US adult internet users are on Facebook.  Statistics like this mean that if you are not evaluating Facebook as a medium to advertise your business, you are missing a substantial demographic. Facebook requires everyone to sign up with a personal profile account, and in fact it is against the rules to sign up a business or organization as a personal profile.  To ensure you don’t get your page banned, play by the rules and sign up for a personal Facebook page.  It is okay if you don’t want to connect with everyone you knew since high school, and Facebook does have a specific account you can sign up for if you only want to manage a business page, but the more connections you form, the more connections the company stands to form as well.  Once you have a personal Facebook page, we will explore creating a business page.  To get started:
       Browse to www.facebook.com and click on “Join Now”

When entering your full name, make sure it is the name you want displayed for everyone to see.  This is also the name (and email) people will use to search for you.  Please complete the information accurately, but don’t worry if you don’t want others to know everything, as there are security options to restrict what is public or private information.  After you have confirmed your account you are asked to join a network, by entering your city/town.  When you click continue, you will be taken to your homepage. To continue filling out your profile information click on edit profile under your name in the right corner, or you can click profile on the banner at the top of the page.  You can choose which section you want to edit first by clicking on the pencil in the left hand corner of one of the subject fields.  You do not need to enter any information you do not want other people to know into the profile, it is optional. 

After you have finished setting up Facebook, visit the privacy settings.  Set your privacy settings to share only what you want public and are comfortable with. When you are done filling out your information, you can navigate back to your home page by clicking Home on the banner across the top.

From the home page you can search for people you know by typing their names or email address in the search bar. 

Facebook is all about sharing information.  Once you are connected to other people (and based on your and their security settings) you can share information by way of a “status update.”  This enables you to tell everyone who is your friend something you are thinking about.  It is also the magic in the marketing ability of Facebook.  Read what other people share and keep an eye out for Status updates that appear business related. Because it is a good chance that is subtle marketing at work.