Let’s tie your Facebook Page to your website.

Step 1: Choose which Facebook Badge best suites you.

As you can see there are four different types of badges to choose from: Profile Badge, Like Badge, Photo Badge, and Page Badge (only available to application and page admins). And each serves its own purpose. Profile Badges are great if you just want to share your personal profile page on another website of yours; A Like Badge will highlight your favorite Pages on Facebook; A Photo Badge shows off your Facebook photos; And a Page Badge is a way to let your website followers see your Facebook Fan Page so they can follow or “like” that as well.

Step 2: Follow the wizard to customize the badge.

Facebook gives you a couple of commonly used options (Blogger and TypePad) to add a badge to or you can choose “other” to add the badge to your website. If using Blogger or TypePad once you choose one it automatically takes you into a sign-in page to begin the badge process. When you choose “other” you’re given an html code to paste anywhere on your website. I don’t recommend going crazy with the badge, but a couple of places to add it would be your home page and then your contact page.

Voila!

As we dive deeper and deeper into the social media frenzy I’m finding that the different options for creating eye catching pages are becoming more and more available. I’ve tried a few different services for our pages and am quite pleased with the outcome. But of course there will come a day when I’m ready to change those up again too and like I said, the options are definitely out there!

Using Catchfree I found a list of top rated Facebook building sites, I’ve had a chance to only go through the first five:

Wix
Fanzila
Cool Mojito
Pagemodo
Stiqr

Again, I love Catchfree because they’re always keeping up to date on this stuff; if a better one comes along, they’ll tell you!

The Benefits of Having a Facebook Welcome Page

• Appearance
  • Clutter free
  • Easy to read (stay away from funky fonts)
• A friendly hello
  • Welcoming and Inviting
• Informative
  • About you and/or your business
  • Product/Services information
  • Contact information
• Call to action!
  • Words that urge the reader to take an immediate action, such as “Call Now” or “Like Us”.

When crawling through Facebook fan pages I find myself more drawn to the well thought out pages; the ones that flow smoothly, starting at the welcome page. In order to intrigue your audience you need to engage with them. Welcome readers to your page–introduce yourself; tell us about your company and the benefits of your services and/or products; and always put your contact information where it can be easily found. TIP: People generally do not want to read a short novel about your business—keep it short, simple, and straight to the point. If there’s anything else they want to know, they’ll ask. And last but not least, include a call to action. People are more likely to “like” your page or contact you if you tell them too!

In order for companies, small businesses, and entrepreneurs to stay in the game we have to stay active in our marketing department. This is equally important for well established enterprises and/or individuals as well as those currently in the start-up process. Today not only are we being reached via the television, phone, and mail; but also the internet. And big or small, setting up fan pages via social networking pages is a must. Let’s face it—social media is here to stay! So why not embrace it?

At the top of the list of most popular social networking sites you’ll find Facebook. Throw in FREE, user friendly and accessible from anywhere (there’s a FB app for almost any mobile device you can think of) and you’ve found your first stop in launching your social media campaign.

But first let’s take a quick look at Fan Pages vs. Profiles.
This is from a section on Facebooks official policy (on difference between profile and pages)

Facebook profiles are meant to represent a single individual. Organizations of any type are not permitted to maintain an account under the name of their organization. We have created Facebook Pages to allow organizations to have a presence on Facebook. These Pages are distinct presences, separate from user profiles, and optimized for an organization’s needs to communicate, distribute information/content, engage their fans, and capture new audiences virally through their fan’s recommendations to their friends. Facebook Pages are designed to be a media rich, valuable presence for any artist, business or brand.

If you create a profile for your business, your account may be disabled for violating our Terms of Use. If you have questions about how to best leverage your Facebook Page, please check out our Insider’s Guide or FAQ.

Facebook’s policy in terms of how businesses can use their pages:

All personal site features, such as friending and messaging, are also for personal use only and may not be used for professional promotion. If you add a user as a friend, for example, this person will be invited to be a friend of your profile and not your Page. Using personal site features for professional promotion, or creating unauthorized Pages, may result in your account being warned or disabled.

Now, let’s get started…

1. Pick a category and name for your page. There are several categories to choose from; your businesses and/or interest may not fit perfectly into one of the categories but choosing one that matches closely is important because you won’t be able to change this again. The name of your page should be the exact same as the name of your business, organization, etc.
2.  Add a profile picture. Choose a picture or image that is clear and best represents you and your business. All of your fans and friends will see this picture.
3. Add information! This part is crucial. Underneath your profile picture is a box where you can add your company info; name, contact information and web address. Tell your audience who you are, what you do and where to find you. The more information you add the more successful you will be.
4. Make it rich & engaging. Just like profile pages there are tab options available to add content. A few are built in like a Wall tab, Info tab and Notes tab. Engage with your fans on your wall, post your businesses news, articles, etc and let your fans comment on them. Add information about your business-what you do-in the info tab. Add a note about upcoming promotions or events in your notes tab. And don’t be a stranger to your fans–add photos.
5. PUBLISH your page. Click the “publish this Page” link to share your page with the world!
6. Update regularly. Another crucial part of successful social media is updating on a regular basis. Don’t get lost in the newsfeeds by neglecting your status updates. Post fresh photos, events and promotions. Engage with your audience!

I read an article yesterday that came through my Facebook or Twitter about social networking squatters. Today I’m not able to find it. If you posted about this yesterday, please let me know and I will give you the kudos for this one.

Maybe you’re on LinkedIn or Facebook, maybe more. But have you considered or even know about all of the other networking sites out there? Even if you aren’t doing the social networking thing right now, you’ll want to register your name on the various social networking sites. Why? Because if you don’t someone else will!

Imagine your potential or current customers looking for you and finding someone else using your name or your business name. You have no control over the content coming out with your name on it.

Quickly check the availability of your name or your business name using KnowEm.