These are the transcripts from the 10 Steps to Facebook Success for Your Business workshop at the Navarre Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, September 28, 2010. The accompanying slide presentation is also uploaded.

2. Intro
The more FB and other social media resources realized that businesses go where the
consumers are, the more they have put accompanying business applications in place
to help you reach those clients, prospects, and your target audience. They have come
to embrace the tools and networks that will link them, and you, to your optimum
target market.
What is your primary tool to find new business? Traditional advertising – tv, radio,
print, etc. , marketing materials like brochures, direct mail, social media, website,
press releases, cold calls, networking, word of mouth or referrals. Are you happy
with your results? Are you looking for some different options.
Let’s find out some basic information from the group.
How do you keep in touch with the people who are already your clients? Do you
have an ongoing relationship where they come back to you because they have to –
like a doctor or an orthodontist? Or do they come back to you, and possibly refer
you to their friends, because you offer a great value or service, or because you keep
in touch with them in some way – maybe through a blog, newsletter (print or
online), or RSS feed that keeps you top of mind?
Okay, time to get down to the nitty gritty. Some of this might sound a little basic to
you, but we have a range of experience levels here today so we need to cover all the
bases. You never know what you might discover.
Facebook has over 400 million active users worldwide with the average daily usage
of 55 minutes per day. As Facebook, and other social media outlets have tried to
make their sites more business friendly through the use of integrated apps,
usernames, and a ton of information at your disposal, their local business usage has
increased to 1.5 million active business pages.
The 10 steps we’re going to look at today:
1. Strategies and goals for your Facebook page
2. Research into competing businesses locally, regionally, and nationally
3. Research into available business applications that might benefit your goals
4. Page setup – basic
5. Bring in your friends and family as your first 25 “Likes” to establish your
business username
6. Set up personalized username
7. Paget setup – integration of your social media and specialized business
applications

3. 8. Getting “Liked” and joining Groups to increase your range
9. Page promotion
10. Bringing it all together to increase your Search Engine Optimization (SEO),
Return on Investment (ROI), and using Facebook Analytics.
It’s pretty ambitious to get through all that in an hour, but we’ll be available after the
workshop if you have specific questions, or if you’d like to request us to do a free
workshop for your group/office. We also offer complimentary 30‐minute consulting
sessions for new clients.
Step 1: Strategies and goals for your FB page
Another show of hands. How many of you opened a FB business page without
having a strategy or series of goals in place? Come on, fess up ‐ hundreds, if not
thousands, of business owners do that every day – I have done it myself in the past
when I was just learning about social media. We all have to start somewhere. If your
primary source of new business is referrals or word of mouth – as is the case with
most small businesses I work with – social media is just the latest resource to
capitalize on that and help you build and maintain a conversation with your client. It
also does a great job of increasing your brand awareness, or at the very least, sets
you apart from other local competitors who AREN’T doing social media or have any
kind of online presence.
Not every business needs a FB page so you need to ask yourself why you need one
before you start. Are your customers asking if you have one? Do you have the time
to set it up properly and maintain it? Social media is time consuming, especially at
the beginning. Although it is technically free, there can be a huge cost in the time to
set up and maintain an active presence. You have to have a strategy in place of how
you are going to use that time to make it more productive for your individual
company and what goals you hope to achieve through your FB page.
These questions will help you decide the best way to proceed, sets your timeline for
status updates and blog posts, and integration with other social media apps that will
help save you both time and money. It will take time to find all of the best apps for
your business and to set them up, but it’s not difficult and once you know what you
want to get out of FB, the easier it will be to set up only what you, and your target
audience, need. You can always add more later. Just like small businesses, FB is
flexible.
Step 2: Research Competing Businesses Locally through FB

4. Lets face it, we all want to know what the competition is doing – whether it’s a
Fortune 500 or a mom‐and‐pop working out of their house. Look at what others in
your area are doing with their FB pages. Look at what businesses are doing
nationally and see if something might work for you. See if they offer discounts or
coupons, have contests, or just answer questions.
Many businesses – especially the local, small businesses with a tiny “Like” count
rarely get a lot of comments or interaction from their “Likes” – I’m in the same boat
and I do this for a living. In a lot of cases, especially in the early days, most of your
“Likes” are going to come from friends and family and they are just not into your
company – they want to be supportive but not interactive. It’s a necessary evil to
make you look significant but it doesn’t encourage conversation with your actual
prospects and clients. Spend some time to see what other businesses are doing to
encourage the exchange of information, or a start to a great conversation, and do it
twice as well.
Step 3: Research Available Facebook Business Applications
There are a ton of FB business apps that are currently available and more that come
on the market for free every day. They range from integrated social media apps to
industry specific applications from real estate to FB shopping carts for online retail
stores. How many of you knew you could have your own online store through FB?
FB business pages have truly become an option to traditional websites for small
businesses with specific industry needs and very small budgets. Let’s face it,
websites can be expensive for a small business and may not generate the ROI
necessary to justify it. Trust me, I design websites as a primary part of my business.
FB might take more time initially, but if you’re willing to do the research yourself,
you can wind up with a very useful site at a fraction of the cost. Just remember that
everything you give toward your company is a return on your investment – actual
costs of print or design, or the time you take to do things on your own. They all cost
money. You have to justify what your time is worth and if someone can do it
cheaper or be more effective in a lesser amount of time to increase your ROI, make
sure you are utilizing those options to get the full value out of your FB page and
other social media platforms.
Step 4: The Basics of Setting Up Your Page
 How to set up a page
 Basic settings

5.  Setting up your profile image and/or logo – what are the new standards?
 Setting up your profile
 Tabs
 Set multiple admins
Starting the setup: all business pages should be attached to the business owner’s
profile page. It is almost impossible to attach the business page to another profile if
your employee leaves your company.
Log in to your profile page, look for the Accounts tab in the upper right hand corner.
Under the drop down menu, click the link to Application Settings. On the RH side of
the page, you will see Show. Click the down arrow and click authorized. Now Ads
and Pages should appear at the top of your list. Click and look for the “Create Page”
tab. Now just follow the steps for setting up your page.
Basic Settings: Once your page has been established, you can edit your basic settings
like country and age restrictions, wall settings, events, notes, etc. Once you have
added integrated apps, this is also where you will be able to edit them.
Setting up your profile image and/or logo: This is where things get a little different
from a business page and your profile image. Although many companies don’t utilize
it, Facebook gives you the option of adding a larger profile image to your page. It
used to be 600x200 pixels but was changed in August 2010 to 540x180. You can add
anything to this image including your logo, product pictures, your picture,
information about your business, and your contact information. Just click on the
grey question mark and go to upload a picture. Once you upload the picture, right
below you will see that you have the ability to move the image around so the small
thumbnail that is shown goes directly to your logo or image instead of in the middle
of the picture. Make sure you do this when you set up the profile image as they
sometimes don’t give you the option once you’ve clicked Save. If you don’t have the
capability to create this on your own, find someone in your local area or online that
will do it for a small fee. We generally charge $15 for a profile image if you need that
help.
Setting up your profile: Below your profile image, you will see a box where you can
input your profile information. Simply put, this is information about you or a
description of your business. It could be your mission statement, or just basic
information about what your company does.
Tabs: Across the top of your page, you will see a series of tabs – info, photos, and
discussions are the standard. Go under Info (look for the small pencil at the right top
of the tab to edit) and fill out the information about your company – as much or as
little as you choose. In Photos, create albums and upload photos of your product or
service, portfolios of your work, or other industry related images. If you click the +

6. sign, you’ll see that you have the option to add additional and custom tabs. Facebook
has a set number of optional tabs like Links, Notes, Video and Events.
Setting admins: Once you start approving “Likes”, you can set other people up with
admin privileges. I highly recommend you do this. If you get injured and are not able
to access your account, it will allow another person to continue with updates so
your page does not go down. It also helps spread the labor of making your site more
effective, as long as you’re all sharing the same message. Make sure it is someone
you trust. You can always delete any additional admins on your page, just make sure
you don’t delete yourself.
Step 5: Suggesting your new business page
 Why this matters at the beginning of a new business page
 Business FB usernames after 25 friends
 Quality vs. quantity
Once you have your page set up and you are happy with it, click the link below your
profile image “Suggest to Friends”. Let’s face it, in the early days of your business
page, these will be your first “Likes”. It is very important to get 25 “Likes” as quickly
as possible so you can setup your personalized username. Once you have that set up,
start suggesting that your clients and prospects visit and “Like” your page. Tell the
world about your page. But one of the most important things is that you look for
quality “Likes” as opposed to sheer quantity. There are a lot of spammers out there
just looking for a way onto your page to spread their message and sales junk. Look
for people that will read what you post and will enter into the conversation and
engage with your business. This is the hardest part of a FB business page but is
worthwhile if you get it right.
Step 6: Setup a Username
Once you have hit that magical 25 “Likes” you can set up your personalized business
name. Be careful, you can only set it once so make sure it is exactly what you want.
Go to http://www.facebook.com/username and go to the page you’d like to set. You
can have multiple pages, so make sure you’re setting the correct one for your
business.

7. Step 7: Setting Up Your Page – Dressing it Up with Integrated Apps
 Blogs
 Twitter
 LinkedIn
 YouTube
 SlideShare
 RSS Feeeds
 Constant Contact
 Shopping Carts
 Industry Specific – retail, real estate, finance, doctors, etc.
There are many ways you can integrate Facebook into your other social media
platforms and Facebook business apps. You can have your personal blog available
on your FB page, link FB to Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, SlideShare, RSS feeds and
more. If you sell specific products, you can put up an online store with the click of a
button. There are even industry specific apps that allow you to bring custom apps
right into your FB page.
One of the biggest reason to add these applications is that it cuts down on your
overall time with social media updates. Your tweets will post to your FB status feed,
and visa versa. Updating LinkedIn will auto post to your FB status. Have a new blog
post on your site or in WordPress. Now it automatically shows up on your FB page.
You can have all of these apps running in the background, or you can have a new tab
at the top of the page. If you have an integrated blog, you can have a “Blog” tab. It’s
the same for “Shop” or “Real Estate”. There are even apps that allow you to hold
contests and competitions for your “Likes”.
There are hundreds of business‐based applications that can help you customize
your site. To find these, go to Edit Page and scroll to the very bottom. Look for More
Applications and click on Browse More. On the left hand side of the page, you’ll see a
list of applications you can add to your site. Click Business. Below the icons, you’ll
see the most popular apps. Click on See All so you can see everything available to
you. If you see an application you’d like to add to your page, click the name or icon
and it will take you to their page and then click the button below their image that
says “Go to Application” or click “Add to my Page”, click Allow and then set up the
app to your needs. Be careful, not all apps are free. Know what you’re paying for and
make sure you’re going to use it.

8. Step 8: Getting “Liked” and Joining Groups
 Find other businesses in the area – look at their “Likes” and friend them
 Find complimentary businesses – look at their “Likes” and friend them
 Search for groups who have similar (but not competitive) services or
interests – Look at their “Likes” and friend them. Use the search box at the
top of the page and enter a keyword for the type of group you are looking for.
It’s that simple.
 Search for your company or your vendors and “Like” their pages – remember
you’re looking for quality, not quantity.
 Client base
 Prospective clients
 Network business friends and Chamber members
 Give discounts and coupons to your clients and prospects for Liking your
page. Use your status updates to offer specials only to your users.
Step 9: Promote your page
 Create interesting and/or useful content
 80/20 rule – 80% content vs. 20% sales content
 Use images and links, news items, blog posts and ask your readers for
feedback
 Ask questions or ask your user’s opinion. Invite them to comment on your
updates or links
 Polls
 Contests/competitions online
 Discounts or coupons for joining and being active on the site
 Encourage image uploads showing your users interacting with your product
or service
 Post testimonials
 Add a FB fan box or feed to your website
 Add a “Like” button to your website that a user can click without ever going
to your FB page
 Show how you are interacting with your community or clients and where
they can find you next
 Promote through biz cards, email signatures, Like buttons and FB feeds on
your website, stationery, brochures, etc.
The biggest way to promote your page is to post interesting and/or useful content. It
doesn’t all have to come from you. Post links to blogs that you think will be relevant
to your readers, post quotes, have a relevant RSS feed that posts status updates, talk

9. about your newest project or client. Ask questions. Remember that this is a
conversation. In the beginning, it will seem like it’s a one way conversation – just
you talking, but as you build up your Like base, you’ll begin to see more interaction
on the page. Think about things that you would respond to and post that. Make it
engaging and your readers will engage. A good rule of thumb is to only post 1‐2
times a day so you don’t overwhelm your reader’s Wall.
One of the biggest no‐no’s in Social Media is only posting sales content. You’re
establishing a relationship here, not trying to sell them a car. You will be quickly
Unliked if the only message you’re putting out there is that you want to sell
something. You can post some sales messages or offer your product or service, but
not every post. Keep to the 80/20 rule and you should be fine.
Step 10: Tracking Your Progress: SEO/ Analytics / ROI
Many businesses do not realize that their business status posts are searchable by
the search engines and can be displayed in search engine results. That can be really
great for your business because it gives you more relevance. But one of the things
they are looking for is a complete conversation. They are more likely to display an
update that has a lot of comments, or from a page with a lot of “Likes”.
Just like in your website, keywords are very important. Have a clear idea of the
keywords and key phrases that you identify with your company and make sure you
put those keywords and phrases in all of your updates, Tweets, blogs, RSS feeds,
your profile and info tabs, etc. It will make it easier for the search engines to find
you and you always want to make that as interesting as possible.
Want to be able to track your SEO and Analytics in Facebook? It is already setup on
every FB business page under the Insight box on the left side of your page. It is only
viewable to admins so don’t worry about your users seeing them.
This is where we start thinking back to our goals and strategy from Step 1. You can
check your monthly active users, new Likes, total Likes, daily post views, post
feedback, demographics, and page activity. As you play around with your content to
find a good mix for your readers, you’ll be able to track your progress. But it’s
difficult to track how well you’re meeting your goals without setting up realistic
goals to start with.
In most cases, the most you will put into setting up and maintaining your social
media outlets will be your time, and it can be very time consuming, especially at
first. Most people review ROI as only monetary return on investment. Here your
investment is the time you put into this. As I said before, a FB business page isn’t for

10. every business. You have to make the time commitment to be able to see an
appreciable return of brand awareness, increased client interaction, and a personal
feeling from your clients and prospects that they know who you are and what your
business is about. That relationship is the biggest return I can imagine for any
business owner.
About Us:
Go Get Creative Design and Marketing is a full‐service company specializing in ways
to help your business reach it’s goals. We can help with graphic and web design,
social media communications, internet marketing and SEO, branding, and marketing
consultants.
Brenda Whitfield, co‐owner of GGCDM, has been in the creative industry since 1991
as a writer, graphic and web designer, creative director, business owner, and more
recently has added social media communication and internet marketing to her wide
range of interests. She has an AA degree in Business Management, a BA degree in
Communications with an emphasis in Public Relations and Advertising, and
completed her MA degree in Managing Creative Enterprises in 2008.
If you have any questions, please email brenda@gogetcreative.com
Shawn Whitfield, co‐owner of GGCDM, is a 19‐year active duty Air Force member.
He brings a wide range of skills and interests in marketing, management consulting,
and internet marketing and has worked side‐by‐side with Brenda as co‐owner of
GGCDM for the past 8 years. He has a degree in Management Studies and completed
his MA in Managing Creative Enterprises in 2008.
If you have any questions, please email shawn@gogetcreative.com