Facebook For Beginners

mmspark.com

At a recent networking meeting there was talk of Facebook and how best to use it to build your

business

(a topic I absolutely love!)

But alongside the “Facebook for Business” enthusiasts were an equal number of people looking slightly baffled, shrugging and saying

“I don’t have a clue”!

So, for all Facebook virgins here’s a 101 Facebook for beginners guide,

which I hope will demystify things and give you the confidence to give social media a go!

Facebook 101

The first thing to know about Facebook is that it’s a social platform

People come to be entertained, enlightened and educated, but mainly for a bit of light relief

Facebook is a place for conversation, sharing and a bit of fun

(not spamming or selling)

If you’re completely new to Facebook, follow the getting started steps that will be shared in

this video

Spend some time seeing what others are posting, listening to friends and customers, and

getting a feel for the community

You may think it’s all rather superficial at first

But don’t be fooled

Under all those inspirational quotes and cute images, a huge amount of business is done on

Facebook

Why I love Facebook:

A great way to meet new people, generate leads and drum up business

It’s online networking, but as local or international as you want it to be

Provides a quick skim of what’s happening and what friends are up to

Easy to follow influencers in your fieldSee others’ promotions, events and news, and share yours

How to get started on Facebook

1. Sign up for your account at Facebook.com. Follow the set up wizard to start creating your profile

2. Set up your personal profile

(you have to a personal profile before you can set up a business page)

You’ll notice you’ve got 2 pages or “streams” of information – one is the Timeline and one is the

Newsfeed

Click on your name for the Timeline and on “home” for the Newsfeed

The blue menu bar also includes “friend requests”, “messages” and “notifications” [see the arrows below]

As you connect with others and they share or LIKE your posts, you’ll see red numbers popping up in this bar, giving you an

instant update on your Facebook activities

What is the News Feed?

The News Feed-the centre column of your home page

—is a constantly updating list of stories from people and Pages that you follow on Facebook

News feed stories include status updates, photos, videos, links, app activity and likes

To the left of the newsfeed is a list of the groups you belong to and the pages you like

What is the “Timeline”?

The Timeline is your collection of the photos, stories, and experiences that tell

your story

Here are some of the things you can do on your Timeline:

Add a cover photoEdit your basic infoJump to stories from your pastView a log of your Facebook activityStar stories you want to highlightAdd life eventsUpdate your statusView and add photosShare your app activitySee highlights from each month

3. Complete the “About” section and choose a great cover image

To update your cover image check out the blog post

(there’s also a video showing you what to do)

http://mmspark.com/optimize-your-social-media-profiles/

Here’s a quick image on this:

4. Start posting and sharing!

As you can see from this post you can “Like”, “Comment” or “Share” this with your friends

On this post there have been 824 “LIKEs” (recommendations) , 17 comments and 147 “Shares”

When you LIKE a page or post it shows up on your newsfeed so all your friends can see you’ve

given it a thumbs-up

This is how posts can go “viral”

When lots of people like, share and comment on a particular post, their friends see it in their

newsfeeds and if they share it, then their friends see it and suddenly you’ve got the

power of social media spreading your post all over the web

Profile versus Page

This is something that often confuses people

Profile versus Page

Profile versus Page

Your profile is personal to you You can keep this for friends and family – to share news and pictures – or you can let your fans “friend” you so they get to see “behind the scenes” with the personal news you elect to share publicly

This is purely a matter of choice

You shouldn’t promote your business on your personal page

(Facebook don’t like it)

but you can talk about what you’re working on, share relevant business-related stories in a

chatty, non promotional way

It’s a subtle difference but an important one

A Facebook “page” is a “business page” and can be for a cause, personality, band, special event, tribute, but it’s a

promotional tool rather than a personal page

(I’ll cover Facebook pages in a separate video & post)

You can only have ONE personal profile but you can have as many pages as you like

So, your homework is to get started on Facebook and to set up your personal profile – or look at improving it if you already have one

Set the timer for 15 minutes, and GO!

mmspark.com