Using Facebook Business Pages to Attract More Clients 

If you ask around, you’d be hard pressed to find many people who are not on Facebook these days. 
Sure, there are few people holding out on making a Facebook profile because they don’t think they have 
the time, or perhaps they don’t want to join “on principle” because they are annoyed at how many 
people talk about it all the time (like I used to be in the early days of the Harry Potter series). But 
generally, Facebook has come up to a point where it is not just one of many options in online social 
networking, it is a solid redwood tree of a pillar of social and business networking. It’s gone so far that 
even TV commercials and billboards these days have a “Find us on Facebook” icon prominently 
displayed at one corner of the advertisement. It’s pretty clear that Facebook is here to stay, and only 
becoming MORE influential in our modern world. 

But even those who are avid users of Facebook in its social networking capacity are often lagging behind 
as far as the business development side of Facebook. The most basic element of this is the Facebook 
Business Page. 

What is a Facebook Business Page? 

Sometimes people are confused when they go to make a space on Facebook for their business. And 
what they can sometimes be confused about is the difference between a PROFILE and a PAGE. Here are 
a few distinctions: 

• 
A profile is about a PERSON – namely YOU. A PAGE, however, can be about a BUSINESS, GROUP, 
ACTIVITY, CAUSE, PRODUCT or PERSON (like a celebrity, public figure, etc). 
• 
A Facebook Profile can acquire FRIENDS. A Business page acquires FANS. 
• 
There is a limit to how many friends you can have associated with your PROFILE (5K), while 
there is no limit to how many people can be a fan of your business. 
So What’s The Big Deal About Having a Facebook Business Page? 

To put it simply: EASY, SELF-REPLICATING PROMOTION FOR YOUR BUSINESS, ALL DONE BY YOUR FANS. 

Ok, so let’s say you have a Facebook business page for your real estate business that tells about you, 
your area, how to contact you. You have some postings on your wall for recent listings you have added, 
and properties you have sold, along with pictures as well. Now some Facebook user, who happens to 
have about 400 friends on Facebook, drops by your business page and likes what he sees. So, as 
happens all the time in Facebook, he clicks the “Like” button on your business page. Now that little click 
was really easy for him to do – no effort at all. But what he did in that moment was effectively hand out 
a promotional flier to all 400 of his friends at once, because every one of them will be notified that he 
liked your page. Now chances are that a few of those guys will respond by going to your page, and if 
they like it, BANG, how many more fliers just got handed out? You see the ripple effect of this action? 

Now, the other end of the benefit is that as people keep liking your page, everyone who does, 
effectively adds themselves to a contact list – again without any effort or even needing to put their 
email in a box or anything. Now, whenever you post something to your wall, all of your fans get notified 
about it instantly. It’s comparable if not better than an email list of contacts. Just think about the 
potential! That’s why businesses are quick to jump on the Facebook bandwagon. 


So How Do I Get The “Fan” Ball Rolling? 

Like anything else, you promote it using other forms of promotion. You add a link to it on your business 
card, on your website, to the handbills you give out. You add a link to the signature of your email, etc. 

Of course all of those things get the person to GO to the page, but how do you get them to push that 
little “Like” button at the top. 

Well that has to do with what you have to say on your page, for one. But there is another methodology 
that is being used more and more by businesses that want to stay ahead of the curve on all this 
potential social networking business. Namely, you can get a CUSTOM FACEBOOK PAGE made, with a 
FAN-GATE. Let me explain. 

When you just make a business page you have the typical “tabs” of a business page listed as a menu on 
the left hand side: INFO tab, PICTURES tab and a WALL tab for you to post updates. Those are all good 
and necessary, but it isn’t always enough to entice people to click that LIKE button. So what you do is 
add a new tab (by the use of some special apps that can be installed on your business page). And then 
this new tab can be set to be your “landing page” -meaning, when someone clicks on your business 
page, this is the first tab they will land on. 

On this landing page, a custom design can be done by a web designer who’s familiar with doing this kind 
of work – custom graphics, and anything else that can usually be placed on a web page can be put in 
there. And on this tab you entice the person to like your page. You do this by telling the person that if 
they like the page, they can get access to some kind of exclusive content, like a video of a new product 
not yet released, or a coupon code they can use to save on your services, or that they will be entered to 
win something – whatever makes sense for your business. And this tab is designed in such a way that it 
acts as a FAN-GATE, which basically means that there are TWO versions of this landing page really. Once 
version that has the message of enticement, which is seen by everyone who has NOT liked your page 
yet, and the other version of this landing page has the special offer on it, the exclusive content you 
promised, etc. As soon as they click the like button, the page changes to the exclusive version, and they 
see that one from now on. The new fan gets what was promised them and you get one more round of 
promotion being sent out about your business. 

To see an example of this in action, check out the one I just did for the Real Estate School here. Go to 
the page and look it over, then click on the like button and see the change for yourself. 

And that’s Facebook custom business page marketing in action! 

Chris Owens 
InnovaFire Web Solutions