who is a fan of that Page. Therefore, make sure that your spelling is correct, and that everything looks the way you want it to look. Also, note that people will be able to comment on whatever you’re posting (unless you’ve changed the default permissions to block them from doing so…but this is social networking – not a communist regime!)

That’s More Like It

Ready for an early launch?

Once you’ve gotten these fundamental steps done, it’s up to you if you’d like to release your new Facebook Page to planet Earth. If you’ve clicked the very first checkbox that said “Do not make page publicly viewable at this time,” all you’ll have to do is publish the page. Don’t know how? Simply click the “Edit page” link, then click “View Page.” You’ll then see a message in its own box on the top of the page that says

This Page has not been published. To make this Page public, publish this Page.

If you’re not seeing this message, that means your Page is already live…better get moving on adding content, then!

Once your page is up, it’s just a matter of promoting it so that others can start to “fan” it. In doing so, pages tend to make their rounds as friends of friends, and friends of friends of friends see that THEIR friends have become a fan of your page. If they like the page, they’ll fan it too. This is the basic concept of how things go viral.

Important!

Edit Your Facebook Page Settings

Facebook Page Edit Screen

An admin screen for your page

While you can easily edit the elements of your Facebook Page directly on the page itself (“pencil” icons on module corners, or edit links), you can edit the actual page’s settings by clicking the “edit page” link at the top of the page. It’s also available on your Page dashboard which lists all of the pages you own.

The edit page section lets you set different things for your page, which determine how your page is seen, and what fans can or cannot do on it. You can also add on (or remove) features. Here’s a full list:

• Settings: Is your page country-specific? If you want to restrict the page only to people in Italy, or only people in Canada or the US, you can do so here. Simply type in the first letter of your country and select it from the drop-down menu. You can also set age restrictions (this is a must if your page is about certain subjects…whatever those are!) Lastly, you can publish or unpublish your Facebook Page, for whatever reason.
• Wall Settings: What do you want non-fans to see the first time they see your page? Only the stuff you’ve posted to it, or a mix of your posts plus other fan posts? You can also force people to land on either your wall, info, photos, discussions or reviews section (the default is “wall,” of course). A “Fan Permissions” area lets you check or uncheck what your fans can do. If you don’t want them to write on your wall or post pictures, links or videos – you can disable them here.
• Mobile: If you want to update your page from a mobile device, this section lets you enable this function.

Under these settings is an “Applications” area. Here, you can enable or disable various modules for your Facebook Page, such as a discussion board, events calendar, link box, reviews area, or even search for more Facebook-created or community-made modules. Visit the Facebook Apps area to browse through them.

How to Change a Facebook Page Name

A new functionality in October 2010

As previously discussed, changing the name of your Facebook is a problem once you’ve already saved it. Facebook remedied this. Kind of. If, and only if you have 100 fans or less, you’re now able to edit the name of your Facebook page by clicking its “Edit Page” link, clicking the “Basic Information” tab and changing its name in the “Name” field. Note that this only changes the name of the Facebook Page, which is also called the “title,” since it appears at the top of the page and in every post you make on it. It doesn’t change the Page’s URL if you’ve set a vanity URL – that’s permanent.

The bad news about this is the 100 fan cutoff. You’re still up the creek without a paddle if your Page has over 100 fans and you desperately need to edit your Page name. It can’t be done – the only option would be to re-start the Page (not an option for most) or delete fans down to the 100-mark so that the option unlocks.

In the example above, I changed the title from “Pixelrage’s Page Tutorial” to “FB Page Tutorial.”

Important!

Promote Your Facebook Page

Getting Ranked in Facebook’s “Search Engine”

SEO within Facebook – who would have known?

If you hadn’t noticed, Facebook has its own search engine. Go ahead – try it out and search for something. Above, I tried “Toyota.” See how the results are all Facebook Pages at the top? It just goes to show how important Pages are! Anyway, Facebook lists results that have seemingly no rhyme or reason. For instance, why is a page with nearly 70,000 fans listed BELOW another one with almost 49,000? Facebook uses an algorithm just like how all search engines do. If you create a new page, it gets an instant boost in Facebook search rankings, to give you a chance to be seen. There’s more to it, though:

You’ll want to make sure your Facebook Page is all ready to go once you hit “publish.” Unless it’s a truly one of a kind topic, make sure you have your title, content, pictures, links and everything else ready to go. With some luck, your initial broadcast on Facebook.com will give you a few Fan adds, which will get the ball rolling. Remember: Facebook Pages that are constantly updated and continue getting fans (especially ones who interact with the page) will appear higher in Facebook Page search results! The more your Page “picks up steam,” the more it will become glued to the top of a search result for the keyword you’ve set it to in your Page title. Maybe that’s why the Prius page is doing better than the Toyota USA one!

Do Nothing. That’s right, be lazy.

Hey, it could just promote itself!

There are pages I’ve created that have amassed 1,000 fans in less than a month, just by simply existing. That’s right, I didn’t do a damn thing. I just created a page that hadn’t been thought of yet, and it wound up being the first thing that showed up if you searched for its keyword.

Sometimes, pages don’t need to be promoted. If you’ve found that niche that nobody else has, ‘Facebook search’ is all that’s needed to eventually get noticed. This is a really crappy method, though. However, there is one way to start spreading the “virus”: simply be a fan of your own page. Facebook will then automatically post on your/your friends’ wall that you’ve become a fan of [whatever your page is called]. Some of them might be curious, and click the link. Some of them might also fan the page. Then, their friends will see that they are now a fan of that page. THEY might get curious, and fan the page, too.

These are the only scenarios where being lazy pays off as a Facebook Page administrator!

Bookmark Your Facebook Page

Traditional SEO as a part of your backlinking strategy

Submit your Facebook Page to social networking or bookmarking sites like Delicious, Faves.com, Diigo, Mixx and all the rest. Don’t forget to send out a Tweet, too. I’ve also written a Squidoo page about dofollow social bookmarking services – be sure to check it out for some other great recommendations. Don’t forget to advertise your new Facebook Page in your e-mail signature!

Suggest It To Your Friends

The best way to widely promote your Facebook Page

Here’s the logical way to promote your Facebook Page: click the “Suggest to Friends” link on the left-hand menu under your Page picture, and manually select friends. Here’s a few things to keep in mind, though: you can’t select all friends, it can only be done one by one…also, when you suggest a Page to these friends, Facebook doesn’t allow you to attach a personal message to it. So, your friends will only see a notification on their dashboard saying “[Your Name] suggests you become a fan of [Your Page]“. Of course, they might not know that this is your page unless you tell them ahead of time, and many of them might click the little “x” and dismiss it. Therefore, tell your friends ahead of time that you’re inviting them.

Don’t make the mistake I first made: I once invited about 500 people to become a fan of my page. I literally sat there and clicked 500 profile icons one by one. I had no idea that we couldn’t attach a personal message, and was pretty upset after sending the request. As a result, only 35 of 500 friends had fanned the page. It was an epic fail.

Put a Facebook Fan Box on Your Blog

Even major corporations are doing it!

One of the coolest ways to promote your Facebook Page is with a Facebook Fan Box. It’s a widget that you can access through the administrator menu of your page (click the “edit page” link on the dashboard), and the option for it is on the right column under the “Promote your page” title.

Facebook Fan Boxes display 10 random fans from your page (all of them are represented by their icon and first name, and are clickable, bringing your to their profile page). It lists the number of fans for your page, and also includes a backlink going to the page itself. You can toggle the “Facebook” stripe on top of the box, the random fan icons, and a “news feed” of recent posts. Overall, these Fan Boxes are widely recognizable as many major companies are putting them on their pages to boost their social networking campaigns. You can further tweak how the Fan Box works, too – visit this official Fan Box tutorial for more information.

Add Your Page to Another Page’s Favorites

Be a permanent fixture on another Facebook Page

This is a good way to get some visibility to your page – you can add your Page to another Page’s “favorites.” What this does is it shows the icon and title of your page directly on that second page’s left-hand column, under a section called “Favorites.” 

Go to the page you want to promote, and click “Add to My Page’s Favorites.” It will then show a drop-down box of the other pages you own – whichever one you select will show the page within its “favorites” section.

If you’re getting a friend to do this for you, they’ll have to visit your page and click this link themselves, and add your Page to any of their Page’s favorites.

Important!

Facebook Page Statistics

Intro to Facebook Page Statistics

Marketers, are you paying attention?

If you’re a marketer or are creating pages for any kind of promotional or corporate purpose, you are probably wishing that your Facebook Page had Google Analytics. Well, here’s something that’s close enough: Facebook has built-in analytics for Facebook Pages!

Based on my screenshot above, here are the 5 main components of these analytics:

1. This week’s statistics: This is a brief run-down of what happened this week in terms of Page fans liking, commenting and posting on your Page wall. The more engaged you are with your Page’s community, the more these numbers will rise. Post a question, poll or anything that entices someone to give an opinion, and you’ll continue to see higher stats here.
2. Interactions graph: This graph takes your weekly statistics and puts them in graph form, for those who need a visual. The drop-down gives you options for interactions, interactions per post, post quality, posts, discussion posts, reviews and mentions.The graph will display a 1-year spread.
3. Demographics: This very important bar graph gives you a rundown of male vs. female interactions on your Facebook Page in regard to the information within the “interactions graph” mentioned above, along with their age brackets. It lets you see which gender and age group is most engaged with your Facebook Page.
4. Fan Data Chart: This chart gives you a visual representation of total vs. unsubscribed fans (people who lurk on your page but don’t fan it). The line will give you the number of fans on a given page when you hover your mouse over it. Additional drop-down options include new/removed fans, top countries, top countries, demographics, page views, unsubscribes/resubscribes and media consumption.
5. Fan Data Demographics: This bar-chart version of the data mentioned in the Fan Data Chart gives you the same data, but in numerical format. It also includes gender and age bracket data.

My Facebook Page Has No Analytics…Why?!

It’s not available at default…you have to unlock the option!

Your Pages’ analytics option will unlock once you have what Facebook considers to be a significant number of fans and interactions. This exact number is never truly defined, but don’t worry: you won’t need a ton of interaction, just an ample amount. You can get the ball rolling by posting interactive questions, pictures, videos and other things that will prompt your fans to leave comments or click the “like” link.

If you don’t fit the requirement, your bar charts will not display, but will have the notification seen in the screenshot above appearing in their place. That “Learn More” link will open up a pop-up box that says:

When you create compelling content, your fans may choose to interact with the material by commenting, liking, or writing on your Wall. These fans help to spread your content virally throughout Facebook, as their engagement leads to organic stories being published in their friends’ News Feed.

Your Post Quality is determined by the percentage of your fans that engage when you post content to your Page. It is calculated on a rolling seven-day basis. The number of stars depends on how your Post Quality compares to similar Pages (for example, Pages that have a similar number of fans.)

To increase the number of Interactions and improve your Post Quality you may consider:

* Making sure that your posts, whether they are Status Updates, photos, links, or videos, are relevant to your fans. Posting engaging content is the best way to get people to interact with your Page.

* Posting frequently, but not posting an overwhelming amount of content that users may find spammy or burdensome to consume.

* Increasing your total fan base to generate more interactions:
Promote your page with an ad

Facebook Page Statistics…Via eMail!

Free reports sent to you each week

Facebook has been sending its Facebook Page owners a brief rundown of their Pages’ analytics for quite awhile, but let’s face it – it was always pretty ugly, with plain text and no eye appeal. In August 2010, Facebook redid these emails and included a few graphics to jazz up the look and feel of the report, as seen to your right. 

These emails are great for the lazy Facebook Page webmaster – if you fail to log in on a regular basis to check your stats, don’t worry about it! They’ll just get emailed over to you. All of them, in one long email.

On these reports, you’ll see info about your monthly users, likes, number of wall posts and visits for the week…as well as last week’s numbers in comparison, along with eye-catching green up arrows and red down arrows. It’s a great way to peer at the entire week of activity without having to do it the hard way. TY Facebook, TY very much for this.

Important!

How to Name a Facebook Page

Facebook Page Vanity URLs

Rename pages to “Facebook.com/YourPage”

On 12:01 A.M., June 13, 2009 – Facebook opened up the option of allowing users to name their Facebook Pages with a vanity URL, in the same fashion of how they were allowed to create a username (Facebook.com/username). However, Facebook put a hefty requirement that created a lot of animosity amongst the internet community: their bone-headed approach to stop cybersquatters was to make it so that only Facebook Pages created before March 2009 AND having 1,000 or more fans were able to be named. As a result, company owners everywhere were up in arms, as anyone who met these requirements were able to take their company name.

The new date for “open” Facebook Page naming to everyone else was June 28th, 2009. However, many Page owners quickly complained about how there was no option to give their Page a vanity URL – whereas several others were able to do so. Currently, all pages need to fulfill the requirement of having at least 25 fans in order to have a vanity URL. Read on to learn how you can name your pages:

How to Name a Facebook Page

Got at least 25 fans? Register your Facebook URL!

This process is strangely difficult to figure out, as Facebook never posted the link for naming a Page on the Pages dashboard. To get started, visit the Facebook Page user name dashboard. From there, you’ll see a list of every single Facebook Page you run in a dropdown list. Every Facebook Page that is eligible for naming will have a text box appearing to the right of it when selected. Pages that are not yet eligible (i.e., ones that don’t have 25 fans yet), will simply show a message saying that it is not ready at this time.

Vanity URL eligibility
Only pages that have 25 fans or more are eligible to have a vanity URL. If you have the ability to advertise your Facebook Page on your website or e-mail footer, it would be in your best interest to attain that number of fans as quickly as possible.

The Vanity URL for your Facebook Page needs a minimum of five characters – but you’ll be hard-pressed to ever find one that short, since Facebook seems to restrict them for future purposes. One thing’s for sure: it is not possible to register generic, single-word Facebook URLs (like facebook.com/diamonds or facebook.com/cars). So, you’re limited to compound words or phrases, only (as you guessed it, those short, generic word URLs are probably being reserved for “Big Business” purposes, or who knows what else).

If your Facebook Page is not eligible for naming, you will get the following message:

(pagename) is not eligible for a username at this time. In the future, (pagename) will be able to set a username. Learn more.
Using periods in your Page name
When naming a page, you can only use letters, numbers and periods. Usernames that have periods essentially count both as a “period” and “non-period” version, making it worth your while to use them. For instance, “facebook.com/my.page” also counts as “facebook.com/mypage” – in essence, it’s like having two usernames in one. Nobody else will be able to register either, too! If you want to use periods in your Facebook Page name by default, know that you’re limited to only four periods total.

Facebook’s new notice shows that they are VERY serious about legitimacy! 

If You Own a Trademark – You’re In Luck!

Skip to the front of the line and get your FB Page name

Here’s some great news, if you own a registered trademark: Facebook will be extremely helpful in assisting you with a custom URL on a page. All you’ll have to do is create a page for your business or trade name (or, if you already have one – that’s fine, too)…then, fill out a Username IP Infringement Form. This form requires you to have your trademark registration number ready. Remember, that number is in the form of “01/234567″ – simply input it in the “Trademark Registration #” field. Trademark owners are exempt from the “minimum 25 fans” rule for pages! If you don’t have a registered trademark for your business, I highly recommend getting one if you can afford it. LegalZoom Online Trademarks is a reputable service that will do it for you.

In the description field, tell the Facebook representative that you are not reporting an infringing user, but you are a trademark owner, and would like to secure the name of your company as a Facebook Page. The representative should reply to you rather quickly – usually within 24 hours, and assist you with getting this task done. I’ve done it twice – once for the company I work for, and another time for a registered trademark I own, and Facebook has been nothing but helpful and speedy in both situations.

Google Search Tips and Tricks

 

1. The best way to begin searching harder with Google is by clicking the Advanced Search link.

2. This lets you search for exact phrases, “all these words”, or one of the specified keywords by entering search terms into the appropriate box.

3. You can also define how many results you want on the page, what language and what file type you’re looking for, all with menus.

4. Advanced Search lets you type in a Top Level Domain (like .co.uk) in the “Search within site of domain” box to restrict results.

5. And you can click the “Date, usage rights, numeric range and more” link to access more advanced features.

6. Save time – most of these advanced features are also available in Google’s front page search box, as command line parameters.

7. Google’s main search invisibly combines search terms with the Boolean construct “AND”. When you enter smoke fire – it looks for smoke AND fire.

8. To make Google search for smoke or fire, just type smoke OR fire

9. Instead of OR you can type the | symbol, like this: smoke | fire

10. Boolean connectors like AND and OR are case sensitive. They must be upper case.

11. Search for a specific term, then one keyword OR another by grouping them with parentheses, like this: water (smoke OR fire)

12. To look for phrases, put them in quotes: “there’s no smoke without fire”

13. Synonym search looks for words that mean similar things. Use the tilde symbol before your keyword, like this: ~eggplant

14. Exclude specific key words with the minus operator. new pram -ebay excludes all results from eBay.

15. Common words, like I, and, then and if are ignored by Google. These are called “stop words”.

16. The plus operator makes sure stop words are included. Like: fish +and chips

17. If a stop word is included in a phrase between quote marks as a phrase, the word is searched for.

18. You can also ask Google to fill in a blank. Try: Christopher Columbus discovered *

19. Search for a numerical range using the numrange operator. For example, search for Sony TV between £300 and £500 with the string Sony TV £300..£500

20. Google recognises 13 main file types through advanced search, including all Microsoft Office Document types, Lotus, PostScript, Shockwave Flash and plain text files.

21. Search for any filetype directly using the modifier filetype:[filetype extension]. For example: soccer filetype:pdf

22. Exclude entire file types, using the same Boolean syntax we used to exclude key words earlier: rugby -filetype:doc

23, In fact, you can combine any Boolean search operators, as long as your syntax is correct. An example: “sausage and mash” -onions filetype:doc

24. Google has some very powerful, hidden search parameters, too. For example “intitle” only searches page titles. Try intitle:herbs

25. If you’re looking for files rather than pages – give index of as the intitle: parameter. It helps you find web and FTP directories.

26. The modifier inurl only searches the web address of a page: give inurl:spices a go.

27. Find live webcams by searching for: inurl:view/view.shtml

28. The modifier inanchor is very specific, only finding results in text used in page links.

29. Want to know how many links there are to a site? Try link:sitename – for example link:www.mozilla.org

30. Similarly, you can find pages that Google thinks are related in content, using the related: modifier. Use it like this: related:www.microsoft.com

31. The modifier info:site_name returns information about the specified page.

32. Alternatively, do a normal search then click the “Similar Pages” link next to a result.

33. Specify a site to search with the site: modifier – like this: search tips site:www.techradar.com

34. The above tip works with directory sites like http://www.dmoz.org and dynamically generated sites.

35. Access Google Directory – a database of handpicked and rated sites – at directory.google.com

36. The Boolean operators intitle and inurl work in Google directory, as does OR.

37. Use the site: modifier when searching Google Images, at images.google.com. For example: dvd recorder site:www.amazon.co.uk

38. Similar, using “site:.com” will only return results from .com domains.

39. Google News (news.google.com) has its own Boolean parameters. For example “intext” pulls terms from the body of a story.

40. If you use the operator “source:” in Google News, you can pick specific archives. For example: heather mills source:daily_mail

41. Using the “location:” filter enables you to return news from a chosen country. location:uk for example.

42. Similarly, Google Blogsearch (blogsearch.google.com) has its own syntax. You can search for a blog title, for example, using inblogtitle:<keyword>

43. The general search engine can get very specific indeed. Try movie:<name of film> to look for movie reviews.

44. The modifier film: works just as well!

45. Enter showtimes and Google will prompt you for your postcode. Enter it and it’ll tell you when and where local films are showing.

46. For a dedicated film search page, go to http://www.google.co.uk/movies

47. If you ticked “Remember this Location” when you searched for show times, the next time you can enter the name of a current film instead.

48. Google really likes movies. Try typing director: The Dark Knight into the main search box.

49. For cast lists, try cast: name_of_film

50. The modifier music: followed by a band, song or album returns music reviews.

51. Try searching for weather London – you’ll get a full 4-day forecast.

52. There’s also a built-in dictionary. Try define:<word> in the search box.

53. Google stores the content of old sites. You can search this cache direct with the syntax keyword cache:site_url

54. Alternatively, enter cache:site_url into Google’s search box to be taken direct to the stored site.

55. No calculator handy? Use Google’s built in features. Try typing 12*15 and hitting “Google Search”.

56. Google’s calculator converts measurements and understands natural language. Type in 14 stones in kilos, for example.

57. It does currency conversion too. Try 200 pounds in euros

58. If you know the currency code you can type 200 GBP in EUR instead for more reliable results.

59. And temperature! Just type: 98 f to c to convert Fahrenheit to Centigrade.

60. Want to know how clever Google really is? Type 2476 in roman numerals, then hit “Google Search”…

61. You can personalise your Google experience by creating a Google account. Go to http://www.google.com/account/ then click “Create Account”.

62. With a Google account there are lots more extras available. You’ll get a free Gmail email account for one…

63. With your Google account, you can also personalise your front page. Click “iGoogle” to add blog and site feeds.

64. Click “Add a Tab” in iGoogle to add custom tabs. Google automatically populates them with suitable site suggestions.

65. iGoogle allows you to theme your page too. Click “Select Theme” to change the default look.

66. Some iGoogle themes change with time…”Sweet Dreams” is a theme that turns from day to night as you browse

67. Click “More” under “Try something new” to access a full list of Google sites and new features.

68. “Custom Search” enables you to create a branded Google search for your own site.

69. An active, useful service missing from the list is “Personalised Search” – but you can access it via http://www.google.com/psearch when you’re logged in.

70. This page lists searches you have recently made – and is divided into categories. Clicking “pause” stops Google from recording your history.

71. Click “Trends” to see the sites you visit most, the terms you enter most often and links you’ve clicked on!

72. Personalised Search also includes a bookmark facility – which enables you to save bookmarks online and access them from anywhere.

73. You can add bookmarks or access your bookmarks using the iGoogle Bookmarks gadget.

74. Did you know you can search within your returned results? Scroll down to the bottom of the search results page to find the link.

75. Search locally by appending your postcode to the end of query. For example Indian food BA1 2BW finds restaurants in Bath, with addresses and phone numbers!

76. Looking for a map? Just add map to the end of your query, like this: Leeds map

77. Google finds images just as easily and lists them at the top, when you add image to the end of your search.

78. Google Image Search recognises faces… add &imgtype=face to the end of the returned URL in the location bar, then hit enter to filter out pictures that aren’t people.

79. Keeping an eye on stocks? Type stocks: followed by market ticker for the company and Google returns the data from Google Finance.

80. Enter the carrier and flight number in Google’s main search box to return flight tracking information.

81. What time is it? Find out anywhere by typing time then the name of a place.

82. You may have noticed Google suggests alternate spellings for search terms – that’s the built in spell checker!

83. You can invoke the spell checker directly by using spell: followed by your keyword.

84. Click “I’m Feeling Lucky” to be taken straight to the first page Google finds for your keyword.

85. Enter a statistics-based query like population of Britain into Google, and it will show you the answer at the top of its results.

86. If your search has none-English results, click “Translate this Page” to see it in English.

87. You can search foreign sites specifically by clicking “Language Tools”, then choosing which countries sites to translate your query to.

88. Other features on the language tools page include a translator for blocks of text you can type or cut and paste.

89. There’s also a box that you can enter a direct URL into, translating to the chosen language.

90. Near the language tools link, you’ll see the “Search Preferences”. This handy page is full of secret functionality.

91. You can specify which languages Google returns results in, ticking as many (or few) boxes as you like.

92. Google’s Safe Search protects you from explicit sexual content. You can choose to filter results more stringently or switch it off completely.

93. Google’s default of 10 results a page can be increased to up to 100 in Search Preferences, too.

94. You can also set Google to open your search results in a new window.

95. Want to see what others are searching for or improve your page rank? Go to http://www.google.com/zeitgeist

96. Another useful, experimental search can be found at http://www.google.com/trends – where you can find the hottest search terms.

97. To compare the performance of two or more terms, enter them into the trends search box separated by commas.

98. Fancy searching Google in Klingon? Go to http://www.google.com/intl/xx-klingon

99. Perhaps the Swedish chef from the muppets is your role model instead? Check http://www.google.com/intl/xx-bork

100. Type answer to life, the universe and everything into Google. You may be surprised by the result…