Facebook has just announced that it has grown to over 500 Million viewers worldwide this year!  500 million potential readers of your site and potentially 500 million eyes looking at your brand.

Or they WOULD be, if you had a facebook fan page.  Do you have one for your business?  Most people have a personal facebook page, one where they can tell the world that they've just had a cup of tea, or that they have just watched a really naff movie or that the boy next door has come home from prison.. But what about your business?  Do you have a forum of this size that you can advertise in?  Build brand awareness for your company and give people a little insight as to what's happening in your business world?

It's easier than most people think to set up a company fan page, in fact, it's just as easy as setting up a personal page.  Here's how:

• Set up a new account in your company name and complete the profile.  Be as thorough as you can, you want to get people interested in looking at the rest of your page, or contacting you for more information.  A sparsely populated profile page gives the impression that either you are not as good as you think or that you just can't be bothered, either way, it will have an adverse effect.
• Upload your company logo and make sure that your email, website and company contact details are on it.  Make sure that your logo has contact information on it, as users will not be able to click directly from it.
• Post regularly.  Once people have found your site, it's a very good idea to keep them coming back.  Make sure that you post relevant information often.  Keep them abreast of what's happening in your company, hints, tips, offers, etc.  The more interesting and useful the articles, the more people will return to read the news.
• Put the page link on your business card. Most companies have email and web address on their stationery, why not have a facebook fan page there too?  Looking at the ever growing numbers of people that use facebook, it doesn't look likely that its going to go away soon.  The more ways that people can find out about you and your company, the better the awareness of your brand will be.  Post it!
• Email your current customers. Let them know that your site is live and that you want them to be part of it.  Ask them if they would like to subscribe and make it worth their while if they do.  Make sure that your content is relevant and interesting, perhaps has a personal element to it.
• Get a Twitter account.  And post to it regularly with your facebook fan page in the info address.  Not sure what to "tweet"?  Then put a teaser from the lastest facebook article - no need to re-invent the wheel everytime you post to a social network.  Using software such as "PING.FM" will multi-task this for you and post up to 40 or so social networks at the same time.
• Put a link on your website.  Remember to link to your facebook fan page on your current website.  Not only will it let customers know that you have a facebook page, but it may help to give your own site a little more credibility - in the same way that yellow pages logos used to.

The biggest hurdle stopping company owners and senior managers from having, and maintaining a facebook page (or any other social networking account) is the thought  of "who is going to be interested in that"? Or, "What's the point in Tweeting or blogging if no one is going to read it"?

That's pretty much what I thought when I wrote this - and guess what!  You're reading it.