If you’ve ever looked at Facebook fan pages, you’ve probably noticed that some are completely for social purposes, such as a fan page titled “water skiing!” Fan pages like these don’t have much interaction or business purpose, but if you can find a good fan page (Yes, they’re out there) you’ll notice it does a great job at:

• linking out to other relevant sites
• informing its followers about what the page represents
• keeping its followers notified about relevant events and occurrences

How can Facebook fan pages be useful to your business?

Point blank, here’s the basic explanation of what a Facebook fan page should do: be interactive, be informative, and be the liaison between the users of Facebook to other sites relevant to its cause. These “other sites” may or may not be social media sites, but most of the best Facebook fan pages have links to their other social media sites, their company Web sites, and even other relevant Web sites.

In order to have a fully functioning and useful Facebook fan page, all of these tips should be considered:

• Have a relevant fan page profile picture. Usually, most people use the same company graphic for every social media site. This establishes visual consistency, letting followers know right off the bat who you are.
• Update your statuses frequently with relevant and interesting updates.
• Including your Web site link, have short and informative “about” section below your profile picture. What was the company created to do? How do you achieve these goals?
• Make sure your “Information” section is actually informative. Fill out all the sections.
• Make your page personable with photos and/or videos. Show that you’re a real organization or company, and most importantly, a group of real people! You can document events, random cool things about your company, etc. Note: level of professionalism should be relevant to your target.
• Link out to other sites- your own and other relevant ones.
• List favorite Facebook pages also relevant to your own.
• Actually post discussion topics. If you have a question about something happening relevant to your company, post it! Give them a chance to be interested and involved.

Remember- social media’s purpose is for interacting with your followers. If your Facebook fan page is interactive, updated frequently, and put together well in conjunction with other social media, it should be successful and useful.