Are you one of those marketers who is focusing on online branding their business or company? If your answer is “yes”, you may want to link your advertisements to your Facebook Page.

What’s that? Don’t have a Facebook Page? Well. Let’s have a look at Facebook Pages… and then you can tell me why not. Okay?

A Facebook Page provides “a customizable presence for an organization, product, or public personality to join the conversation with Facebook users”, according to Facebook. Its main focus is the “stream of content” provided by page administrators.

In other words, create a page for your company or yourself, providing real-time feedback, updates, screen shots and photos. Then give it a strong voice (yours), endowing the page with a definite, deliberate personality – one which you want aligned to your company mission and values. Chances are you will find you’ve created a powerful connection with your visitors. The content on your page and the feedback from real readers may help convince them to then click on your sales page link or the link to your main site, once your ad appears and people see that yours is a lively, positive page.

Another thing a page can do is charm potential customers into regular visits – particularly if they know you are going to:

- Provide them with an “insider” peek into your company’s heart
- Give them inside information
- Provide them with the latest news about your product or company
- Give them a “reward”; perhaps a special discount link, a game against other fans, or the chance to enter a contest or draw (run the latter two events by Facebook first!)

Regular users are your biggest asset – and a sure sign that you’re doing things right.

Beware of “Selling”

One thing that is key to creating a successful, strong Facebook Page: Be honest and up-front with your readers. Avoid anything that even faintly resembles hype or a sales pitch.

This should be the place they go that makes them feel as if you’ve let them slip into your private lunchroom, chatting with them like a friend and sharing things you wouldn’t share with outsiders. (Your posts will also appear in their News Feed, adding to the feeling of immediacy).

On top of this, Facebook has provided some great features to enhance your readers’ experience on your page: Options such as…

- Multi-media functional Wall (you can control what content you allow your fans to post)
- The ability to publish or not publish your posts to your fans’ News Feed
- Easy-to-navigate topside horizontal tabs containing Facebook “core” tabs such as Events and Discussion (Which you can enable… or not)
- Status update option

Check Your Stats

But perhaps its most exciting option is allowing you the ability to check your stats on viewer engagement. You’ll be able to see stats on comments and news feed use. (This is provided through their Facebook Insights platform.)

The only real drawback? Once you’ve created your page name, it can’t be changed or edited. (Everything else on the page can be adjusted). So make sure you take your time, picking exactly the right name, and putting it in the best category for your ad campaign. (The category also is permanent.)

Go visit your competitors’ Facebook Pages (and especially the professionally-produced pages of Big Guns like Nike and Coca-Cola) and see what features and elements you like… and what you don’t like.

Facebook Pages allow you a flexible range of applications you can choose to add… or not. These include:

- Videos
- Photos
- Events
- Reviews

And if these don’t meet your needs, check out the Facebook Applications Directory to uncover further apps that can help enhance your new Facebook Page.

For more details on how to take advantage of a Facebook Page visit: Facebook Marketing Products

The standards of your target audience and their expectations will vary based upon your projects and business niche. Those in the extreme snowboarding niche are going to be dealing with a very different client base than the business who works with quilters. What’s perfectly acceptable with one group would be scandalous with the other.

However, it’s usually possible for any business marketer to recognize what will and what will not “fly” within his or her niche. That information is extremely important because we want all of our branding efforts to remain within the expectations and preferences of our primary demographic.

In other words, be professional, be a PRO!. Construct a brand that behaves itself and that doesn’t step outside of the limits of acceptable behavior within its target audience. It’s another example of how consistency and discipline plays a big role in smart branding.

Be sure to know your field’s particular limits and mores before starting your branding efforts and act in a manner consistent with them in order to secure the best possible results.