Micro-Entrepreneurship For Dummies
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To micro-entrepreneurs, Facebook offers many opportunities for you and your micro-entrepreneurial business. Market your micro-entrepreneurial business through a business Facebook profile, and keep your personal contacts and activities on your personal profile.

To be on Facebook, all you need is a pulse (along with an Internet connection and an email account, of course). You don’t have to pay any fee to sign up and participate. You’re probably already on Facebook, as are many of your family, friends, clients, prospects, and associates.

If possible, have two profiles on Facebook: one personal and one business. You can post your usual activity about your family or dog on your personal site. On your business presence (or fan page), you can keep it professional and stick to business.

Just keep in mind that you can’t keep them entirely apart. Your prospects may be at your business site and stumble on your personal page. Let the world know what you do in business (you should be doing things that make you proud of being a micro-entrepreneur), but think two or three times about what you put on your personal presence. It can hurt you or your business-building potential.

Start promoting your micro-entrepreneurial business on Facebook

After using your personal profile to learn how Facebook works, focus on your business. You can mingle in several different groups, depending on your niche. Find groups that your target market is in and get active. Read what people post. Ask open-ended questions. As in any forum, don’t do any aggressive or pushy sales pitch. Take the time to build your network and connections.

You can also start to make connections with friends and colleagues through your business profile. With Facebook, you can easily find people at places such as

  • Your high school

  • Your college or university

  • Your hometown

  • Your former employers

  • An affinity organization (such as sports, business, or civic organizations)

As you build your business profile, keep in mind where you can find like-minded folks who may be predisposed to think fondly of you.

Use Facebook to build your micro-entrepreneurial business

Your business belongs on Facebook because many of your prospects and clients are there, and you want to be rubbing digital elbows with them, right? Utilizing Facebook to communicate the positive aspects of your micro-entrepreneurial business in an interesting way without aggressive sales pitches can yield good results for your business.

Try to only post items relevant to your business and your professional pursuits. Posting all sorts of personal information can make you vulnerable to some negative developments, such as identity theft. Also, don’t post anything that could hurt or embarrass you or the people you care about.

Given all that, Facebook should be part of your overall business strategy. Keep in mind these things that you can do:

  • On your personal page, post links to your website, blog, or video channel.

  • Build your brand by regularly offering content, such as news and views on your specialty.

  • Network with colleagues, business partners, vendors, and potential clients.

  • Exchange business ideas with those in your industry.

  • Become a fan of those that you approve of or admire in business. A fan is anyone on Facebook that likes a particular Facebook page.

  • Keep tabs on what your competitors are doing.

  • Invite those people who you’re connected with to participate in events, surveys, contests, and other things that build awareness of you and your business.

  • Get opinions from friends and colleagues on various products, services, and perhaps business resources that can help you.

Don’t stop there! You’re only limited by your imagination and creativity.

Create a Facebook fan page for your micro-entrepreneurial business

As a business, you have the opportunity to set up a fan page for free. This fan page serves like a mini website where you can post images, ad copy, links, and so on. It’s a great way to build the Facebook presence of your business.

You can build your brand by sending a message to customers, friends, and others to “like” your fan page. “Likes” are a big deal on Facebook, because they help create good will and elevate your brand.

Advertise your micro-entrepreneurial business on Facebook

Perhaps you want to take it up a notch and do advertising. With Facebook, you can pay to reach your target audience, and Facebook makes it generally easy to do it within your budget.

With Facebook, you can do some very precise target marketing. Facebook shares with its advertisers lots of valuable demographic information. Say you provide a service and that you feel that your ideal market is female home-based entrepreneurs that are older than 50 and live in California. Facebook can give you that specific demographic.

In addition, the advertising can fit your budget. If you can only afford to advertise at a cost of $10 per day, Facebook can customize it so that your ad campaign stays within your budget.

The ads can be on a pay-per-view (PPV) basis (anytime someone views a page with PPV, the advertiser is charged) or on a pay-per-click (PPC) basis. (PPC means that anytime someone clicks on an ad, the advertiser is charged.)

Other Facebook marketing resources

Because Facebook is a huge presence on the Internet, you can find plenty of resources to help you do business with it. Here are some places to go to:

  • The Facebook Marketing Guide: This guide is all about Facebook marketing straight from Facebook.

  • Free Facebook Tutorials: This site has lots of how-to guidance and information for novice and intermediate participants at Facebook.

About This Article

This article is from the book:

About the book author:

Paul Mladjenovic is a certified financial planner, micro-entrepreneur, and home business educator with more than 25 years' experience writing and teaching about financial and business start-up topics. He owns RavingCapitalist.com and is also the author of Stock Investing For Dummies.

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