Getting the most out of Facebook as a business promotion tool

Entrepreneurs looking to get into online small business marketing often make Facebook their first port of call. The social networking titan hosts a plethora of small enterprises' "business pages" alongside pages for big-name retailers - notably WalMart, which has more than 11.2 million Likes.

"When we look at what platforms our small business customers are using for social media marketing, 94 percent of them are on Facebook," Mark Schmulen, general manager of social media at the small-business-focused e-mail service provider Constant Contact, told Business 2 Community.

However, many set up accounts just because they think they need to, without being aware of how best to utilize the website. Even the popular Like metric has its limits, as Forrester Research estimates that fewer than 15 percent of those who click a page's Like button ever visit it again.

In order to maximize your company's small business advertising efforts via the medium, you need to generate repeat traffic. Schmulen advises entrepreneurs to approach the Facebook experience with definitive goals. For example, are you looking to spread the word about the company, boost revenue, attract subscribers or build thought leadership? Tailor your efforts toward these aims and structure your page accordingly.

In addition to the standard "Wall," "Info" and "Photos" tabs, companies can add polls, advertise contests, embed video content, integrate their Twitter accounts and allow visitors to share content.

It can be tempting to deck out your company page with bells and whistles, but less can sometimes be more. Focus on drawing visitors' attention to business promotions, such as special offers, rather than risk the information getting lost amid other, less important content. If you want to promote more than one offer at a time, assign each to its own page and rotate these accordingly so as not to overwhelm the consumer with too much at once.