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So you’re thinking about Facebook and Social Networking for your business, but where do you start? Things can be so confusing when you’re not sure what direction your headed.
Do you need a full profile, a fanpage, a group, multiple groups or all of the above? Tonight we will explore the difference between a Facebook Profile, a Fan Page and Groups.

Facebook Profile

Having a Facebook Profile is normally reserved for individuals, not businesses, however, if you are clever you can get away with making a full-on profile for your business.

NOTE: Your email address used to sign up with cannot contain the word “info” or “admin” or Facebook will reject it.

Having the profile can make organizing your pages, and groups very simple and keep them all in one place – I highly recommend signing up for a full profile. Using one email address to sign on and administrate your page(s) and group(s) keeps everything tidy and in one place.
To create a profile, you first need to decide if you are going to use your personal name; a pseudoname (basically a name that can only be tied to your online presence on facebook) or try your business name,

NOTE: most business names are caught by Facebook and harder to get verified.

Once you have decided on your profile name, its now time to create your account. Most businesses don’t have a birthday persay, so you will need to figure a date to use, generally for businesses I just use Jan 1,1950 its a nice round number and easy to remember, if you ever lose your password you will need to be able to remember this date so make it something you won’t forget.
Having a profile gives you access to posts, friends, walls, businesses, games and all kinds of stuff, it also gives you access to Fan Pages and Groups (yes you can create a Fan Page or a Group without a profile, but you will have separate logons for each (which means a different email for each as well).
There are several great apps available to those who use their profile for business and I will get into that subject later, but you can always check out Mashable for information on all the great apps available.

Fan Pages

Fan pages are awesome! Its the perfect FREE advertising for EVERY BUSINESS if you use correctly. Fan Pages are made to host thousands and even millions of friends, well “Likers”, everything you post has the ability to spider out accross the web and reach endless people. With the help of some great apps you can create an amazing page with little effort, but if you find page creation too confusing you can always call on Poodles Doodles to help you out! You can add a custom Welcome page (tab), a Mailing List page (tab) and countless others as well. Once someone “Likes” you, their default view on your page will be your wall which is helpful to keep your posts current to them.
Fan pages are great for the general “branding” of your online image, you can brand your pages to look or resemble your website, upload your logo, create a great profile picture and so much more. Of course you can always take it a bit further by creating ads for your pages as well, this helps you target your likers and generate business from your Fan Page.
Many retail places are now offering online contests and coupons as well – this is always a turn on for new likers.
In my opinion EVERY business should have a Fan Page – to serve as a general social area to keep up with your clients, talk about your new products and services and even gather testimonials, all of which can be linked right back to your website.

Groups

While many businesses don’t have a need or a real use for Groups, there are several out there that aren’t taking advantage of this awesome tool. Groups are kind of like clubs, limited membership that YOU control. Groups are perfect for:

The basic concept behind a group is to invite a group of people to this online “club” and the group serves as a central location for updates and information and meetings even comments based on the news and events. Lets take for example a community theater, groups are a perfect addition to a community theaters Facebook presence. They can utilize this feature for each production, inviting only the members that need to know information about upcoming rehearsals, important changes, basically a one stop shop for anything and everything needed for that particular production, without having to announce the information to the general public. Children’s playgroups can benefit from the privacy features as well, you don’t necessarily want your postings out there for just anyone to see, so if you control your privacy and send messages from within the group only you and your chosen members can view the messages and meeting dates, keeping your children safe.
There are so many creative ways to use both groups and pages together to keep your business running seamlessly on Facebook and just remember if you need help just contact Poodles Doodles and we can help get you set up.