This long over due Facebook Optimization blog post focuses on some apps and more that I use on Facebook or have recommended others use. Today, more and more businesses are using Fan pages, so this is a huge opportunity for Social Media Consultants.

Facebook Optimization Tips

• Hubspot article  that tells you how to claim your Facebook vanity urls ..I grabbed mine for the Baldydog  Fan page
• I have also heard that it is possible for fan pages to like other fan pages…here is the link to the Facebook App that allows Fan pages to like other Fan pages thereby aligning brands.
• Another great app that I have used is selective tweets on #FB ..this is great so that you can update your Facebook profile or Fan page by placing #fb at the end of Tweets that you want to include in your updates. This will greatly reduce the noise on your Facebook page, and please all your fans.
• Facebook landing pages – for brands and anyone who wants to create a landing page on their Facebook profile, be sure to check out this Problogger post.
• facebook badges – be sure to include Facebook badges all over your site..hmm..I have to do this too..As a Social Media Consultant, Social Media clients to place not only Facebook badges, but Twitter, Youtube and LinkedIn badges also, if their potential customers are playing on those SM sites that is.
• Use the networked blogs on Facebook to update both fan and personal pages automatically when you publish a blog post.
• Lastly, limit your Facebook activity. What I mean by this is don’t feed too much info to your Facebook Fans. Very few people want to see all of your Tweets and other updates, so limit the number of daily updates you do on your fan page. Focus on quality not quantity.

This is just a small list of tips for optimizing your Facebook Fan pages. If you feel so inclined, fan Baldydog on Facebook.

Do you have any Facebook Optimization tips?

Since creating the Baldydog Facebook Fan Page, we have really not done too much with our fan page. However, the other day, I got a Google Alert for the our company name “baldydog”. I opened the email and saw that the Facebook Fan page was the mention..kind of strange, since I had not posted anything on the fan page in quite some time.

Not thinking about it too much, later on that day, I came across a post on Facebook or Twitter that Google is now caching Facebook Fan pages, but not the millions of user pages.  I think the person that left the messege might have been a little annoyed that their personal face book pages were not going to show up in Google.

So knowing that these pages will now be seen by not only my Facebook fans, but also anyone that might come across them on Google.  Cool, that just might provide me a little bit of incentive to post on it more frequently.

What is the Purpose of the Baldydog Fan Page?

But what will I do with the fan page? As Social Media Marketing, commented on the Creating a Facebook Fan Page, how will it benefit people who become fans of Baldydog on Facebook?

1. Find helpful SEO and Online marketing resources or blog posts which are not mine.
2. Find links to SEO related blog posts that I have done here or elsewhere.
3. Allow fans to share SEO related info.
4. Be a place to pass on Baldydog.com news.
5. The Fan Page is another outpost, which will serve to redirect visitors to the blog(s).

What Else can I do to create value for the Baldydog Facebook Fan page?

Pixelheadonline Tags:Facebook, Facebook Fan Page,Google Caches facebook fan pages

Taking the advice of Maki of DoshDosh, I am writing another Social Media Evangelism post. This Web 2.0 post being on Facebook, which I have been hearing quite a bit about in not only the blogosphere, but the also in the traditional media as well.

The first bit of media attention that I recall, and I am not quite sure where I heard it, but apparently there was a bit of research done comparing Facebook users to Myspace users, which basically said that Facebook users tend to be more educated young professionals. Myspace users, the report said, tend to be younger people who don ‘t take the college track in life. I am not quite sure about that since I am a college educated professional who also has a myspace page. Perhaps this is due to the fact that Facebook was originally developed to help college students connect with one another.
Next, I have read on numerous sites that Facebook allows other sites such as one of my favorite web 2.0 micro blogging sites, Twitter, to integrate their services using application programming interface or API’s. This of course, is how I came to sign up for a Facebook account, via the interface with Twitter.

For more info on Facebook in the news, I would suggest checking this TechCrunch Facebook search link for all the Techcrunch posts about FaceBook. I particularly liked the article Could Facebook become the next Microsoft?

My FaceBook experience To Date

I have not been using Facebook extensively. Much like my previous article on Stumbleupon, I am writing this as a Facebook learning experience. Any knowledge you have would be appreciated, so please feel free to comment.

I recently put some of my honeymoon pictures on my Facebook account, and I must say it was really easy. If I did not have so many pictures on my pro Flickr account, I might consider hosting all of my online pictures here, since they say Facebook has unlimited picture hosting.

Sadly, I currently only have five contacts. I must not have been doing something right. Two of the 5 contacts of which I gained the other day, when I sent out invites to a bunch of my email contacts. Oh thanks Debra and Kevin.

I just was tooling around on my profile page:

1. Created the badge above.
2. Added WordPress.com Application that lets you show your or your friends most recent posts on WordPress.com
3. Tried to Add the Twitter app, but it seems to be having a problem that a few others are having as well. The twitter app is currently giving a box for your Twitter id, but where it asks for the password, there is no box.
4. Added the video App so I can put video on my Facebook. I’ll have to put my MeToday Video’s here as well as on Viddler.
5. Browsed all the Apps, there are tons to choose from, probably too many for someone as easily distracted as me.

In conducting a bit of research for this article, I was just on AllFaceBook.com an unofficial Facebook blog, which has news and info about Facebook developments. In addition to getting Facebook news, they also have a business of making Facebook apps for businesses, which apparently is a growing field. In the article The ROI for Facebook Advertising, Nick O’Neill talks about some of the advertising opportunities on Facebook, with development of Facebook Applications having the highest ROI of all the advertising methods he mentioned.

Using FaceBook for Marketing

1. Build or hire someone to build an application for you.
2. After creating an account, send out invites to all of your contacts.
3. Befriend other Facebook users.
4. Join communities, both regional and topical.

The jury is still out on the use of Facebook for the purposes of networking for business. Although it does seem that much like the craze of creating MySpace pages for business, the increase of those seeking to network for professional purposes on Facebook is on the rise. Facebook, I is here to stay, and has a tremendous amount of potential, which has been compared to that of both Microsoft and Myspace.
Got any other tips, suggestions, or useful Facebook posts?

UPDATES:

Within minutes of the initial publishing of this post, I was checking email, and ended up on Saman Facebook post entitled “Well it Finally Happened – I Joined Facebook“, and it just seems like I needed to give Saman a link since his blog is such a great resource.

Facebook and all the other Web 2.0 networks that I have a membership can be seen on my Network Page, so feel free to add me to your networks.

Other Facebook related blog posts:

Facebook Applications Privacy Setting

Leveraging Facebook for Web Applications

Anja Merret’s Free advice to anybody wishing to start another Facebook.