Read Part 2 of our series in case you missed it.

Let us pick up where we left off last time. I had just begun examining the Facebook fan pages, and how you can apply them to your business. In particular we discussed the advertising platform. Advertising is just one aspect of these pages that can really drive your business. Let’s discuss the other potential areas of benefit now.

Company Announcements

If you have an important announcement to make, what’s the quickest and easiest way to get that information to your customers and followers? With a Facebook status update of course. Lets say you want to advertise your Holiday trading hours, or you have just launched a new product, or service. In 30 seconds you could have pushed this information to your customers. Anyone who follows you on Facebook will see this message on their home page.

Customer stories

You can write status updates that encourage customers to write back to you. Writing an engaging status update is a good way to start discussions. Once you get some traction with this method, you will soon be cultivating a community around your fan page. The more interactions with your page, the more likely it is that your page will get noticed. You know the rest.

This can also give you some valuable feedback on exactly how you deal and respond with your customer base, or with what you are doing in the market place.

Surveys/competitions

This is one area where having a fan page can really work for you. Coordinating a fan-centric competition is relatively straightforward, and this can be a great way to generate some buzz around your brand. The frameworks are already in place for you, and you just need to know what sort of competition you want to run, and then you can be on your way. The viral nature of sites like Facebook mean that your competition can get large exposure, without you having to spend the earth.

Likewise, conducting a survey can be a great way to improve areas of the business, and encouraging fans to participate in your surveys is as simple as setting up the survey, and posting a status update.

You can also use Facebook Ads to generate interest to either your competition or survey.

Linking to blog

If you’ve just written a great blog post, you’ll want to get it in front of as many eyes as possible. Having sustained readers on your blog is always a desired outcome, and Facebook gives you an opportunity to direct readers to your blog. When you write your post, make sure you follow it up with a succinct and catchy status update attaching the link to the blog. That way your fans will be driven to your blog and hopefully become regular readers.

Instant feedback

This is probably one of the key areas that Social Media can have a real impact on your business. The moment you do something that someone loves or hates, you’re going to hear about it. Having this sort of feedback at your fingertips is something that money can’t buy. We’re moving in to a world where you will be connected with your customer base (and critics) whether you like it or not. You can use this to your advantage.

Hopefully you’re really starting to see the potential for this in your areas of business. If you need any more information or have any questions on just how Facebook can expand your business, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Next week, we’ll be moving on to Twitter and how you can leverage that platform for your business.