Doing Business On Facebook

Facebook founded by Mark Zuckerberg, is a privately owned and operated free access social networking website, that was launched on February 4, 2004. Since its inception date Facebook has grown into one of the most trafficked sites on the internet and although some speculate that it has plateaued on unique visitor traffic in the United States, with over 100 million active users can you really go wrong utilizing it as a business marketing platform, especially being that it is free to use?

According to their internal statistics Facebook:

If you thought Facebook was just for the young folks:

So how do you do business on Facebook?

Facebook is a place to connect, share, and grow your personal and professional networks.

Start by joining, if you do not sign up you can never get started.

Next create your profile by adding a profile picture, include a small professional bio, add a mixture of personal and professional photos, and include some personal interests.

Then build your network

Link up with friends, family, co-workers, and your business network

Join personal and professional Facebook groups

Connect your other networks to Facebook and vice versa

Twitter Applications

LinkedIn Applications

Blog Applications

Bring your business to Facebook

Establish an interactive presence on Facebook by creating a business page.

Every Facebook Page is a unique experience where users can become more deeply connected with your business or brand. Users can express their support by adding themselves as a fan, writing on your Wall, uploading photos, and joining other fans in discussion groups. You can send updates to your fans regularly — or just with special news or offers. Add applications to your Page and engage your users with videos, reviews, flash content, and more. Creating a Facebook Page is easy, free, and great for all types of businesses:

Create a Facebook group

A group creates a platform for the company to share updates, news stories, highlight events, as well as get customer and target market feedback through the use of discussion and forum components. The group dynamic also provides a networking environment for clients and prospective clients.

Promote your company’s blog by joining the blog network on Facebook (The Get Smart Blog on Facebook)

With 229,000 users blog networks is the best way to promote your blog on Facebook. Blog Networks is a community of bloggers and blog lovers. The application displays a thumbnail image of your blog on your profile, creates a visual blogroll on your profile to promote your blog and blogs you like, categorizes your blog in a directory of blogs organized by topic and geographical locations, and finally the application displays your latest blog posts.

Share your blog posts with your Facebook network with Share Partners or the Share Bookmarklet

The Share Bookmarklet will recognize when you share videos and music, making them easy to play within Facebook.

Integrate Facebook into your website with Facebook Connect

Facebook Connect is the next evolution of Facebook Platform - enabling you to integrate the power of the Facebook Platform into your own site. Enable your users to seamlessly “connect” their Facebook account and information with your site, connect and find their friends who also use your site, Share information and actions on your site with their friends on Facebook.

To be successful in building your business through social networking you must be visible, active, and consistent.

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