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In this blog post I’m going to talk about Facebook pages and why you should have one, and I’m also going to give you a real world example to prove that Facebook ‘like’ pages is big business.

First of all lets look at some interesting and quite frankly unbelievable facts about Facebook.

• Facebook is the second most popular site on the Internet second only to Google and currently has over 600 Million active users. With 50% of those users logging in on any given day, that is 300 Million users per day on average.
• Facebook receives over 100 billion hits per day.
• Facebook has around 500 thousand new users joining every day.
• If Facebook was a country and its users were the population, it would be the 3rd most populated country in the world. To put that in perspective, the United States of America would be the 4th.
• More than 2.5 million websites have integrated with Facebook. Are you one of them? If you’re not you should be.

OK, So we now realize that there is the potential to receive massive amounts of traffic from Facebook, but how do we set things up to start receiving this traffic?

Simple! We set up a Facebook ‘like’ page. (Formerly and sometimes still called a fan page)

This is big business and most of the big companies already have Facebook pages, I’m sure you’ve seen a TV ad and at the end a Facebook page is advertised. So why are these big companies doing this? Simple! To connect with their audience.

Let’s use this page from Adidas Clothing as an example:

I can guarantee you right now that there is no way Adidas could have gained access to over 8 million people any other way for free other than creating a Facebook page. Sure offline they could have done it if they had invested a ton of money in doing so but on the flip side the investment would have to be continuous. Online and with Facebook Adidas has been able to successfully build up a ‘like’ page to up to 8,784,010 fans to date.

What’s even better is, anytime Adidas wants to get on the forefront of all their fans minds, all they need to do is update their Facebook status (comment on their own page), and that update will be able to be viewed by all 8.7 Million of their friends. Now imagine being able to harness such a power for yourself. I know, it’s scary isn’t it!

Now if you’re reasonably new to Facebook let me explain two things in a little more detail.

How Adidas have grown their page virally.

How Adidas now has access to every one of the fans on their fan page.

So How Did Adidas’ Page Grow to 8.7 Million Fans?

Well, it all happened using a part of Facebook that makes it the most viral network in the world. This feature is called the Facebook Newsfeed and everyone on Facebook has their own unique feed that is seen when they visit their Facebook homepage.

The newsfeed is a live compilation of all the activity that your Facebook friends are engaging in over Facebook. You can see all your friends posting on other friends pages, posting on their own page and joining events.

So if I were to see a friend or fan of mine had joined a page that caught my eye and then I decided that I would like to join the page then all of my friends would see that action in their newsfeeds and be able to join also, creating a viral snowball effect with every person who joins over Facebook.
This is a great way to build social proof for businesses and this is exactly how Adidas has grown to a stage that they have over 8.7 Million fans on their page.

So How Does Adidas Get Access To All Its Fans Over Facebook?

Well, in the same way that actions from other pages in my network get featured in my newsfeed, the same applies to pages that I am a fan of.
Every time Adidas posts a status update (comment on their page) then all 8,784,010 of their fans will have the opportunity to see the status update on their news feed.

Win, win for everybody, fans get their updates and Adidas reaches out to millions of targeted fans.

So What Does All This Mean For You?

Well, this basically means that if you want your business to grow, expand and get exposure to those outside of your main customer base, then the best action that you can take is to create a Facebook Page and start generating fans that can help you grow your business.

Each customer or person who ‘Likes’ your page will have that action of joining your business page featured for all of their friends to see. This will increase your businesses exposure and it will help provide your business with the essential social proof that comes along with a friend of someone’s recommending your business.

So What is a ‘Like’ Page?

A ‘Like’ Page, sometimes known as a ‘Fan’ Page, is a page that you can setup inside of your Facebook account that allows you to present your business to Facebook users, just like the Adidas example above. Unlike owning your own website there are a limited number of settings that accompany setting up a Facebook page, which means that there are a limited number of opportunities in a Facebook Like Page to make your own page. However the main purpose of your page is to get people to click the ‘like’ button to grow your page virally.

How do I Get People to Click The ‘Like’ Button on my Page?

What you need to do is offer an incentive to get people to ‘like’ your page, this is best done by offering a freebie, this is a little like offering something via a squeeze page. However, unlike the prospect having to enter their name and email to receive their gift all they have to do is click ‘like’, it’s this simple action what makes the whole process so effective.

Sounds Great, so How Can I Build a Like Page of my Own?

Simple, you use Like Page Builder, this amazing software I have created along with Dave Nicholson can create your Facebook ‘like’ pages in seconds. And best of all it’s free, and before you think ‘what’s the catch?’ There is an upgrade option but the free version does the job just as well. The upgrade just makes things easier.

If you want to see an example of a page created with Like Page Builder then check out my Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/johnthornhillpage

And when you are ready to start building a Facebook ‘like’ page of your very own go and grab Like Page Builder for free.

http://www.likepagebuilder.com