As fan pages for businesses have become increasingly popular on Facebook, the social networking site has decided to offer more flexibility in the way a company represents itself. When a business fan page is created, the default setting takes any visitor directly  to The Wall, which is exactly the same as personal Facebook pages, offering easy access to the latest updates, information and photos.

Custom tabs allow you to step away from this and create a wall that reflects the individuality of your business. They allow you to increase business branding, create an easy action button that encourages people to ‘like’ your business, or give extra prominence to any current promotions you may have. An exceptional example of how custom tabs can work is Coca Cola’s current Facebook page; this is the epitome of how tabs can work for business and cost mega-bucks, however there are plenty of steps you can take on an SME budget.

To create a basic custom tab requires nothing more than a basic knowledge of HTML and access to Facebook’s application FBML (or Facebook Mark Up Language). These tabs can help develop your web page into something akin to a secondary website, and popular extra tabs include an ‘About’ page, with company biography or a ‘Clients’ page, to demonstrate previous success. As these are HTML based, you can also add in pictures to create visual interest.

So if you are looking to make your Facebook page stand out from an increasing number of competitors in the social media arena, then invest some time in developing custom tabs and allowing your own personality to shine through.

Facebook is so ubiquitous that, whatever line of business you’re in, it’s likely many of your customers and potential customers are using the site to socialise and network. There are over 350 million active users of the world’s largest social network and, even though it was originally designed to help students plan their social lives, it has quickly evolved into a powerful internet marketing tool for businesses.

In the same way that individuals can set up profile pages, businesses can set up fan pages. You can upload your logo and company description to the page and post updates, links and photos on your wall. People can indicate they “like” your page, and your updates will then appear in their news feeds. A description of your page will also feature on your fans’ individual profiles. Given that the average Facebook user has 130 friends (according to Facebook’s own calculation), you can theoretically put your business in front of 13,000 people with just 100 fans!

You can also use a Facebook fan page to drive traffic to your website by posting links to your latest blog or news articles on the wall.

It’s easy to set up a Facebook fan page for your business: just click on this link and follow the instructions.