Skellie - Successful Facebook Marketing

Hundreds of thousands of words have been written about Twitter's power as a marketing tool for brands, businesses and websites, but now there's a new player on the scene: Facebook. Since its launch in 2004, the social networking site has primarily been viewed as a platform for personal expression, and a place to connect with friends. However, Facebook has put significant effort into creating a platform that individuals, businesses and organizations can use to promote themselves. These are Facebook Pages.

By gaining an understanding of how to use Facebook Pages now, you'll reap the benefits of being an early adopter. While many of your competitors probably don't even have a Facebook Page, websites like Psdtuts+ (part of the Tuts+ Network I manage) are finding Facebook is now its highest referrer of social media traffic, even though it has a Twitter account with more than 40,000 followers!

Facebook is being used more and more as the primary front for large-scale social media campaigns and promotions. But why is it so effective?

• There are over 600 million Facebook accounts. According to Facebook Statistics, on any given day, 50% of Facebook's active users check their Facebook accounts. While Twitter usage is generally restricted to people who are social media savvy, Facebook is used by just about everyone.
• Facebook is an intimate platform. When your Page updates show up in the News Feeds of your fans, they are appearing alongside the status updates of some of their closest friends. This is a very powerful and intimate place for your content to appear, bringing your brand into your fans' personal lives.
• Facebook commands more attention. When people are using Facebook, they are strongly focused on it. Unlike Twitter, which most people keep running in the background while they work on a handful of other tasks.
• Threaded comments encourage better quality discussion. On Twitter, discussion generally only occurs between Twitter users and their followers. On Facebook, it's easy for fans to participate in discussion with both Page admins and each other, making it much easier to develop a sense of community among fans of your brand.
• A Facebook Like is more public than a Twitter follow. When a Facebook user Likes a Page it's added to their profile for all to see. It becomes a part of their Facebook identity, and because of this, a Like is a powerful gesture. A follow on Twitter, by comparison, is much more hidden.
• Pages are flexible. Twitter is restricted to a 140-character text update, but Facebook allows you to post photos, videos, links, events and more.
• There are a wide range of promotional tools available. Tools such as the Like Box and Like Button make it very easy to get a steady flow of new Likes and Facebook interaction happening on your Page.

With all these advantages, it's stunning that there are still so many brands, businesses and websites that don't have a clue about how to use Facebook for marketing. By owning this book you're already ahead of the curve. When others in your industry finally get around to creating a Facebook Page, you'll already be enjoying the benefits of having a fan-count in the hundreds, or even thousands. To capitalize on this advantage, we're going to get started building your Page right from the first line of Chapter One.

As Tuts+ Manager at Envato, I manage Facebook accounts with over 87,000 fans. I believe a big part of the reason we have such a strong Facebook presence is that we were relatively early adopters. Though it's important to create the best Facebook Page that you can, it's more important to just get started!