How to Maximize Your Facebook Page

We’ve talked a lot about Facebook in previous blog posts. But let’s face it (pun intended), it is the biggest social media platform out there. And it is continually evolving. So how do you evolve with it? Here are three ideas you should implement immediately.

• Utilize the Timeline
• Create a fabulous cover photo
• Make it interactive

Utilize the Timeline
When Facebook rolled out the Timeline feature late last year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, “Timeline is the story of your life. . . a new way to express who you are.”

So while part of your goal for your Facebook page is letting your clients and business associates know the real you, you’ll also want to include enough of your business history in the Timeline to establish your credibility.

Timeline basically shows your personal profile organized in reverse chronological order, a virtual “timeline” of your life, like an online scrapbook. Then it organizes your posts in date order, so anyone can look back and see what you had to say from the time you first signed on to Facebook until today.

If you’re starting from scratch, or you just recently become a Facebook user, think how you want your readers to see you, and start building your history with that in mind. Properties listed, properties sold, licenses or certificates obtained—all these are great reasons for online celebrations as well as great additions to your Timeline milestones. Along with these, of course, you can include personal interest posts, like your daughter’s high school graduation or the arrival of your first grandchild. Here’s the guiding principle: personalize YOU, professionally.

Create a fabulous cover photo
We’ve talked before about the need for a professional head shot to be used in all your social media platforms. But now on Facebook, you have an opportunity to integrate your head shot with a background billboard that can both enhance your image and depict your brand. The cover photo provides the background for your personal photo which is inserted in the lower left of the picture.

If you’re in a rush, there are “free” sites out there that will let you download images in return for a one-time plug on your Facebook page. And that’s a good way to get started, because the cover photo you use has to be sized to 851 x 315 pixels. So unless you have an existing long and narrow horizontal photo on hand, you may have to do some technical work to get exactly what you want.

Some interesting ideas for choosing your cover photo:

• Show yourself interacting with or observing the cover photo: Example: your cover photo is your city’s skyline, and your head shot is looking toward it.
• Create a continuation of your portrait by creating a collage of candid shots of yourself in different settings.
• At the very least, choose a cover photo that complements the colors in your head shot while creating the mood or image you want.

Make it interactive
Wall posts provide the platform that allows your clients and readers to talk back and tell you exactly how they feel about your service. Remember, all feedback is useful feedback. So to encourage client conversation, you’ll need to enable that capability on your privacy settings. Click the privacy settings option on the account tab and make sure the “Friends can post on my wall” and “Can comment on posts” option is set to “Everyone.”

It’s also fun to encourage people to upload photos to your wall. One unique way to use the photo feature is to allow your readers to tag photos of themselves that relate to you in some way–for example, photos of a client viewing one of your properties or signing closing documents. Setting the “Photo and videos I’m tagged in” option to “Everyone,” is a way to encourage a closer connection between your clients and your page.

As Facebook continues to evolve, it will provide you with almost limitless opportunities for polishing your online image and interacting with present and future clients. Use it to your advantage.