A few weeks back Facebook started allowing users to claim a unique username for their profiles.  For example, I grabbed http://facebook.com/christinegallagher for my personal profile.

At the time they were letting those with 1,000 fans or more as of May 31st get one for their own Fan Pages, and many people who didn’t qualify were a bit annoyed at this limit.  A few days later, Facebook announced that at the end of the month they would be lifting the limit to allow anyone with less than 1000 fans to claim their Fan Page username.

It was then explained that those users with 25 or more Fans would be eligible.  But suddenly today it was announced that you would need 100 Fans, not 25.  The announcement came out of nowhere, with no explanation.

Hmmmm.  More annoyed people.  I myself only started my Fan Page about a month ago so I only have about half that amount.  I think the worst part about it is the way Facebook seems to change their eligibility guidelines willy nilly.

I noticed today that I was getting a lot more people requesting me to fan their page–must be that race-to-100-fans panic.

While I am not exactly panicking, I did expect that I would be able to get my URL up until today, and that kind of stinks.

Do you have any thoughts on this?  Will you have enough fans to grab your URL?  Let me know in the comments.

A common complaint I hear from those using Facebook Fan Pages is how little Facebook does to allow you to connect your personal profile to your Fan Page.

You want your Facebook friends to know that you also have a Page, so how can you encourage them to go there and hopefully become a fan?

Here are a few simple ways:

1) Use “Suggest to Friends” underneath the photo on your Page.

2) Use the “Share” button on the bottom left under where it says “Create a Page for My Business” to either post your Page info to your personal profile or send a message about your Page to others.

3) Add a new page to your website or blog and re-direct it to your Fan Page.  You can then list the URL under “websites” in the information section of your personal profile.  For example, I did this with http://christinesgallagher.com/fanpage.  I re-directed it by using the Page Links To plugin for WordPress.

4) Use the Custom Profile Box application (or others similar to it) to add a section to your personal profile that directs others to your Page.  I used this application to link an image (a Facebook icon) to my Page.  Above the image I added the message “Visit my fan page!”

5) Use the text box provided under your profile picture to add a blurb letting others know that you also have a Fan Page and include a link.

If you have used other methods for driving people to your Fan Page please share in the comments.  These are just a few that I have personally used.

Oh, and if you wanted to show me some love and become a fan of mine, that would be great too.

Update:  In July, Facebook introduced “Fan Boxes” which allow Page admins to embed the most recent activity from their Page right in their blog or website.  This is another great way to draw attention to your Fan Page.  You can see a post I wrote about it here.

Last week I had a call about the biggest myths of marketing on Facebook.  One myth I mentioned I see discouraging small business owners is that “Facebook alone will get you clients and customers.” This would be wonderful if it was true of course.

Do people get clients and customers as a result of being on Facebook?  Absolutely.  But throwing up a profile and expecting the money to roll in is not going to happen.  You’d be surprised how many people end up discouraged because they’ve been on Facebook a good while and they are not getting results.  It’s because they don’t understand how Facebook fits into their overall marketing picture.

It’s about consumers CONSUMING what it is you are putting out there—which essentially, is content.  You are steadily and gradually building momentum from relationships, the know like and trust factor and word of mouth–which leads to traffic, to subscribers and eventually to sales.

Facebook is excellent for establishing credibility and expertise, for exposing your brand, boosting your visibility in front of your target market and even for market research—finding out what people want and need so that you can then go create and package those solutions and give it them.

Honestly, there is NO faster way to create credibility and brand recognition and quickly connect to hundreds of thousands of people who are looking for what it is you offer.

So what is the ultimate goal?  Traffic.  Before you even get on Facebook, you MUST have a website or blog to drive people to FIRST.  You need to be able to continue to build those relationships OUTSIDE of Facebook.  And the best way to do that is to have a way to get people on your list.

People don’t buy from you right off of Facebook.  They also don’t buy from you the first time they visit your site, right?  You have to build up that know, like and trust.  But Facebook is amazing for building that familiarity and credibility and for driving people to your site so they can get to know even more about what it is that you do.

What has been your experience on Facebook?  Does it drive a lot traffic back to your site? Do you see it increasing your blog or newsletter subscribers?  Let me know your thoughts.

Photo Credit: benstein

If you’re overwhelmed and confused about how to use Facebook to market your business then be sure to sign up for the free call I am doing this Tuesday night.

In the past year I’ve built a business I love, made valuable contacts, grew my subscriber list, boosted my website traffic, secured speaking engagements and created much more visibility for myself with the help of social media—largely with Facebook.

While this experience has been great, I still see a lot of misconceptions and frustrations floating around among small biz owners. There are a few myths in particular I decided I wanted to address—so that others can start seeing real results and opportunities.

It’s time to clear up the myths!

This FREE 60 min. call will be held on June 16th at 8pm EST

If you can’t make the live call you will be sent the recording–however, only those on with me LIVE will benefit from the Q & A at the end of the call—as well as be eligible for the special offer I will be introducing!

REGISTER HERE: Facebook Marketing Myths