Facebook Fan Pages For Your Shop

Facebook Page Creation

If you do not have a Facebook fan page you might be missing out on hundreds or thousands of potential customers. You may already have a Facebook profile page which is different than a fan page. Profiles have some limitation such as you are only able to have 5,000 friends. A fan page can have millions of fans. Let's say for now that you already have a Facebook profile.

To create a fan page, make sure you are logged in and go to  http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php You should see the image above. Note that there are several categories to choose from. If you plan to one day open a Brick and Mortar business you may want to choose "Local Business or place" but most of you will just want to maintain an online shop so I would go with "Company, organization or institution." By clicking on the image a drop-down list shows up. More than likely you'll want to select "Retail and consumer merchandise." Type in the name of your business after selecting the category and sub category, then check the box saying you have read the Facebook Page terms. Of course, I strongly recommend that you read this now because you have some important Do's and Don'ts that will make your life easier in the long run if you understand. Then click "Get Started"

Now the fun begins. The first step is to upload a picture. This is what everyone will see when you comment on a post, write something on your wall, etc. I strongly suggest using the same picture as the one that you use for your Etsy or ArtFire avatar. This will help to build brand awareness and will help your shoppers to recognize you. After uploading, click "Continue."

In this step you'll be able to send an invite to all of your friends on your personal profile page. When you click the "Invite friends" button a list of all your friends will pop up. There is a check box by each friend. Clicking the check box will send an invite to them. If there are those that you do not wish to invite, just leave the check box blank. You can also pick contacts out of your email to send an invite. You also have two check boxes that you can click if you want to post a link on the wall of your profile and to "Like" the page from your profile. Remember if you "Like" the page it will be shown on your wall too. Once you are done, click "Continue."

The next step is pretty self explanatory. You are entering in the basic information of your company. Write as much or as little as you wish. I would suggest writing as much info as you can. You want to include website addresses, email, history, mission, etc. The more information the better. People like to know who they are buying from. After you get done with the setup, you are ready for the next step: Getting your first 25 fans so that you can get a custom username instead of the long string of numbers you page has at the beginning.

So, if you have a blog it is time to write a new blog post about your new fan page. If you have a Twitter account it is time to tweet about your new fan page. Be sure to add a link in your email signature. I would hold off on putting anything into print such as business cards until you have your custom URL in place. If you are on a forum and can put links in your signature, that is another good place to get started. If you are on Teams on Etsy there is more than likely a thread devoted to sharing your fan pages. Be sure to post in all of the teams that it is appropriate to do so. Some teams do not allow this so be sure you know the rules.

Tomorrow I will be discussing how to set up your custom username and ways to market your shop through your Facebook fan page. If you have any questions about how to start your fan page please leave a comment and I will answer if I can. If you know someone who would benefit from my blog feel free to share it.