Because Facebook has over 500 million users and 600,000 new users are joining every day.

1. What kind of account do I need?

A business should create a Fan Page and if you are officially representing your company, you should create an ‘Official’ Page.

Don’t use a Facebook Group.They are outdated, not as interactive nor effective.

2. Identify your business appropriately

Use a title that’s memorable because you won’t be able to change it later! Once you get 25 fans, you can set up a username which makes accessing your page a lot easier (e.g. www.facebook.com/mogulweb)

3. Customise your page:

Make it look pretty. Make it engaging, tell people about your business, give them a history. They’re there because they want to learn! (and they also want exclusive deals. Read on…)

4. Offer deals:

Give people a reason for telling the entire world that they like you. Generally people interact with brands online because they want deals. Make sure you offer some every so often.

*** Everyone wants to know if there’s ROI in Facebook?

So offer exclusive deals to Facebook fans! Don’t post it on Twitter. Don’t post it on your blog. Don’t push it out in your email newsletter.

This is a good way of checking specifally if your Facebook efforts are working when you see that the Facebook discount codes have been redeemed.

5. Encourage community interaction:

Use your Facebook wall to ask your fans questions or share cool company or even personal insights with them.

Give them a reason to want to interact, because every time someone interacts with your Facebook page by liking, commenting, or tagging a photo, their friends are notified. That’s free advertising – and it’s usually a word-of-mouth recommendation too.

Even if someone posts negative feedback, at least you have a chance to respond in a very positive way – with the Facebook world watching.

6. Your future in Facebook:

Facebook is insular but you can do many things to market your business, add value, and empower your customers.

Be prepared to deal with customer service issues. People don’t care if you’re in the marketing department, they will still demand customer support.

Be helpful, be on your best behaviour ― after all, good customer service is good social media marketing.

*** Most savvy marketers understand the fragile nature of online (and even offline) relationships and smart ones do not abuse those relationships at all.

7. Remember that Facebook is only one piece of the online jigsaw puzzle

500 million active members is a seriously big number. If you want to go where your customers are, you’ll probably find most of them on Facebook.

That said, don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

Your website, blog and email newsletter are tremendously important for building your brand, your community, and making sales. Use Facebook but use it wisely. It should be considered a subset of your overall online marketing efforts.