Facebook - an introduction
Facebook is a social networking site intended to connect friends, family and business associates across the World. The history begins in February 2004 when a Harvard student, Mark Zuckerberg started 'Thefacebook'. It was quickly successful on campus and expanded beyond Harvard and now an estimated 600 million plus active Facebook users worldwide.
The Profile Page
A Facebook user can create a profile page that shows their friends and networks information about themselves. The choice to include a profile in a network means that everyone within that network can view the profile. The profile typically includes the following: Information, Status, Friends, Photos, Link, Video, Notes, Groups, and The Wall. The Basic information includes the following: Profile Picture or an avatar, Featured People, Education and Work, Philosophy, Arts and Entertainment, Sports, Activities and Interests, and Contact Information. A user can set the Privacy Settings as per his/her requirements. Users are able to search for friends and acquaintances by e-mail address, school, university, or just by typing in a name or location for search. When people become friends, they are able to see each others' profiles including contact information. E-mail notifications let users know when new friends have chosen to add them to their list or when someone has sent a message to them within the system.
Limitations of your Profile Page
As a Facebook member, you are only allowed one profile per person. If you have more than one profile and Facebook finds out, you will lose them all. You cannot customize a Personal Profile Page. You are only allowed 5000 friends per profile and are expected to interact socially with others. You cannot send group messages to all of your friends at once. These are some limitations of Facebook if you want to project yourself as a 'brand' or promote a business.
Facebook Fan Page
A Fan Page is an excellent way to promote yourself as a 'Brand' and your business. There are many advantages of a Fan Page compared to the normal Profile Page. In a 'fan/like' page you are allowed an unlimited number of friends as contacts or followers. There is no need to interact socially with others. Instead, business related content is expected in your Fan Page. You are allowed to create multiple fan/like pages. As of now, there is no limitations. You can customize your fan pages as you like and many different applications are available for customization.
Be wise to select a category and name
When you decide to setting up your fan page, be sure you choose the proper category for your page. At present, you are not able to change the category of your Facebook Fan Page. Facebook just decided that was not going to be a feature within the system. Different tabs are available based on your category. So choose wisely. The correct category will help others find you in Facebook's page directory while searching.
It is also important to select the most suitable name for your Fan Page. Once you reach 100 people who 'like' your page, you cannot change the name of your Fan Page. Facebook decided to set this rule in place to prevent 'bait and switch'. After you have 25 people who 'like' your page, you can get a vanity URL linking to your page.
Plan a strategy
As per the available data, almost half of the Facebook's users report signing in at least
once per day. That's a whopping 300 million visits to the site every day!
Those who have 'liked' your fan page will see your updates in their news feed when they log in. You should update your status and give your readers great content on a regular basis. This way, you stay on their minds. Give them a compelling reason to visit your fan page on a regular basis.
Change is the only constant!
Facebook activity is a continued one. There is no break. There's users from all the timezones. Very few people will come to your page to see what you are up to. So, vary your posting times to get your status updates in front of the maximum readers. Always think that you are on limelight and the world is your playground!
Attract more followers
To attract more followers to your Fan Page, ask interesting and compelling questions that
your readers will be likely to respond to.
Whenever someone who likes your page comments, all of their friends see that they commented on your page and a chance to click a link to see the conversation. They, however, will also need to like your page if they want to join the conversation. How's that?
Standout in the crowd
Facebook has an array of widgets and applications available for your fan/like pages. An interesting one is the Facebook Markup Language or FBML, in short. FBML is a special language that your web designer can use to make your page stand out from all of the generic, monotonous pages. You can now personalize your fan page using FBML. Customize your page with the look and personality to standout in the crowd.
This is a very well written article and it is also very informative for newbies on the internet, they need all the help they can get and Face-book and other social networking sites will help them get the word out about their new business ventures.
Mar 7th 2011 07:57