So you’ve got a Facebook page…now what? Small businesses everywhere are realizing the benefits of building their brand image on Facebook. Setting up the page is pretty straight-forward. But where do you go from there? To make that process a little easier for my clients and friends I’m working on a series of posts: 10 Tips to Build a Better Brand on Facebook. Consider this lesson one.

If I could only teach small businesses one trick on Facebook, this would be it. The trick to tagging your status updates. So I’ll begin my series of posts with this technique.

Tag, Your It

Facebook has some great features for brand building, but this ranks as one of the most useful. With every status update you have an opportunity to connect with a friend or another brand’s page. It’s called tagging or an @ Mention. And it’s a great way to cross-promote your brand with another.

Here’s how:

To tag a person or page simply type the @ symbol and then begin typing their name. You’ll notice a drop-down menu appear. Choose the person/page you want to tag. Their name will be highlighted in the status so you know they’ve been tagged. Finish your update and post.

When the post appears on your page you’ll notice the names you tagged are highlighted in blue. They are now hyperlinks to those pages. But the marketing benefit to this lies in the fact that your post will also appear on the wall of everyone you tagged. And it will appear with your business profile image next to it, because it came from your page.

Why tag:

To connect your brand, with friends who support it and businesses you support. Facebook is all about building a network of relationships — getting connected. And by tagging you have just created a direct connection.

Who can you tag?

You can tag your Facebook friends, or another brand page that you “like” on Facebook. You can also tag Facebook groups and events you’re attending. The same is true for your personal profile page. However, you’ll notice as the administrator of a page you cannot tag your fans unless they are also your “friends,” which is unfortunate.

Tagging Do’s and Don’ts

Do: Tag friends, employees and fans to give credit and recognition. Everyone loves to get a pat on the back for a job well done, or a public thank you of appreciation.
Don’t: Tag images that are unprofessional or unflattering. As a business, that’s not something you’d be posting on your brand page anyway, right?

Do: Tag clients and businesses you want to recommend to others. This type of marketing is exactly what Facebook for Business is all about.
Don’t: Tag a brand just to get your name on their page. If you don’t have something genuine to contribute, that’s the equivalent of spam, and it’s not appreciated.

New @Mentions in Comments

As of this month Facebook recently extended the tagging capabilities to the comments section. So you can now tag someone as part of a conversation, and they will be notified of the mention. That’s what social media is all about: encouraging dialogue and interaction.

So the next time you’re filling in that status box consider it an opportunity to connect with another business or one of your fans. Include them in your status and see what kind of response you get. Then let me know.