How To Create a Facebook "Fan" Page
Tuesday, September 15th 2009 @ 7:51 AM 
(2 ratings)
Facebook should be an integral part to any social website strategy. After all, with over 300,000,000 users, how can you ignore this market? While Facebook provides you with a "page", it is a must to have your own professional web presence outside of Facebook. Here I will show you how to setup your own Facebook page and explain why you need it. In the next post I will suggest some ways you can set it up and use it.
First, if you do not already have a Facebook account (a login, personal or business), get one. Just go to Facebook.com and sign up. It really does not matter much if you choose to use a personal or business profile, because you will be creating a "fan" page (or just "pages" - as Facebook now refers to them) when the fans of the site will not have access to your personal details within your profile.
Also important to note, that you must be authorized to create a page for the organization. For example, you cannot create a Madonna* Fan page, unless Madonna said you could.
* Yes, I am a product of the 80's and that is the best example I could come up with.
Creating the Page.
Once you are logged in to Facebook, visit this URL to create your page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php
Choose your "category" for your fan page. This is important for searching, but also depending on the category you choose, the page will be setup with different default applications. So you want to choose the category that really does best fit your business or organization.
Next, simply name your page.
Now just agree that you have the rights to create this page and it is done!
What's the Point.
It took me a long time to "embrace" Facebook. This was mostly because I did not see the point. To me, Facebook was just another way to waste time online. I see now that not all people waste time on Facebook - some people have used Facebook to build relationships that have led to new business, and many businesses have use Facebook as a very effective way to market their business and get more members for their social website (or iGrOOp). Remember, 300 Million people! That is an ginormous captive audience that should not, cannot, be ignored.
In part II we will get into setup specifics of your page.
