The company page on Facebook of Junnoon, an Indian restaurant in Palo Alto, Calif., includes basic information such as address, hours, prices, photos and coming events, as well as reviews from local newspapers and Zagat. By opting to become a “fan” on the company page, instead of just a Facebook friend, people can make reservations directly from the page and post ratings and reviews. Although company pages are free, Facebook hopes companies that use them also will buy ad space through its new Social Ads program. Ads can be used to target Indian food enthusiasts in the local area. Companies can either pay per click or per page view. The minimum cost is $5 per day.
Ever want to find your competitors on Facebook? Well, Facebook company page directories are a good place to start. Didn’t know Facebook had directory pages within the site? Neither did I until my helpful Facebook account rep turned me on to them.
Facebook’s Directories are divided by major categories, including:
Each category is further subdivided. For example, a Directory of Restaurants that have set up homes on Facebook can be found under the “Stores” category. What’s really great is that listings are in order of fan count. Those pages with more fans are at the top of the list. For restaurants, the top five pages, ranked by number of fans, are:
That’s what makes Facebook directories such a great tool for competitive monitoring. You can see how your company’s fan base stacks up against the competition. Directories are the first step in making Facebook a more browser-friendly environment. Now, how about fixing search next, Zuckerberg?
On the company page of Rootsgear’s, which designs T-shirts with political and social messages, people can look at the firm’s designs and see a calendar of upcoming events. The company stokes its group membership of about 1,400 by every few months sending out invitations to join to new Facebook friends collected by cofounder Sunmit Singh. Mr. Singh says the Facebook page drives more traffic to Rootsgear’s e-commerce site than Google’s search engine or MySpace, another social-networking site where it has a presence. And Facebook has helped the year-old company’s sales.
