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Kathryn Mason, principal of Kathryn Mason PR & Marketing, is highly-qualified and experienced in digital and social media. She has worked across many industry sectors, including hardware retailing. Kathryn has a unique understanding of industry trends and worldwide developments in social marketing and PR, and is adept at bringing those to bear on the Irish market in a simple, no-nonsense manner. She can be contacted at Tel: 087 – 262 7977 or email: km@kathrynmason.ie
Facebook is undoubtedly the big one when it comes to social media. Many people find it daunting, yet it is very simple to set up a business profile, and to harness the additional sales potential.
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38 THE HARDWARE JOURNAL
❙ September/October 2013
Facebook – business profile made easy Before taking you through an easy-to-follow set up procedure, I will: • Explain the difference between a Facebook profile and a business page, and why you should never use a profile for a business; • Show you how to set up the page initially; • Set your page name URL to reflect your store; • Give a basic tour of the business pages. So, why shouldn’t you use a Facebook profile as a business? Firstly, it is against Facebook rules (See https://www. facebook.com/page_ guidelines.php) and, if caught, the profile page will be deleted. I know of a retailer who ran a personal profile page with over 3,000 friends, as opposed to a proper business page. The personal profile page
was deleted overnight by Facebook! He had to start all over again and set up a business page. This took a long time, especially to build back up the “likes”. That said, to set up a business page you will need a personal profile page but, don’t worry, this information will not be seen by people who “like” the page so your privacy is safe. Setting up a page (1) Go to www.facebook. com/pages and, on the top right, click the “Create page”. It is a green button that stands out; (2) On the next page click the “local business or place” tab; (3) In “Select Category” choose Shopping/Retail, add your shop name and address, and then click accept Facebook page rules.