Facebook Basics for your SCUBA Business

This article was originally published on DiveNewsWire on April 13, 2011. If you are a part of the SCUBA industry, you need to be on their email list to stay on top of all of the latest news related to our business.

Facebook Like Hand

In case you’re still avoiding Facebook for your SCUBA business, here’s some statistics to consider:

  • Facebook has over 500 million active users
  • 50% of those login every day
  • The average user has 130 friends

Source

For one Page I manage, content I posted was viewed almost 60,000 times in the past week. That’s 60,000 times a brand name appeared in front of loyal customers.

Money spent? $0.

Profile vs Page

There are two main types of accounts: Profiles and Pages.

A Profile is for an individual.

A Page is for a business/organization/brand.

In the SCUBA industry, I frequently see people confusing the two and using a Profile for a business, which violates the Facebook Terms of Service (ToS). DEMA was even guilty of this until very recently and NAUI is confusingly running both (their Page isn’t an actual business Page, it’s a Facebook created “Community Page”, but they’re supposedly working on building their social media presence).

How to Tell the Difference?

The easiest way to identify a Page versus a Profile is a simple button near the top.

A Page has a “Like” button:

SCUBA Facebook PageA Profile has an “Add as Friend” button:

SCUBA Facebook Profile

My Recommendation

Create a Profile first, then create a Page. I’ll explain why in my next Facebook post, but for now just trust me on this one.

Share the link to your Facebook Page in the comments below!

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