I saw a commercial where the company asked the audience to join them on Facebook, instead of mention their URLs on television commercial. While I would not suggest to overlook mentioning your website, I think that this illustrates just how powerful and fully adopted Facebook has become in both business and society as a whole. It’s a serious force.

In business, you’ll want to create a Fan Page as opposed to using your personal page. Also, don’t create a Facebook Group, they are outdated (they do not support Facebook Markup Language (FBML) or Facebook Apps, so they are not as interactive). First do a search and search for your brand or company and see what’s out there. 

When you create your business fan page, choose a name that people will remember, and that clearly represents you. Ideally it should be the name of your business. Also, this name cannot be changed. You must have 25 fans in order to set up a username. It really makes accessing your profile a lot easier. Be sure and apply the username to your Facebook Page, not your personal profile. 

You can customize your Fan Page and you should do so as much as you can. Upload a profile picture, and fill out the details about your business. If people are coming to the page, then they want to know more so use the profile to flesh out who you are, what you do, where to find you and more. 

I’m not going to get into detail here about this (unless your comments want me to in another article), but you should be aware that you can (and should) create custom content that is appealing to customers and will stand out in the crowd as well as reinforce your brand. You do this using Facebook Markup Language (FBML). 

In today's economy, Facebook can offer no or low-cost, creative and innovative marketing. With millions of users each and every day, Facebook is present in people’s daily lives.

Once you’ve created your own Facebook Business Page. Next you need to let everyone know that it’s there.
I would suggest first communicating the launch of your new Facebook Page with your existing customers, particularly if you have their email addresses. Let them know how to find you that you want their honest feedback on your product or service, and to reach out to you on Facebook. You may consider doing a promotion, for example, if they become a fan, they could receive a discount on their next purchase. 

More tips on Facebook in my next post. If you have specific questions, please comment on this post. 

By the way, since I’m giving all the information to you, I thought I should set up my own Facebook page - so I did and don’t have any friends yet :(

http://www.facebook.com/pages/RubyMarCom/116688138381420