Here are 5 things you want to keep in mind as you are getting ready to attract clients to your business on Facebook:

Your Facebook fan page is the foundation for your business on Facebook. If you want to be taken seriously, you should definitely create a fan page. If you want your business to be found by search engines, you need your fan page.

Your Facebook page is the professional facade for your business on Facebook, so it should definitely be your first step in starting to use Facebook for business.

2. Make the Decision to Use Facebook for Business

The majority of business owners do understand they need to create a Facebook fan page in order to establish their presence on Facebook.

However, one of the common barriers that often holds entrepreneurs back from being successful on Facebook is the desire to keep their personal profile personal, and not accept friend requests from people they don’t know.

If you are one of them, you might be losing a lot of potential connections, because most of your potential clients would rather send you a friend request than try to find your fan page.

“By keeping your personal profile private, you might be missing out on connections with potential clients.”

You don’t need to give up your privacy, however. You can still share certain posts just with your family and close friends simply by controlling the visibility of each post on your personal timeline.

To market successfully on any platform and using any method, you need to understand your target audience. It holds just as true for Facebook.

You must understand who your ideal customers are, what they do, what their struggles are, and what they are looking for. You need to understand their interests, challenges, desires, and fears.

The more narrow your niche and your focus is, the more you will stand out as an expert in the clients’ eyes. The more clear you are on who your ideal client is, the more success you will have with using Facebook for business.

“The more narrow your niche and your focus is, the more your ideal clients will be attracted to you.”

4. Get Clear on Your Main Area of Expertise

You also need to be very clear on what you do, what your area of expertise is, and how you can help your ideal clients. You must know what problems you can solve with ease for your target audience.

If you don’t know what you are good at, nobody else will either.

Before you start spending a ton of time on Facebook, decide how you are going to use Facebook for your business. Are you going to mainly use it to drive traffic to your website, to provide support for existing customers, to build long-term relationships with potential clients, or to sell your programs and services?

Different focuses will require a different approach, so make sure you are clear on how Facebook fits into your overall marketing strategy.

Once you complete the steps above, you will be well on your way to positioning yourself and your business on Facebook.