# Facebook



## WAGGZ

So Sunday morning I didn't make it to church so with some help from Chris (RCP) I made a page for my business on Facebook. Within 24 hours I had 3 leads; a cabinet...change from natural to black, 1 bedroom....they want stripes like the picture of my daughter's nursery, and a pressure wash. She thought I should post these results. Not saying that it's the best advertising but it already proves to me I need a website. So if any of you were thinking of doing it I would say go for it. To set up and add pics you can be done in an hour and it is free. Also you can do advertising in a pay per click manner if you want to.


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## nEighter

awesome! I just "fan"'d your biz


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## BESMAN

so, what exactly did you do after you made the page? I know making one takes a few minutes and is easy, but did you just start trying to add random people or what?


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## RCP

I am glad to see it worked for you! Facebook is becoming a huge resource!
It is becoming a search engine
It is indexed by google
It allows feedback from your customers
It is easier than a website to add pix and info to (not to replace a website)
Look at how this guy put FB on his website

There is an ebook on setting up a FB Business page on my FB Page
You should include your FB Link in your sig line here and your email!


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## Workaholic

BESMAN said:


> so, what exactly did you do after you made the page? I know making one takes a few minutes and is easy, but did you just start trying to add random people or what?


I am curious about this too.


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## nEighter

okay so is the original page your personal page linked in any way to the Facebook page? I could only create a new page and become a "fan" of my own page. Did I do something wrong?


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## RCP

Waggz is offline, so I'll jump in here!
I started my personal page first, then my business page and invites my local friends to become fans, then other contractors thru here and another forum, then customers.
Waggz has over 400 friends, so he was able to quickly add fans from his personal page, I think.
You can promote your page with ads, on Twitter, your website, Linkedin, etc.
Read page 15 here


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## WAGGZ

I already had a personal page. I was a fan of RCP's biz page. So when I was looking at it at the bottom left there is a place to click that says "get a page for your business" or something of that nature. Once it's up and running you can invite people. I invited all my friends (400+). If you want to chose the PPC method you set that up as an advertisment, you can customize the demographic and how much you will spend a day. I think but am not sure ut was a penny per click.


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## nEighter

okay. I have a hard time navigating on facebook still. Linkedin is just as foreign to me.. don't fully understand it


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## WAGGZ

nEighter said:


> awesome! I just "fan"'d your biz



I fan'd you to but couldn't find you on mine.


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## RCP

nEighter said:


> okay so is the original page your personal page linked in any way to the Facebook page? I could only create a new page and become a "fan" of my own page. Did I do something wrong?



The original is your personal page and can be kept private.
The business page is public, you do want to be a fan of it!

Nate, I just searched FB and found your page, looks great!:thumbsup:


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## nEighter

Thanks Chris! I guess I don't get how/why it can't be displayed more on our personal profiles for our friends... then again maybe I haven't found the magic button for that yet


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## deach

ya got mine started up here I think......working on it I'll tell ya I bout need to quit working to do my WWW stuff......


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## aaron61

every time i click create page it takes me to my personal...from there i am lost


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## RCP

Are you using the "Ads and Pages" icon on bottom left of page? 
Should open a page that has options for ads, pages, reports, billing.
Click on pages and create page. 
Look at the ebook I posted a link to above.


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## WAGGZ

I find it easiest to create a personal page. Then a biz page. you log into both using the same user name and password. Become a fan of your biz page then its not as hard to find. So whenever you click on it you'll already be to where you can do stuff to it.


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## nEighter

think that is what I did waggz


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## KLaw

Waggs - Congrats on your jobs from Facebook. The 400 or so friends that you already had set up is where the leads came from - right? How did you obtain such a large list of friends? Don't laugh - maybe 400 isn't large by facebook standards but I don't know. I am so new to this social media stuff.

RCP - That's pretty cool of you to spend the time to help out another professional painter. I respect that.:thumbsup:


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## WAGGZ

Well my friend list is kinda big for a nobody, I guess. I'm not going to say that I am actually friends with all of them but I do know them. I'm from a small close knit rural area. Have done work in a 50 mile radius. Grew up here and been to 2 different colleges within 50 miles. Plus when I first got out of school I job hopped. So I have met a lot of people in life's journey. The good thing is I just had 4 people become a fan that are not friends and 3 of them I don't know.


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## nEighter

I "fan"'d ya waggz :thumbsup:


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## WAGGZ

nEighter said:


> I "fan"'d ya waggz :thumbsup:


Tx I saw.


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## aaron61

got a page up...are any of you doing ads? http://www.facebook.com/pages/Clear...ity-Finishes-of-Tampa-Bay/136717004106?ref=nf


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## nEighter

fanned


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## RCP

I did ads for about 6 weeks, never saw any new fans or got contacted, did get clicked 4 times every day and ran up 37 bucks! I paused the ad, did some research and there seems to be some serious issues.


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## MAK-Deco

RCP said:


> I did ads for about 6 weeks, never saw any new fans or got contacted, did get clicked 4 times every day and ran up 37 bucks! I paused the ad, did some research and there seems to be some serious issues.


Chris I did the same as well and similar results, also I have no luck with google ads as well running up the $ and getting clicks but not turning it into calls or jobs.


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## daArch

Yah, I'm confused also.

Do you need lots of FB friends to fan a business page to up the search ratings? 

I'm retinking the whole FB experience. 

I'm getting a mindset that I do not want people I barely know to "friend" me on FB. I got enough internet interactions to deal with already. When I first went on FB I sent friend invites to some people I barely know, never met, or haven't seen in 20 years or more. I think that was a mistake. 

One guy whom I've never met keeps requesting to be my Friend - I don't want that. An old girl friend who I'd rather not be reminded of, just sent me a message - I don't want that. Another old acquaintance keeps wanting to IM me - I don't want that. An old school mate (hardly ever spoke to him in school) keeps asking me to be a fan of political groups that I don't agree with - I don't want that. I do not need to read about the sexual exploits of children of old friends. I do not need to know what beer my name is , nor what horror movie character I am. I do not need to win thousands of farkle points. IMO, the rapid growth of facebook has gotten out of hand. I have a feeling it will explode like an over-inflated balloon. 

For me, Facebook is a great social network if I keep my friends list limited to people I can truly call FRIENDS. I am about to de-friend people I barely know, have never met, or haven't talked to in 20 years. If anyone here falls into any of those categories and I de-friend you, please do not be insulted. I have been spending WAY too much time just reading and responding to my core group of friends and family. 

My computer/internet addiction is taking up too much time.


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## RCP

You do not need lots of FB friends to make a business page work, although it helps because you can easily share your page with your contacts, but you can do that with your email contacts too.

Personal Page
Can be kept private, you can make lists of friends, work, family etc and put limits on what they or you see. 
For business, we should not be "friending" each other, but it is fun and good practice for those just starting out.

Business Pages
Is public by default (and searchable/indexed by Google!). You are not friends on a business page, you are a "fan". So when you write something in your own page, it appears on your "friends" page, not your "fans" page.

If someone keeps bugging you, block em!
You are right about the applications, I hate em! But you can block them too.


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## MAK-Deco

I think the key is to have some people you know as fans of the biz page and have them spread the word to others they have befriend on there personal page. You do not need to be my friend on my personal page to be a fan of my biz page.


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## LA Painter

daArch said:


> Yah, I'm confused also.
> 
> Do you need lots of FB friends to fan a business page to up the search ratings?
> 
> I'm retinking the whole FB experience.
> 
> I'm getting a mindset that I do not want people I barely know to "friend" me on FB. I got enough internet interactions to deal with already. When I first went on FB I sent friend invites to some people I barely know, never met, or haven't seen in 20 years or more. I think that was a mistake.
> 
> One guy whom I've never met keeps requesting to be my Friend - I don't want that. An old girl friend who I'd rather not be reminded of, just sent me a message - I don't want that. Another old acquaintance keeps wanting to IM me - I don't want that. An old school mate (hardly ever spoke to him in school) keeps asking me to be a fan of political groups that I don't agree with - I don't want that. I do not need to read about the sexual exploits of children of old friends. I do not need to know what beer my name is , nor what horror movie character I am. I do not need to win thousands of farkle points. IMO, the rapid growth of facebook has gotten out of hand. I have a feeling it will explode like an over-inflated balloon.
> 
> For me, Facebook is a great social network if I keep my friends list limited to people I can truly call FRIENDS. I am about to de-friend people I barely know, have never met, or haven't talked to in 20 years. If anyone here falls into any of those categories and I de-friend you, please do not be insulted. I have been spending WAY too much time just reading and responding to my core group of friends and family.
> 
> My computer/internet addiction is taking up too much time.




Exactly - well said. :thumbsup:

FB was a lot more fun when my friends were people I actually hung out with. I don’t really like posting personal stuff about myself to be viewed by people I barley know. As a result, I’ve kinda gone into more of a luker mode. I think a lot of my friends who have been on it for a while have too. The novelty has worn off I guess. 

I doubt I’d use it for business. I don’t really like mixing friends and business anyway. Been there done that. :hammer:


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## Mp3

Hmm, I might have to try this!


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## RCP

Maybe I have not been clear. 
You do not have to mix business and personal!
It is very easy to keep the two very separate!


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## LA Painter

RCP said:


> Maybe I have not been clear.
> You do not have to mix business and personal!
> It is very easy to keep the two very separate!


Gotcha, but aren't the "fans" of your business page, mostly "friends" from your personal page? Otherwise, how would you get any fans? 

Or are you saying having a business page is more about google results, and you don't need no stinkin' fans?


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## RCP

Nope, most of my friends are family scattered all over the country, it is a great way to see what everyone is up to on my personal page, I want my fans to be locals.

Think of your business page as an interactive website, you can promote it many ways,
Twitter
Your website
Sending invites
Asking customers to put up a review
Using in your sig line
There are many open groups you can join and post tips on, adding your biz url.


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## KLaw

RCP said:


> Nope, most of my friends are family scattered all over the country, it is a great way to see what everyone is up to on my personal page, I want my fans to be locals.
> 
> *Think of your business page as an interactive website, you can promote it many ways,*
> *Twitter*
> *Your website*
> *Sending invites*
> *Asking customers to put up a review*
> Using in your sig line
> There are many open groups you can join and post tips on, adding your biz url.


 
The bolded part is what I don't understand. Why would you spend your time and energy promoting a FB page vs. your website? To me, everything spent to promote a FB page should be spent directing folks to your webpage. Sending invites, asking for customer reviews, etc.. could be directed and handled by your website. Now, if it increases your SEO then I it makes a bit more sense. I compare this to target marketing. One could spend a ton of cash marketing to a whole lot of folks or one could spend the same amount of cash and saturate a specific area. My $.02.


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## aaron61

I kinda like that some don't get it...if everybody got it where would we be


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## KLaw

aaron61 said:


> I kinda like that some don't get it...if everybody got it where would we be


I wasn't being critical - just curious. Have you got some leads from promoting FB?


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## RCP




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## aaron61

no.........................


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## KLaw

RCP said:


>


I watched about a 1/3 of it. What's your point? Thanks.


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## aaron61

Chris...I love that kind of stuff


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## RCP

"Ultimately, everything social media enables is a new form of word of mouth. Whether I blog about my love for the new Ford Taurus, become a fan of Lance Armstrong Foundation on Facebook, tweet a link to Amex tix for the Rolling Stones concert, or pass a video of Nick Cave reading from Bunny Munro to a friend - it's all word of mouth. (disc: all clients)

And word of mouth trumps most other forms of communication in influence on many purchase decisions and opinions. For brands, social media is an imperative to embrace in any way they can the power of word mouth. 

We need to help customers, enthusisasts, fans, "strangers with expertise" share about our products and the topics and ideas that bring us together with them. We want people to search in Google and find the endorsements of our advocates - third parties who say our products are good because they are.

Who are these third parties and how do we engage them so that they will authetically want to share? They are the new influencers."

Rest of article


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## painting247

Great idea, I found you on Facebook. Good information, maybe adding a Biz page soon!


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## nEighter

went to the page of a favorite mustang parts supplier and found their links. Thought of chris' article on how most business' are going to be doing this.

here is the link, and look on the left side as you scroll down:

http://www.latemodelrestoration.com/Mustang


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## nEighter

oh and gives me a great idea for using flikr


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## RCP

I think I get a different view of how much this is going to change the way we do things in the future. For those that don't know, I spend my days as a Media Specialist at an elementary school. You guys would be blown away to know what these kids can do. 
Most of them use all this social media, you can be sure when they are homeowners, they will not be using the yellow pages! I can barely get them to get the encyclopedia off the shelf, when it is online and more current!


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## y.painting

RCP said:


> I think I get a different view of how much this is going to change the way we do things in the future. For those that don't know, I spend my days as a Media Specialist at an elementary school. You guys would be blown away to know what these kids can do.
> Most of them use all this social media, you can be sure when they are homeowners, they will not be using the yellow pages! I can barely get them to get the encyclopedia off the shelf, when it is online and more current!


Yup, incorporating social media into your marketing mix TODAY ensures you are reaching customers TOMORROW (customers who are in college/HS/middle school right now). Why does McDonalds/etc spend huge chunks of money promoting to little kids? It's not that kids make up the largest fast food spending market; these companies are actually cultivating their future market! This might sound like child exploitation, but is the truth.

Just going by how I see kids around here using the net. Unless they do something dramatically different, print YP will be obsolete once the baby boomer generation passes and businesses who are already firmly established online by that time, will have it easier than ones just trying to enter the social media sphere.


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## RCP

Something else I have noticed.
"Fans" don't really do as much for your biz page because if I click on your fans, their profiles are usually blocked because i am not a friend. I really don't want to know your fans/friends anyway!
But, if you "favorite" other biz pages, it shows on your page. 
It becomes a mini "yellow page". Now imagine if you had your biz page in the favorites section of your towns realtors, GCs, plumbers or ???
Do a local search and see who is on FB in your area!
Do a search for painters!


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## WAGGZ

fresh coat said:


> Waggs - Congrats on your jobs from Facebook. The 400 or so friends that you already had set up is where the leads came from - right? How did you obtain such a large list of friends? Don't laugh - maybe 400 isn't large by facebook standards but I don't know. I am so new to this social media stuff.
> 
> RCP - That's pretty cool of you to spend the time to help out another professional painter. I respect that.:thumbsup:



I don't know how to put this but I'm kind of a big deal. -Ron Burgandy


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## michfan

WAGGZ said:


> I don't know how to put this but I'm kind of a big deal. -Ron Burgandy


 
:lol:


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## [email protected]

LA Painter said:


> Gotcha, but aren't the "fans" of your business page, mostly "friends" from your personal page? Otherwise, how would you get any fans?
> 
> Or are you saying having a business page is more about google results, and you don't need no stinkin' fans?


What I did was create a personal page for the business, then when I added friends I used one of their tools that searched my email address on Thunderbird (Mozilla). When it uploaded the emails, I was able to choose everyone that I had/have as past or current customers that have fb accounts. When this portion was done, it gave me the option to choose those who do not have fb accounts and invite them to fb.

After all is said and done and the majority of the invites (to be friends)have responded, I'll be sending them an invitation to the Fan Page and remove them from the personal page. Otherwise, the Fan Page does not seem to have the option of invitations like the personal page does. The Fan Page can only suggest to others that are your friends. You really are depending on your fans to help spread the page by having it on their profile for others to peruse.

It seems like extra work but I do not know how to get around it at the moment. But, I will be deleting these folks from the business personal page after their acceptance to the Fan Page, only because I do not need access to their personal life (personal page). Some one here mentioned that you cannot access a personal page from a fan page, that's really cool! And keeps business away from personal. But the business personal page does have access to a personal page of anyone that befriends it. 

Hope that makes sense. 

Thanks for this topic, without it, it probably would have taken me longer to figure out how to make a "Fan Page".... Not everything is obvious on fb... :no:


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## nEighter

IMO facebook REALLY needs to work on this more. It is cumbersome, and really un-user-friendly.. again IMHO.


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## RCP

The personal/biz page is a huge issue. Hopefully that will change.
You have to remember, there is a difference between a page and a profile and how they work.

I guess if you did not want a personal account you could do a business account, you can only have one account.


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## BESMAN

yeah, i still get annoyed by how the Biz pages work on Facebook. That being said, i only put a few minutes into it and have received a very nice lead that has already made it worthwhile.


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## [email protected]

BESMAN said:


> yeah, i still get annoyed by how the Biz pages work on Facebook. That being said, i only put a few minutes into it and have received a very nice lead that has already made it worthwhile.


:thumbsup:


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## BenPaintinTooLong

*FB siminar*

http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/2010/01/07/free-live-training-facebook-for-small-business/ :thumbup:


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## timhag

Love facebook, look me up Tim Haggerty


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## BenPaintinTooLong

RCP said:


> The personal/biz page is a huge issue. Hopefully that will change.
> You have to remember, there is a difference between a page and a profile and how they work.
> 
> I guess if you did not want a personal account you could do a business account, you can only have one account.


 
I have two accounts, personal and business,


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## [email protected]

BenPaintinTooLong said:


> I have two accounts, personal and business,


I do too, but with all the game apps and a lot of people creating a second account for gaming, I can safely say that 25% of fb'rs have 2 accounts. I'm not all that worried about it. But! I maybe deactivating it considering I only created it to create the "Fan Page". Once everyone on the business profile moves to the fan page, I'm don with it. I made my personal account Admin of the fan page so now I don't need the business profile to operate it anymore. The only way I would keep the business profile is if that webinar talks me into it.

I'm looking forward to that webinar (link) you posted. I am really curious what these guys know about fb business marketing. Thanks!


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## BenPaintinTooLong

I too will delete my personal page as I get my business page faned up and more under way. Yes that siminar should be very educational.

I am not opening a fb page for painting it is for another business I am working on and plan to spread the word about my new product line I have developed, it is something for ages 8 to 80 .

I want to use as many on line ave"s I can find to market and net work it.
Fb being one of the most populated sites should be a great place to launch .
I vowed not to be a painter after 60 and I will be that in Sept. One thing I learnd here on pt is , ya have ta do somthing different to obtain a different result, move out of that comfort zone and make change happen. Be it in a painting business or a new endevore, that is sound advise. 
To those that are reading this post, are you in a compfort zone and don't even realize it, I was! :yes: Maybe a new post here, didnt mean to get off topic


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## nEighter

so what is your company page? Mine is Atlas Coatings & Construction

Fan me, I will fan you back


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## BenPaintinTooLong

I will do that , but not just yet. I want to have all info and pic's, web site, other links up and running before I fan to anyone. All I have now is my co name and a little info about it up. it will be a while before I am ready, but you will be my first fan :notworthy: all fans will be welcome, that will create fast word of mouth I think.


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## MAK-Deco

BenPaintinTooLong said:


> I will do that , but not just yet. I want to have all info and pic's, web site, other links up and running before I fan to anyone. All I have now is my co name and a little info about it up. it will be a while before I am ready, but you will be my first fan :notworthy: all fans will be welcome, that will create fast word of mouth I think.



I do not think you wil be able to delete your personal page just leaving the business page... Unless you created a personal page using your biz name which FB trys to stop from happening.


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## RCP

I thought the same thing, in an earlier post he said he has two accounts. You can set up a profile using a business name, it makes you enter the name funny, has to be formatted like a personal name.
FB could ban it, I'd hate to take the chance of getting shut down.


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## [email protected]

Thousands of people make second accounts daily. ESPECIALLY those who play the fb games that Zynga develops and many other developers. 

The chance of getting caught with a second account is slim. AND the fact you have to use a whole different email address to make one, makes it harder to figure out... ANd not likely are they going rumage through MILLIONS of people to match IP addresses.

Any personal account cannot be deleted, but you can deactivate it.


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## Workaholic

[email protected] said:


> ANd not likely are they going rumage through MILLIONS of people to match IP addresses.


I am not sure that an IP match would be grounds for multiple accounts as people have multiple people in the same house on the same computer with individual FB accounts just different email addys is all is required I think.


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## [email protected]

Workaholic said:


> I am not sure that an IP match would be grounds for multiple accounts as people have multiple people in the same house on the same computer with individual FB accounts just different email addys is all is required I think.



I agree, and good point.

So, there ya go. Their policy about having more than one account is more about slowing people down who would consider it than it is to actually do anything about it when it happens.


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## RCP

Yes, but I think there is problem using a "personal profile" for a business. I see it done all the time though.


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## [email protected]

RCP said:


> Yes, but I think there is problem using a "personal profile" for a business. I see it done all the time though.


I agree. 

Had I known there was such a thing as a "business profile" I certainly would have taken that option... But I really don't care much anyways, as it (personal business profile) was only the vehicle to get people to my fan page.


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## nEighter

what is weird about facebook, another thing.. is that when I try to update to different sites and see the "share with facebook" it shares with my personal page NOT business page. I know they have a plan, just doesn't work with some of the features that they have integrated into the site IMO. Oh and I found out that having a facebook page will be no good to google unless you have a public profile with no restrictions. Google has to be able to crawl the site, if it cannot do that, it is of no use for google.


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## BenPaintinTooLong

RCP said:


> I thought the same thing, in an earlier post he said he has two accounts. You can set up a profile using a business name, it makes you enter the name funny, has to be formatted like a personal name.
> FB could ban it, I'd hate to take the chance of getting shut down.


I just started a personal page thinking that would get me the link to build a business page, that didn't work, had no link for it. After learning from PT posts to just find a business page from anyone and use that link to start your own is what I did. The Pp is in my name and the bp is my co name same e mail addy. I don't want to get thrown out but I do like having both the pp can give me friends to send to my bp and double the traffic to my wbsite link and fb bp.:thumbup: I think like stated above it is a rule they don't inforce and if they ever did I dont think they would close both pages on ya


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## BESMAN

yeah...with the business page its a little tough to add people. I now have to add people through my personal page or promote the biz page on other group pages and stuff.


My girl and I added people through our personal pages...with time though we have noticed that people themselves have become fans..These people are strangers to us and people i have not done business with....yet.


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