How to Create a Fan Page on Facebook

Fan pages on Facebook provide businesses, authors and others with the ability to create a brand-specific social networking portal on one of the world's most popular social networking sites. Facebook fan pages offer the ability to post status updates, add photos, links, videos and more. They can be a great social networking marketing tool for businesses of all types or a place for individuals to share a love for a particular book, band or topic.

How to Create a Fan Page on Facebook

Before discussing fan pages, be sure that you have a Facebook account. You'll need to open a Facebook account in order to create a fan page. Facebook accounts are free.

Steps to Create a Fan Page

Once you've chosen a user name and a password and created a basic profile page, it's time to create your fan page.

Log into your Facebook account.
Go to the Create a Fan Page section on Facebook.
Select the category for your fan page from those listed.
Read and agree to the Terms of Use.
Enter the name for your fan page. Be sure to type it in exactly as you want it to be, because once it's live you cannot change it.
Check off the Terms of Use box, and click the "Get Started" button.

That's it! You've just created a fan page on Facebook. Now the fun begins: customizing your page.

Customize Your Fan Page

A fan page on Facebook is much like a personal profile page, except it is set up for a business, organization, or individual.

Customize your fan page with:

A profile photo. Businesses should use their corporate logo or perhaps a product image. Organizations can use an image of what they support, such as a dog or cat for an animal rescue group or a picture of a building for a church. Upload your photo from your fan page by clicking the Edit Page button, then clicking Change Picture and following the directions to upload a photo.
Information. The information page is the welcome page, sort of like a personal profile page. Click Add Information, then Edit Profile. The Edit Profile screen displays various fields depending upon the category you selected when you set up the fan page. For example, for writers, artists, musicians and others, personal information such as a birthday and location can be entered into the Info and Profile screen. Businesses can add information on their mission, vision, values and products.
Contact information: Be sure to include the URL of the organization's website and contact information, if applicable.

Invite Others to Participate

A Facebook fan page is only as useful and fun as its fans. Invite like-minded friends to the fan page by using the "Invite People" tab. Be sure to engage visitors to the fan page in dialogue; post thought provoking, open-ended questions, updates, and simple, interesting statements that support the company, organization or individual's brand image. Adding pictures, videos and links to articles and websites that relate directly to the fan page is also a great idea. Multimedia additions to Facebook fan pages tend to draw more traffic than static text comments.

Keep Your Page Fresh

Keep your fan page fresh and relevant. Schedule updates on a regular basis if traffic is slow to start out with. Add your Facebook fan page URL to your email signature, include it on your business cards, or add it to your website if appropriate. Obviously, a fan page for a starlet might not be something you share with all your business associates (unless you're that starlet, of course.) But if you've set up a Facebook fan page for your business, it's a great idea to promote it just as you would your company's URL.

Facebook offers shorter URLs for fan pages once they pass the threshold of 25 follows. That's why it's important to invite friends to "Like" the fan page; the more people who like it, the better. Getting people to the fan page is the first step; keeping them coming back for more creates a loyal fan base that's critical to using fan pages for marketing success. It's also important to have fun with your fan pages because the interaction among followers is really what makes Facebook fan pages interesting.

Cultivate Loyal Fans

Facebook fan pages offer loyal fans the opportunity to share their love for a movie, book, author, artist, actor, business, organization or other group with friends. They're free and easy to set up. The secret to successful fan pages is to encourage participation, so learn all you can about social networking for success and keep your page fresh.