The best way to sum up these changes is by saying that they let you better communicate with your fans and non-fans alike. You’ll see what I mean when I go into more detail about what’s new. So without further ado, here are some of the biggest changes that have been made, and how they can benefit your marketing on Facebook.

Change #1: The improved wall is more prominent

Before these changes took place, Facebook pages used to look like the old version of a profile, where everything was on one page. You had to scroll down to see everything; on my old Facebook page, the wall was much further down the page and difficult to see.

Now, the wall is the first thing that people will see when they visit my page, and I think that will be a big benefit. Why? Because as someone who writes new content quite often, it will make it easier for people what I’m creating.

A great example of this is my RSS feed, which I currently import onto the Facebook page through an application. I write on this blog at least once a week, so with the greater prominence on the page, people who are fans of my Facebook page but who aren’t subscribed to my blog are now going to be more likely to see what I’m writing.

Other things relating to this change that I like include:

• Status updates – I can now give people a status update about what’s going on with my business, although this does seem very Twitter-ish in nature. As a business owner though, this might be a great place to do some informal polling by asking people some questions for them to comment on.
• Shared links, photos, etc. – I can use this as another way to keep people updated on what I might be reading or find interesting. It might also be used to share resources with fans that they might benefit from. Again, very Twitter-ish in nature.
• Comments on RSS feed updates – I’m sure people could do this in the past, but I might just not have noticed it. In any case, it’s another way for people to interact with what you’re writing. Does it really make a difference if someone comments to your post directly on your blog or on Facebook?

Change #2: Tabbed content makes for easier browsing

It’s almost counterintuitive that spreading your content out over a few tabs will get it more visibility than having it all on one page, but I think it is definitely a change for the better – much as was the case when this format first appeared for profiles. And the nice thing about these tabs is that people will see them right away, since they’re at the top of the page in a very noticeable location.

Why are these tabs an improvement over the old page format? In most cases, you don’t want to make people scroll down too much on a website to find the information they’re looking for, because they generally won’t. On the previous page format all you could do was hope that people scrolled down to see your content. But with the placement of these new tabs, it makes it easier for them to find your content.

This change leads me right into…

Change #3: Multiple landing page options

Now that Facebook pages have a tabbed layout, you end up getting unique URL’s for each tab. Why is this a good thing? Because you can now send people directly to specific information on your Facebook page, rather than sending them to the page as a whole and hoping they find the information..

As another added benefit, while your fans will see your page’s wall as the default when they visit, you can edit the settings to specify what you want non-fans to visit when they visit your page. This might be useful if you want to have, say, your Extended Information set as the first thing that people see. I’m personally debating whether I want non-fans to see the “Boxes” tab as the first thing they see – since it’s on this tab that I have reviews from former clients – or if they should be directed right to my wall.

Change is good, but…

Overall, I think the ways that these changes make the pages more dynamic is a good thing. But at the same time, with them there also come a few points you should be aware of:

• Keep your content fresh – Because people see the wall tab as first, you want to make sure that you post new content here on a regular basis. Otherwise, it will start getting stale quickly – and if people don’t think your page is worth becoming a fan of or visiting, then they’ll stop coming to it.
• Make guidelines for status updates – If you’re a small business owner, you might want to consider setting yourself some guidelines about what should and shouldn’t be posted in these updates, as well as how often you want to make a status update here. Again, you want to keep things fresh, but you also don’t want to write something inappropriate.
• Set permissions – Because fans can now share something on the wall, you need to monitor what gets posted there carefully and set your permissions accordingly.

Thoughts?

You can see all of this in action on Addicott Web’s Facebook page. Facebook has also published a document detailing all of the changes that might be worth reading even if you’re a veteran user of them. If you’re new at using Facebook pages, then I would definitely recommend reading through it.

Now some questions for you. If you have a Facebook page of your own for your business, what do you think of some of these changes? Are they an improvement and you plan to take advantage of them, or do you wish you could stay with the old page format? Share your thoughts by using the comment form below!

My business is almost entirely dependent on word-of-mouth referrals, so making sure that as many my friends and contacts as possible know about Addicott Web is crucial. The vast majority of my social network is on Facebook already, so it’s the perfect way for me to reach a broad audience.

What are the two approaches?

There are two tools that Facebook offers that can be used to market your business: groups and pages.

The differences between groups and pages are subtle, and average Facebook users probably don’t notice how they are different. In fact, I didn’t realize the difference myself, even after I started looking into which to use – which is how I ended up creating a group before I realized the error of my ways and created a page instead.

So why did I ultimately decide to use a Facebook page instead of a group? Simply put, because pages offer more flexibility to post such things as:

• Customer reviews of my work
• Recent blog posts through the RSS application
• Connections to pages of my clients

But groups can have their benefits too – just not for my purposes. Here is a quick table that summarizes the differences between the two tools:

Facebook Groups

Facebook groups can be created for just about anything. They are typically used as gathering places for people who share a common interest, support a common cause, or participated in some program or event together.

Why might you want to use a group to market your business?

• Administration – As the group administrator, you can easily send messages to group members, making it easier to communicate with them about your business.
• Familiarity – Facebook pages are relatively new, only having debuted in the last year or so, but groups have been around since the start. Because of that, people are a lot more familiar with groups and how to join and use them than they are with pages.

But there can be some drawbacks to using a group, such as:

• Not widely accessible – Groups are only visible to Facebook members, so someone who’s doing a search on Facebook won’t be able to see it unless they have a profile and are logged in.
• No extra applications – You can’t extra features to Facebook groups – what you see is what you get, which is generally the bare-bones stuff such as discussion boards, a wall, photo gallery, and basic administrative features.
• Need to visit regularly – If you post a message to the group’s wall, you won’t see if or when someone responded to what you wrote unless you go back and visit often. This can be a big drawback if you want to facilitate a flowing conversation.
• Less visibility on people’s profiles – When you join a group, it gets added to a long list of the other groups that you’re already a member of – and one that isn’t bulleted and lists the groups in no particular order to boot. If someone has a lot of groups that they’re a member of, it’s not easy to find yours amongst everything else.

Facebook Pages

As I detailed in another post on this topic, pages were created to allow people to connect with brands or famous artists. Pages can be created by anyone for any group, person, or business, although generally only an official representative of that business or person is allowed to maintain a page for that group or individual.

One of the biggest differences from a group is that you don’t become a “member” like you do of a group; rather, you are a “fan” of the page.

There are a lot more benefits to using a page versus using a group, such as:

• Are widely accessible – Pages can be seen and found on the wider Internet to people who aren’t members of Facebook, so you do gain wider exposure in that sense. But even so, you have to be a member of Facebook to interact with the group.
• Applications are available – As the page administrator, you can add applications to your page, similar to the way you can add applications to your Facebook profile. For example, on Addicott Web’s Facebook page, I’ve added an application that imports my RSS feed from my blog and displays my new posts whenever I post something to my blog.
• Tracking – Facebook has provided page administrators a tool that lets them know how many visitors that they’re getting.
• Better visibility – On your profile page, groups are displayed at the bottom with an image associated with that group next to it. The presentation and use of an image means that you get better visibility on their profile, making it easier for them (and others) to find your page.
• Actions are documented – If a fan of your page takes action on it, such as writing on your wall or posting a video, their actions will be documented on the news feeds of their personal pages. Their friends will see the news feeds and if curious, check out your page – giving you more exposure.

There are still a few drawbacks though, including:

• No mass invitations – If you want to invite people to become fans of your page, you can’t send invitations to large groups of people like can with a group. I’ve encountered this problem myself and it is quite frustrating.
• Less familiarity – Longtime Facebook users might still be less familiar with pages than they are with groups. In general though I think this is becoming less of a concern, so I wouldn’t factor this into your decision between the two.
• Messages might get less attention – As the page administrator you can send an update to your fans, but they might not notice it. Rather than appearing in their inbox, it gets displayed on the side of a user’s homepage – a less prominent spot that is unlikely to grab their attention.

Thoughts?

So now that you know the difference between Facebook groups and pages, which would you use to promote your business, or that of a business or organization you work for or with?

If you’re a small business owner and already use a Facebook group or page to market yourself, which approach do you use and why? Is it working for you?

Share your thoughts with everyone on both of these questions and more by filling out the comment form below!

What is my goal in doing this? Simply put, it’s just another way to help people – either in my network, or on Facebook in general (since pages will display in global search results within Facebook) – find out more information about my business, which in turn might hopefully lead to new clients and new projects.

What Is a Facebook Page?

For those who aren’t familiar with pages on Facebook, the help section on the topic describes pages like this:

“Facebook created Pages when we noticed that people were trying to connect with brands and famous artists in ways that didn’t quite work on Facebook. We created Pages to offer you a way to accurately represent on Facebook what’s important to you in real life. Facebook Pages help you discover new artists, businesses, and brands as well as connect with those you already love. Not only can you connect with your favorite artists and businesses, but now you also can show your friends what you care about and recommend by adding Pages to your personal profile. Please note that only the official representative of an artist or business is allowed to maintain a Page for that figure.”

How to Create a Facebook Page

It was actually somewhat confusing trying to find information on how to go about creating a page. I ended up doing a Google search about it – since Google has the answer for everything – where I found the right page right away. (For those of you who would like to create a Facebook page of your own, you can visit their “Create a Page” tool.)

When you create a page, there are all sorts of fields, widgets, and applications that you can use. Here are the ones that I think are the most important:

• Information – You can enter in basic information in this area, but there is also an application called “Extended Information” that allows you to fill in much more detailed information. I have yet to do this on my page, but I’m planning on doing it. The “Information” field as is doesn’t give you much room to work with, and I’d like to be able to put some more information about Addicott Web for people to see it.
• Photos – This was particularly useful for me because it is basically serving as a portfolio of my work. I posted screenshots of the websites that I’ve designed, and copied the details about each project into the caption for the photo.
• Notes – This section is useful as well because I can import my RSS feed into it, so that any blog posts that I write are automatically updated here as well. Again – it’s just another opportunity to read what I’m writing, comment on it, and get exposure to Addicott Web.

I’ve also left some of the other standard areas up on the page, such as the Discussion Board, Reviews, etc. A number of my clients are in my network on Facebook, so I hope that these areas will come in handy either when working with them, or to help continue our relationship once the project is complete.

Here is what Addicott Web’s Facebook page looks like:

Do You Have a Facebook Page?

So now that I’ve shown you how I’m promoting my business on Facebook, if you have a business, would you create a page as well? Or do you already have one, and have any insights or tips for improvement that you would like to share? Use the comments form below to share them!